Sabine Liebner
Sundry
Born in
Germany
Studies in
Munich
Highlights
integral performance of John Cage's Etudes Australes at Forum Neuer Musik Köln and Klangspuren Schwaz/Transart,
integral performances of John Cage's Music for Piano in Munich,
integral performance of Galina Ustwolskaja's piano sonatas at Gasteig Munich,
Collaboration with Christian Wolff, Franco Donatoni, Olga Neuwirth, Jörg Widmann
Prizes
1998 and 2007  Music Promotion Award of the City of Munich
2007 Named a recommended pianist by the Goethe-Institut
2007 Award ffff TÉLÉRAMA 2012
2012 Award Wire Rewind
Recordings with
WERGO
NEOS
OehmsClassics
KochClassics
Short biography
Sabine Liebner is primarily active as an interpreter of New Music. Critics praise her interpretations as exemplary and visionary, and are fascinated by her sophisticated tone which she uses to create magical soundscapes, by her dramaturgical creativity and the deeply emotional intensity with which she creates intriguing and contemplative moments, as well as by her new, even radical interpretations.

Impressive is also her unfaltering decision to only play music to which she feels an inner affinity. Music making is for Liebner the exploration of unknown terrain, combined with a retreat into introspection – solitude in the most positive sense. Sabine Liebner tries to listen to a score with no preconceptions, discover its innate musical language, and then to make this audible in a gentle yet energetic way.

In October 2017, WERGO released "mimetics" with music by Mauricio Kagel. In Klassikcom, Stefan Drees wrote that "Liebner skillfully dedicated her performance to musical refraction – simply terrific", and Reinhard Brembeck (Süddeutsche Zeitung) added that he had already become addicted to Kagel & Liebner.

In April 2018, WERGO will release a double CD with piano works by Karlheinz Stockhausen, interpreted by Sabine Liebner.

Sabine Liebner studied at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich with Karl-Hermann Mrongovius and took master classes with Leonhard Hokanson, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Peter Feuchtwanger, Maurizio Pollini, and George Crumb.

In 1998, Liebner received the city of Munich’s Music Prize and in 2005 a Munich music scholarship; in 2007 she was chosen as one of the German pianists recommended by the Goethe Institute and again awarded the Munich Music Prize.

Liebner’s WERGO recording of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Klavierstücke I–XI was praised by critics around the world in publications such as Diapason, Gramophone, Fono Forum, and Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. It was named one of the best recordings of 2018 by The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times/Sunday Times, allmusic, and Culture Spot LA, and was nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award 2018 and the OPUS Klassik 2019.    
In October 2020, WERGO released a new CD with recordinge of the suite 8 Bot–Ba and suite 11 for piano by Giacinto Scelsi , Suite 11 in its final version, the first authentic recording of the work with its original sequence of movements.

2021/2022
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