Russian-born, Israeli-raised Yuri Liberzon has an impeccable pedigree as a guitarist: At the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, he studied with Manuel Barrueco to earn his Bachelor’s degree; then he got his Master’s from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Benjamin Verdery. (Liberzon’s most influential teacher at a young age was Maestro Yaron Hasson, with whom he studied for six years before coming to the United States.) A current resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, he has competed and toured nationally and internationally, playing solo and performing with orchestras and chamber groups. His repertoire is inclusively broad, spanning from the Baroque era to the present day. Indeed, his debut album, Ascension, released last year, runs the gamut from Bach and Scarlatti to Lennon & McCartney and jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, with Russian and Latin pieces thrown in for good measure.
Advertisement
The two pieces Liberzon played on his lovely-sounding Gil Carnal guitar when he stopped by for Classical Guitar Sessions were written 244 years apart. First up is the concluding “Allegro” movement from Bach’s Violin Sonata in A minor BWV 1003 (1720). Following that he jumps to 1964 and shifts gears completely with Leo Brouwer’s haunting and memorable Danza del Antiplano.