Born in Russia and raised in Israel, now-San-Francisco-based guitarist Yuri Liberzon is an advocate for new music that also appeals to audiences, and is working to push the classical guitar’s repertoire to new limits (and beyond). Yuri’s new CD, Ascension, features music from Bach and Scarlatti to Lennon and McCartney, even with some Keith Jarrett along the way. Yuri highlights the significance of this kind of variety for his audiences in a recent interview with Classical Guitar Magazine on “The Importance of Repertoire”:
In general, I never wanted to play music that everybody else played, except for some of the masterpieces, like Bach’s “Chaconne” or some of the well-known pieces by Scarlatti, Piazzolla, Leo Brouwer, those types of composers. I was very selective.
Especially these days, you want to stand out, and one way to do that is to play something unique or different, whether it’s a piece that’s written specifically for you or it’s a modern piece. . . . Classical music is going through a change and I think audiences are more open to new things.
And recently Yuri has just finished recording a brand new piece written for him that blends more modern harmonies and compositional techniques with Russian folk melodies. Here is Yuri Liberzon playing “Cavatina” by Russian composer Konstantin Vassiliev. (Yuri is playing this piece on a beautiful 1981 Daniel Friedrich from the Russell Cleveland Collection at Guitar Salon International.) Enjoy.
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