An Amazing Discovery!!!
Louie Bourland | Garden Grove CA | 05/28/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Although he has been a legendary conductor for many years, I personally had never heard of Jose Serebrier until I heard a recent podcast from Naxos.com highlighting this CD that I'm now reviewing. That podcast ultimately lead me to buying this CD immediately afterwards. Upon further listening, I'm really happy and satisfied with this latest release (which is actually a reissue of a 1999 recording).
Serebrier is a South American composer/conductor who originally hails from Uruguay. His mentor early in his career was none other than the legendary Leopold Stokowski. Since then, he has gone on to conduct many works by different composers including his own works on this disc. As a composer, Serebrier draws from many different sources including Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Sibelius. The 20th Century Russian influence is heard at its greatest in his Symphony No.2 (aka "Partita") which opens this CD. Serebrier's Latin roots also come through in the rhythms and percussion which occur throughout the work.
The "Fantasia for Strings" is a 1960 work which displays a lush late-Romantic style and displays a definite nod from Debussy and Sibelius.
The solo "Sonata for Violin" is a sure work of genius as it is the oldest composition on this CD - written in 1948 when Serebrier was close to 10 years old!!! This solo violin work definitely does not sound like it was written by a child so young and is very advanced for a composition for someone at that age.
The final work on this CD is the 1999 work entitled "Winterreise". Here, Serebrier takes fragments of melodies from Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and Haydn and mixes them into an extremely original and sometimes atonal wash of sound bringing to mind Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring".
With this said, this CD of Jose Serebrier's music is definitely an amazing discovery from a truly gifted composer and conductor. There is another CD of his music on Naxos which I am definitely going to check out very soon. I highly recommend this CD as well as downloading the podcast from Naxos.com to get a better insight to this music. Serebrier definitely belongs with the greatest of composers. This CD proves it.
"