Search - Tibor Serly, Paul Freeman, Czech National Symphony Orchestra :: Tibor Serly: 6 Dance Designs; Concertino; Violin Concerto

Surprise! This is a Must-Have!

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 11/29/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Until I ran across this disc my only association with the name Tibor Serly was remembering that he had completed Bartók's Viola Concerto after Bartók died. (As it turns out, after being importuned by Ditta Pazstory Bartók, he virtually wrote the concerto using a sketchy outline left by Bartók. And it's a great piece, too.) So, I had no idea what to expect with this CD. I couldn't have been more surprised or pleased with what I found here. First of all, I have a very fond place in my heart for composers who don't take themselves too seriously; hence, for instance, my attraction to much of the music by Les Six. And that is what one finds here, rollicking good music that pretty much skips 'great thoughts', preferring to delight.



'Six Dance Designs for Orchestra' (1932-33) is a work which, according to the excellent booklet notes by Kile Smith, is filled with 'winks and asides', making use of ingenious and infectious rhythmic complexities whose purpose is both to keep one off balance and to engage one's intellect. The first dance, 'Promenade', pits polytonal close harmonies in violas, clarinets and bassoon against insistent off-beat pizzicato strings. 'Dance Dialogue' stammers and shuffles and swirls to a lopsided one-step beat. 'Donkeys' features a heehawing E flat clarinet accompanied by bass line clip-clops. It leads directly into a woozy fox-trot ('Doldrums'), which could be Serly comparing the fox-trotters to the donkeys; it ends with a 'how dry I am' tag. 'Tap Dance' makes use of 1930s Hollywood syncopations. 'Dragons' ends the work with a menacing slow sarabande that builds to a minatory climax.



'Concertino 3x3' (1964-65, pronounced 'three times three') is best described in the composer's own words: "Concertino 3x3 is at once a Concertino for Solo Piano in three movements; it is also a Concerto for Orchestra, alone; but when played together simultaneously, it is converted into a Concertino for Solo Piano and Orchestra. Thus, in actual performance one hears three different compositions." The nine movements are structured in the following sequence: solo piano, orchestra alone, solo piano with orchestra; solo piano, orchestra alone, solo piano with orchestra; solo piano, orchestra alone, solo piano with orchestra. The first set of three movements is marked moderato, the second set andante sostenuto, the finale allegro vivace. There are many cross references of themes and rhythmic devices. Rather than sounding fragmentary, the work combines into a coehrent whole, written in an almost Stravinskyan harmonic and rhythmic style. There is a good deal of technical discussion in the booklet notes of the methods involved (and particularly regarding the harmonic structure) but suffice it to say the Concertino is an exciting and eminently satisfying work given a spiffy performance by pianist Lynn Kao with Paul Freeman leading the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. (Are we indebted to Paul Freeman for his intrepid explorations of American musical byways, or what? And in case you're thinking, that Serly was Hungarian, he was born in Hungary but moved to New York as a toddler and lived almost all his life in the US. He really should be considered an American composer.)



The final work is Serly's Concerto for Violin and Wind Symphony. Carla Trynchuk is the violin soloist. This is a thirteen-minute work with two movements: Improvisamente & Dance Concertino, played without pause. It was written in the 1950s but did not receive its first performance until a year after Serly's death in 1978. It is notable for its almost romantic melodies and its engaging dance rhythms. 'Improvisamente' has a Hungarian folk tinge and of the music on this disc sounds, for this reason, most like that of Bartók. 'Dance Concertino' is in 5/4, often sounding like the dancer stops now and then to gasp for breath. The Hungarian flavor continues and this is emphasized by the use of folk-like Magyar violin double-stops. The concerto is notable for its expert orchestration; in spite of the violin being pitted against the orchestral winds and percussion, it is never once covered nor the tone color muddied.



This disc opens up new possibilities, it seems to me, for further exploration of the music of Tibor Serly.



Strongly recommended.



Scott Morrison"