NAXOS
RELEASES NEW RECORDING OF MUSIC BY
JOSÉ SEREBRIER
Featured works include the world premiere recording
of the Double Bass Concerto, “Nueve,”
with bass soloist Gary Karr and renowned British actor
Simon Callow,
and the first studio recording of Symphony No. 1
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José SEREBRIER
Symphony No. 1; Double Bass Concerto (“Nueve”);
Violin Concerto (“Winter”);
Simon Callow; Gary Karr; Philippe Quint
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; José
Serebrier
Naxos 8559648
US SRP 8.99 |
On August 30, Naxos releases a new recording devoted to
works by the Grammy® award-winning conductor and composer,
José Serebrier. Performed by the Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra and Chorus led by the composer, the
recording features the world premiere recording of
the Double Bass Concerto, “Nueve,” with legendary
bassist Gary Karr, for whom the work was originally
written, and the great British actor Simon Callow,
who narrates a Shelley poem which forms the basis of the
work. The Double Bass Concerto was written while Serebrier
was the composer-in-residence of the Cleveland Orchestra, at
the invitation of George Szell.
Also featured on this CD is the first studio recording
of Serebrier’s Symphony No. 1 (1956), which was
written when the composer was 17 and a student at the Curtis
Institute of Music in Philadelphia. The composer provided
the following note: “Leopold Stokowski called from Houston
to announce that the long-awaited world premiere of Charles
Ives' 4th Symphony would be replaced by the world premiere
of my [José Serebrier's] 1st Symphony, written the year
before. All the press had gathered in Houston to witness the
much heralded Ives premiere, but Stokowski announced that
the work was so difficult they could never get past the
first few bars, and instead he offered to premiere this
new symphony by a young unknown composer.” As a result,
Serebrier continues, “I was interviewed at length [by] many
publications and news services, including Time, Newsweek,
AP, etc. Unfortunately, despite the tremendous success of
the performance, the premiere coincided with the Soviet
Union's launching of the Sputnik, which for weeks put a
temporary end to any arts coverage.” Stokowski went on to
perform other Serebrier works in New York at Carnegie Hall,
including the
Elegy for
Strings
(written at age 14) and "Poema
Elegíaco",
with which Stokowski opened the season of his American
Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
Other works on the recording include the Violin Concerto,
“Winter” (1991), featuring violinist Philippe Quint;
two tangos: Tango en Azul (Tango in Blue) and
Casi un Tango (Almost a Tango) and, finally,
the world premiere recording of They Rode Into
The Sunset – Music for an Imaginary Film (2009), a
piece which was originally intended for the ending scene of
a Bollywood movie, but a long strike by the Mumbai
film industry got in the way and, so far, the movie has been
postponed.