José SEREBRIER (b. 1938)
Symphonic BACH Variations, for piano and orchestra (2017-18) [21:51]
Laments and Hallelujahs (2018) [11:52]
Flute Concerto with Tango (2008) [22:12]
Tango in Blue (2001) [3:09]
Casi un Tango (2002) [5:16]
Last Tango before Sunrise (2018) [3:45]
Adagio (2014) [3:16]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
None but the Lonely Heart (arr. Serebrier, 2018) [3:22]
Alexandre Kantorow (piano)
Sharon Bezaly (flute)
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra/José Serebrier
Australian Chamber Orchestra/Richard Tognetti (Flute Concerto)
rec. 2003-18, National Concert Hall, Dublin; Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Centre, Sydney, Australia; Teatre-Audition Saint Cugat, Barcelona
Reviewed in SACD stereo.
BIS BIS-2423 SACD [76:40]
The average CD collector will know José Serebrier best as a distinguished conductor, but this particular recording reveals his long-honed skills as a composer. He studied composition with Martinů and Copland and became established as a composer when Leopold Stokowski gave the world première of his Symphony No. 1 when he was only 17 years old, producing prolifically ever since.
The Symphonic BACH Variations is very impressive indeed. It is cast as a piano concerto, but its form is one of four variations using the famous B-A-C-H motief that run without a break. There is something machine-like in the first section, with some hints of Shostakovich and the Soviet power-house of the early 20th century, but even as such associations are called-up they are transformed and altered by Serebrier’s constantly exploratory imagination. This is a virtuoso work for both soloist and orchestra, and with excellent SACD engineering in the sound we get to bathe in superb musicianship and a kaleidoscopic score that is never dull. There is more than a hint of Romanticism here and there, but this doesn’t lapse into sentimentality, and is more than balanced by whoops and cries from orchestral winds that might be heard as satire of some kind. Serebrier himself states that this piece is “not an abstract work, [but] it represents feelings which may nevertheless be hard to describe in words. There is no story behind it, but listeners can make up their own version of what the music means.” With such as piece that meaning can also change from day to day, depending on your mood or experience. There is enough power and emotional charge to take you to all kinds of places as you allow your thoughts to wander, with poignant regret and funereal intimations of mortality a strong feature of the final variation.
Laments and Hallelujahs is another highly evocative score that again has no defined narrative, though the commission included the theme of meditation, taking its subject from the Biblical moment in which Jesus visits Lazarus’s sisters Martha and Mary, and the subsequent mystery outlined in the text. There is drama here, though the emphasis early on and by way of conclusion is indeed on mystery and atmosphere, with shimmering strings creating a halo from which the musical flow develops. Things get somewhat bawdy and cinematic about halfway through, though we’re never quite allowed a ‘big tune’ to take away and sing in the bath.
Flute Concerto with Tango was commissioned by BIS for Sharon Bezaly, and is exactly the kind of virtuoso and expressive showpiece that is appreciated by soloists and audiences alike. Transparent orchestration gives space to the flute, and there is nice dialogue between soloist and orchestra, the latter almost equal in its animation in much of the first movement. There is an extended Cadenza movement with what sounds like a fair bit of circular breathing going on, the lines both lyrical and brilliantly extrovert largely unbroken for unexpectedly long stretches; the strings joining in towards the end of the movement with feverish excitement. The cooler tones of an alto flute change the colour to darker hues in the central Fantasia, and then we reach the Tango inconclusivo promise by the title. This is the shortest movement, with atmospheres that give way to a fragmentary dance that is never allowed to settle, and is interrupted by the final Allegro comodo, another virtuoso spectacle, “off to the races” as the composer describes it, that mirrors the first movement but with new material.
The rest of the programme is taken up with shorter pieces. Tango in Blue was first used as an encore by the National Orchestra of Uruguay and has a fine tune at its heart, while Casi un Tango is more ‘classical’ and atmospheric, “salon music in a simple a-b-a form” with a lovely solo for the cor anglais. Last Tango before Sunrise drips with nostalgia and was in fact written as a memorial. This fits well alongside the youthful Adagio, which “paints a portrait of desolation”, the reason for which its author has now forgotten. The programme ends with an arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s highly romantic and always touching None but the Lonely Heart from the Six Romances Op. 6.
While the ‘filler’ tracks are more disposable, José Serebrier’s concerto works are substantial and very fine indeed, and this whole disc has huge appeal to those interested in new music but are less enthusiastic about avant-garde extremes. Serebrier’s idiom is punchy and uncompromising in its honesty, but it seeks to connect with its audience rather than to repel, and as you might expect from a skilled conductor the colourful orchestrations are both an education and a rousing entertainment.
Dominy Clements
