Shows
Ick Hans Liberg 2010 - 2013
In "ICK HANS LIBERG", Hans Liberg is completely himself. He shows many sides of himself. Liberg is a piano player, who actually is a comedian, a drummer and guitar player, but in fact he is a banjo player, who actually is a singer, who is a saxophone player who likes to play the trumpet.
Hans Liberg is High and Low, likes Bach and Beethoven, as well as Debussy, Górecki, Elgar en Scriabin. On the other hand he also likes to sing the dirty lyrics that his grandmother used to sing cheerfully and at high volume.
Liberg was born in a part of Amsterdam called the "Jordaan".
In "ICK HANS LIBERG" he uses the typical Jordanese accent he spoke during his childhood to take the audience on a tour through his old neighborhood in Amsterdam-West, with the catholic drum band etcetera. Sometimes he shows pictures of his kids or himself.
"How do you do that outside The Netherlands?" is a popular question Liberg frequently answers in his own way.
'ICK HANS LIBERG' is a classical program that is jazzy at the same time. Liberg uses a jazz trio: piano and drums, supported by contrabass. He explains why great statesmen often are great piano players as well. Last but not least Liberg even dances, for example with his young side kick Daan Boom.
Symphonie Libergique
Music & Comedy
A compilation of earlier shows and new material.
The Best Of 2008 - 2010
'The Best of' brings 25-year repertoire highlights of piano-comedian Hans Liberg into one unique show. It's more than a collection of highlights: every part has been pimped, recycled and renovated... to quote Hans Liberg: "If one knows his history, it doesn't repeat itself."
Due to the universal character of his shows, his musical virtuosity and his subtle humour, Hans Liberg's fame reaches far beyond the Dutch borders, attracting full houses all over Europe.
As a result, Liberg has collected many international awards, best of all an Emmy Award in New York in 1997. Thanks to his one-of-a-kind acceptance speech, he was asked to replace the host of the Emmy's, Sir Peter Ustinov, a year later.
"Liberg is madly inspired" headlined The Times after attending a show. The Süddeutsche Zeitung noted: "...Hans Liberg has proved his worldclass! Highly musical, silly to absurd but above all roaringly funny."
The Ninth 2005 - 2007
The Ninth, an "unvollendete"?
Hans Libergs Ninth offers more of an interactive character than his previous shows. The audience steers, calls out, sings and partially determines the way the evening goes. This means each evening is different, making it Libergs most relaxed show. Because of this extreme freedom, "the Ninth" just might be an "unvollendete" or unfinished work. The piece undergoes continuous change and Liberg is always developing new numbers. Liberg explores the limits of his own personal insanity.
TATATATA 2002 - 2005
What you hear is what you get. Beethovens Fifth. A strong opening. Liberg is supported by bass and percussion, André Versluijs and Martijn Klaver respectively. "Would you like a song about standards and values? Then you get a song about standards and values! Join in, guys". But Liberg does not limit himself to his everyday, popular repertoire. He sometimes goes deeper. He fits a lot more into the revue: dialect pop, classical music in a football stadium, Dutch composers, the "Bed Top 10". Where did we go wrong with our standards and values? The Provo movement, the Nutcracker, the discovery of the pill?
New Show (NL) 1998 - 2002
Hans Libergs "New Show" is indeed a new path in his development. He arrived at his previous show with a guest, he also danced a little dance. But this time, Hans has really pushed back his entertainment boundaries. He is now involving the audience for the first time throughout his whole performance. He asks questions, includes current events, improvises a great deal. The sequence of his show is not set in stone either. Just as he has a different suit on every night, every city and every audience is different, and his mood can also constantly shift.
This great need for improvisation began when he performed in Edinburgh nightclubs. The audience just screamed over him. Pulling them back and involving them fully in the show was the only way to survive the gig. Because of this, "New Show" is more open and loose, perhaps less stylised. Hans Liberg takes the stage with less material and uses timing and calm to open a dialogue with the audience. He has a gift in that just five minutes he has the audience become more open, looser and even cheekier than before. They sometimes appear to exceed their own personal limits.
In the "New Show", the out-and-out entertainer has returned to the drawing board. The alternation between the elite and the utterly banal as well as music and musical jokes remain at the core of this show.
De vier J@@rgetijden 1996 - 1998
Liberg surrenders himself in the show "The Four Seasons". The pressure is huge. You cannot keep swimming against the flow. The course has been changed. The public has voted for André Rieu, Helmut Lotti, Great Classics, Music for Melons, Basic Barok, Basic Violin, the Essential Classics. We no longer buy classical CDs at a renowned record store, but at the local general store, and that is the way it should be, too. "Mozarts Top 40 Hits" - that idea rings true. Mozart has at least that many. The public is right. Classical is in, avant-garde is out. The Pearl Fishers... I never understood how beautiful it was. Die Umwertung aller Werte, or the transvaluation of all values, said Nietzsche, not understanding that Peter Koelewijn would one day produce an opera CD. Who would have thought? Hans Liberg will musically analyse just how everything managed to come this far. What is Andrew Lloyd Webbers secret for success? Lloyd, perhaps? Hans Liberg and "With the Beatles" How curative the effect of Tibetan scales, Celestine music and higher levels of vibration! Why is throat singing from Kazakhstan becoming so popular and why is it making money? With special performances including Petra and her Wolff, Swan Lake and the Nutcracker Suite. And of course Liberg will play the grand piano, the celesta, the double bass, the balalaika of course and guitars. He also introduces the first grand piano to be connected to the Internet.
Nu ook voor vrouwen 1993 - 1996
Musical comedian and virtuoso Hans Liberg has given six shows in the past 10 years. Six amazing shows. In his sixth show, its run extended due to its great success, he turns his attention especially to women. At least.....you never know what to expect from Liberg. He sits there behind his grand piano, drawing comparisons between masculinity and femininity, interspersed with jokes every 20 seconds. If you have never seen Hans Liberg play before, you are going to wonder what you have struck. Once you have been bitten by the Liberg bug, addiction is sure to follow. The national press on "Nu ook voor vrouwen" (Now available for women): "Liberg is unique...an asset to Dutch humour..." (Algemeen Dagblad). Liberg, one of the Netherlands top entertainers" (De Volkskrant).
International 1991 - 1992
Hans Liberg, the Dutch Emmy Award winning musician and comedian will be presenting the British premiere of his new hit show 'International' at the Purcell Room on the 18th and 19th June 1998. This will be his first performance in Britain since he took the Edinburgh Fringe by storm in 1995 and again in 1996.
Hans Liberg, a sensation across Europe, has been described as a 'great piano comic' and 'the new Victor Borge'. Armed with a Ph.D in Musicology, a prodigious knowledge of music and a wry line comedy backchat Hans Liberg takes you on a crazy musical-verbal trip. He uses his broad musical backround as the raw material for his fantastic stories, accompanying himself on piano, bass guitar, trumpet and even a 14th century Dutch harpsichord from Delft.
"madly inspired" The Times
His seventh show, International, includes everything from Beethoven to Prince via Bach, Ghandi, The Rolling Stones and EltonJohn. This post-modern megamix allows Hans to play Rachmaninov while discussing sandwich fillings, to dwell on Mozart's close relationship with Andrew Lloyd-Webber, to present his Variations for Lap Top and Symphony Orchestra and to find the connections between jingles, street music, classical music and pop songs.
Hans Liberg has performed with the Northwest German Philharmonic, the Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra and the North Dutch Philharmonic Orchestra. His television shows have won numerous awards including a Special Mention at the Golden Rose Festival, Montreux and a Rockie Award nomination in Banff, Canada for 'Liberg Zaps Himself' and finally in 1997 an Emmy Award (Popular Arts Category) – past winners have included 'Mr Bean', Not The Nine O'Clock News' and 'Spitting Image'.
Chanel/4711, werd Kadett/4711 (NL) 1989 - 1991
Chanel/4711 is a chic programme. It is as the world was back then, a lot of everything, chock full of information. Although has no sponsor, it bulges with brand names. As always, Liberg uses materials everyone knows - advertisement and signature jingles, piano concerts and pop tunes. This was unheard of four years ago, nowadays it is called highly respectable appropriation art. How do I cut through the commercials to arrive at an emotion? There are wide-open landscapes and Freudian rivers. The eroticism of a perfume bottle, a lipstick, a soap pump. And furthermore: An Indian in New York, modern show business...the shows on offer! The talent! The nitwits! And then there is Russia, expansionism, Rachmaninov, Horowitz, Moscowitz, Pavlov in Manhattan. Be funny!...an American millionaire advised. That which remains is the unbearable lightness of Hans Liberg.
Wortel Bach Live 1987 - 1989
After the unparalleled success of "DaDa" and "Berg Berg", "Wortel Bach Live" is Hans Libergs third evening-long programme. This astonishing phenomenon unleashes a stream of strange anecdotes, weird and wonderful associations and plenty of music on the audience.
"Wortel Bach Live" is a one man performance but it is not a cabaret, it is not a lecture, it is not a concert, nor a play: Hans Liberg has invented his own personal genre.
The press have written the following about him: "Virtuoso", "Genius or Raving Mad", "Elitist and Banal" and "Unique Entertainment". The Mozart story used to be one of the previous programme s highlights, now he talks about Neo-Geo, Japan, Africa, Mondriaan, the Art Collector and Bach.
This hot mess is all brought together with the help of a harpsichord, bass, a tom-tom from Guinea and the grand piano under the motto of "Energy is never lost".
Berg Berg 1985 - 1987
Hans Liberg was born in Onsala, Sweden into an old aristocratic lineage, on his paternal grandmothers side. The family amassed its fortune by catching and selling domestic mackerel.
At the tender age of six, he surprised those around him with his piano skills and literary strength. August Strindberg took the boy under his wing and taught him the nine times tables. Through Strindberg, he came into contact with famous contemporaries such as Gustaf Sørensen, Ǻcke Gustafson, Kjel Kierkegaard, Leo Stein, Rudolf Steiner, Thérese Steinmetz, August Renoir and many others. He received free piano lessons from Carl Nillsen in exchange for some farmed fish. Everything pointed to a flourishing career in music. Happily his parents were against it which made everything much easier.
At twelve years old, he was admitted to the Uppsala academy of music where he came into contact with global culture or la culture mondiale - which made him take to his bed for six weeks.
He studied the piano under Nadia Boulanger, an outstanding cellist who had, however, never played a note on the piano. It was a scheduling error.
Two days later he studied the piano under Carl-Bengt Anderson, the brother of the famous fairy tale author and a student of Franz Liszts gardener.
Liberg won the Prix de Rome and left for Florence to become familiar with how to prepare Bertoluzzi pastas. He also held recitals, but nobody minded much.
His work is characterised by a late romantic touch, especially when he tinkles the ivories, and a casual, rectal approach to the keyboard.
DADA 1983 - 1985
Hans Liberg, a new and undiscovered talent who simply fell from the sky. "Thank you ladies and gentlemen, I am incapable of having children". Quick associations and an unbridled cultural fantasy. Everyone takes something different away from it, but everyone focuses on allowing themselves to be swept away on the fast stream of Hans Libergs stories, cinematic scenes, humour and nihilistic poetry.
Berend Boudewijn; You never truly complete a single story, everything remains up in the air and yet no one misses that ending.
Hans Liberg loves the alienation of playing a Rachmaninoff prelude while simultaneously holding a conversation with the audience in the American dialect. "A biographical story about Mozart is mixed with the this mornings water levels". The surprising nature of his thoughts is important and sometimes requires the audience to concentrate and in order to keep putting up with his sense of humour".
(Henny van Schaik, Utr Nieuwsblad, 24 March 1984)
According to connoisseurs and trendsetters, Hans Liberg is the best thing to come out of the Rotonde Theatre Cafe in Amsterdams Stadsschouwburg and the Amsterdam Uitmarkt 1984. Everyone is talking about it. People are dreaming up definitions such as "Avant-garde entertainment, a non-conventional expression concert, total theatre for one........."
No one knows exactly what it is, but everyone is convinced of Hans Libergs talent, originality, bizarre imagination and musicality.