José Serebrier 80th birthday tribute - George Gershwin

Congratulations to José Serebrier on his 80th birthday ! He's a conductor who occupies a unique place, mentored by Leopold Stokowski and George Szell, always independent and open-minded.  Please read more about him in this article here. A most interesting personality!  So let's celebrate with this historic Gershwin Centenary Edition recording from SOMM where Serebrier conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Gershwin's An American in Paris, Three preludes and Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra, featuring Leopold Godowsky III, Gershwin's nephew.

The public image of George Gershwin these days is coloured by his sucesss on Broadway and the use of his music in Hollywood, but in the 1920's Gershwin was part of the avant garde. The premiere of Rhapsody in Blue in February 1924 was attended by Stokowski, Rachmaninoff, Fritz Kreisler and Walter Damrosch, who was keen enough to offer Gershwin a commisson which resulted in the Piano Concerto in F, with Gershwin himself as soloist, in Carnegie Hall in December 1925. Gershwin was a true original, one of the first to appreciate jazz as serious music, incoporating the sounds of modern, urban America for the concert hall.  George Antheil's Ballet méchanique (1926) was then known only in Paris.  Edgard Varèse's Amériques (1921) and  Hyperprism (1922/3)  were pioneering works, way ahead of their time. Significantly, both were premiered by Stokowski in 1926, 1924 respectively, followed by Arcana in 1927, all this long before Copland and  Bernstein.  It is in that context that Gershwin's place in modern music is now being re-assessed. Please read more here about the University of Michigan Gershwin Initiative and the on-going new critical edition of his opus.   . 

Serebrier's interest in Gershwin and in American music goes back to his childhood. At the age of fourteen, he organized a concert of fellow music students, attended by the then President of Uruguay, a high profile event, covered in the newspapers at the time. Sereberier conducted Gershwin, Edgard Varèse and Charles Ruggles who even now are "new music". Too young to have formed preconceptions, the young players were carried away by Serebrier's enthusiasm. That freshness has rarely dimmed, as these performances indicate. Serebrier's Gershwin descends from "source" to speak, from an original approach to the scores themselves, not from the popular image. Thus this vivid interpretation of An American in Paris which captures the excitement Gershwin felt when he discovered Paris when it was the cutting edge centre of innovation.  The introduction swaggers with the confidence of a young man on an adventure. Brashness gives way to galumphs (bassoons, tuba, trombones) the walking pace leaping with joy.  In the second section a tentaive mood is soon brushed away by the exuberant theme led by different saxophones : a fanfare for the New World,  the instrument itself invented a few decades before. The famous "Blues" motif curls sensuously, the strings around it expansive.  Homesickness doesn't last long though: Paris has absorbed jazz on its own terms. Thus the sassy trumpets and saxophones, and the playful syncopation. When the "walking" theme returns, it is underlined by percussion.  An animated final section, with crashing cymbals, and taxi horns (employed earlier by Varèse) and a bittersweet conclusion.   The new edition of the score, premiered recently, is sharper, but on this recording, made in 1998, Serebrier gives the standard edition a very fine reading.

Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F is, in comparison, more conventional, though the distinctively Gershwinesque strings give it character.  Serebrier brings out the spikey tension in the introduction, which is answered by the piano, (Leopold Godowski III)  developing a smoother line. The second movemnent is a nocturne that grows more intense as it proceeds.  Serebrier shapes the finale, marked molto agitato - con brio. so it seems to burst with suppressed energy.  Alexander Glazunov was present at the premiere, in December 1928, Damrosch having sensed a Russian context to the concerto. But it is woth noting that Serebrier is one of the finest Glazunov conductors, and has recorded the complete symphonies with this orchestra, the Royal Scottish National, and with the Russian National Orchestra.  

Gershwin's Three Preludes were originally planned as an extended series of piano pieces, of which only three were published. On this recording, we hear Serebrier's transcription for orchestra. The piano still dominates, the orchestra extending and enhancing the line.  Serebrier is also a composer, whose first symphony impressed Stokowski so much that the older conductor invited the younger to join him as an Associate with the American Symphony Orchestra.  Although Gershwin's Lullaby, written when he was only 20 for a Broadway comedy, is little known. Serebrier orchestrated it at the request of Leopold Godowsky III. The new orchestration respects the repeated phrases, colouring them without overpowering what is effectively a miniature. It is included in this recording becaause it reflects the lullaby in the second Prelude.

The Amazing Adventures of Leopold Stokowski

Stokowski and Vaughan Williams, 1956

Time to appreciate Leopold Stokowski, whose many merits are obscured by negative reactions to his flamboyant showmanship, his exaggerated Slavic accent and his willingness to have fun with music, making zany transcriptions and appearing with Mickey Mouse in Fantasia.  Toscaninni, no slouch himself at self-promotion, might have been sniffy, but rivalry sometimes plays a part in assessments.  I like Stokowski's transcriptions - at least he was honest, as opposed to conducting his own take on things.  And what's wrong with bringing millions of kids, all over the world, to classical music via Disney ?  At the moment, I am on a Stokowski listening kick, impressed by his dedication to music.  

The name "Leopold Stokowski" was absolutely authentic.  He was registered at birth as "Leopold Anthony Stokowski" in the district of All Souls in Marylebone in 1882,  His father was Kopernick Leopold Boleslaw Stokowski, a cabinet maker, and his mother, Anne Marie Moore,  was born in Northampton.  They seem to have been Church of England. Leopold was a choirboy and, after studying at the Royal College of Music, worked as an assistant to Sir Henry Wolford Davies at the Temple Church in the City.  In 1905, he moved to the US but didn't really lose his English roots, conducting more British repertoire than one might assume. He conducted Elgar's Symphony no 2 in Cincinatti in November 1911 - just six months after its premiere in London, conducted by the composer himself.  New music, hot off the press ! He also conducted the Enigma Variations, and Holst's The Planets, also new at the time, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Walton's Belshazzar's Feast only three years after its UK premiere, when Walton still had the reputation of being avant garde.  All his liife, Stokowski was open-minded, and alert to what was interesting in musical terms, regardless of whether it was popular.   He was instrumental in bringing Charles Ives to prominence, conducting Ives's Symphony no 4, then considered unperformable, even by the composer himself.  He even arranged a nationwide broadcast . Imagine that happening on TV these days, in our supposedly enlghtened times when "intellectual" and  "creative"  are terms of abuse.  Later, his protégé, José Serebrier, recorded the piece in London, using Stokowski's principles of orchestral preparation.  Please read more HERE about the relationship between Stokowski and Serebrier, which endured until Stokowski's death. Just the account of how they met is fascinating. In many ways, Serebrier continues Stokowski's legacy, and desrevs similar respect.

At some stage, possibly under the influence of his first wife, the pianist Olga Samaroff, Stokowski adopted a "slavic" persona.  Samaroff was in fact born Lucy Hildenlooper in Texas, but in those days having an exotic background helped create careers. Whether real Russian or Polish people could see through the pretence didn't matter.  Nowadays such things would trigger counter-terrorist and money laundering systems.  By 1940, however, Stokowski was well established and able to tell the US census that he was British born, though he shaved five years off his true age.  Eventually, he moved back to Britain five years before his death aged 95. He's buried in East Finchley. 

Throughout his life, Stokowski remained interested in music that was innovative and stretched the mind.   Like so many other musicians - Debussy, Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten, Messiaen - he wa fascinated by non-western form and travelled to Asia in 1927-8.  He spoke coherently about Asian music and conducted Aaron Avshalamov's Hutungs of Beijing (1931) in 1935, presumably having met the composer.  Although the piece describes cluster housing in old Beijing, it's not a cultural hybrid but western music with oriental spice, delightful, but not authentic.  About 25 years ago recordings were made of Avshalamov's major works, which I received from a friend who was a neighbour of the composer who returned to the US in 1947.  Much more adventurously, Stokowski conducted the work of Hidemaro Konoye (1898-1973). Konoye was a bona fide Prince, a scion of the Fujiwara Clan, which goes back 1500 years and is closely associated with the Imperial Household. His brother was Prime Minister of Japan.  Konoye trained in Europe, studying with Franz Schreker, Karl Muck and Erich Kleiber. He was a friend of Wilhelm Furtwängler and Richard Strauss, he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic and founded the New Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo (now the famous NHK Symphony).  They made the first ever recording of Mahler's Symphony no 4 in 1930, one of the first to use the then new electric technology.So much for the idea that Mahler was unknown til the 1960's.  Stokowski conducted Konoye's Etenraku (1931) three times in 1935 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. What the audience and orchestra made of it, I don't know, as it is genuine gagaku music, orchestrated for western instruments. Gagaku was an aristocratic genre, heard mainly in court circles, never "populist".  But it is a fascinating piece, listen to a clip HERE, conducted not by Stokowski but by Ryusuke Numajiri. who's probably more idiomatic. Perhaps Stokowski knew Konoye who was extremely well connected. Stokowski conducted in Japan several times during Konoye's lifetime. Konoye, incidentally, was arrested and imprisoned by the US when he was leading a group of Japanese musicians back to Japan after the war, which they'd spent in Germany. Technically "enemy" though they weren't involved in atrocities.

Charles Ives and Carl Nielsen, the Wild Men of Music Prom 72

Charles Ives and Carl Nielsen, two great outsiders,  together in Prom 72 with  Andrew Litton conducting the BBC SO.. the BBC Singers, the Tiffin Boys and Girls Choirs, The Crouch End Choir and a cast of good soloists

Lovely Carl Nielsen Springtime on Funen, so pretty that one might forget that Spring is brief, even on a paradise island. To make a living, Nielsen had to move to the city, though he never lost his love for his country roots. Henning Kraggerud was the soloist in Nielsen's Violin Concerto.

Charles Ives's music, like his personality, seems to defy convention. Many men write part time while pursuing other careers (like Mahler did) and many are justifiably forgotten but Ives stands out because he built on the sounds around him to create brilliant innovation.  There's nothing quite like Ives's Symphony no 4 until, perhaps, Stockhausen, yet it was written from around 1910.

To get a handle on what made Ives tick, read Stuart Feder's My Father's Song : a psychoanalytiuc biography (1992), still the most perceptive insight on what made Ives tick.  Ives's father was a rich kid, who dreamed (unsuccessfully) on breaking out.  He lived out his fantasies playing in bands commemorating the Civil War, the one time when he'd (sort of) made it big on his own. Thus Ives the son got a kind of revenge on the clan for dissing his Dad, by making more money than they ever did, and honoured his father by incorporating the hymns and brass band marches music he grew up with into music that operates like a kaleidoscope that's hard to pin down in conventional terms. Incidentally, one of the hymns Ives used has  a parody text that dates from way back, "We'll have pie in the sky when we die", an irony probably not lost on the composer.  That's why I've chosen this photo of Ives. He's crouching as if he's about to pounce like a tiger. The photographer was expecting a  normal portrait, but Ives's mischief gets the better of him.

In Ives's Fourth Symphony, different sound worlds operate, more or less independently. The music happens when the sounds are combined in the ear of the listener. Although Ives's roots were in semi-rural Danbury, Connecticut,  he commuted to New York City where  skyscrapers inhabited space in the air, and subways added dimensions underground. People came from all over, each with individual lives and agendas, their interaction - if any - creating what we might call modern city life. It's no accident that Elliott Carter admired Ives and was influenced by his ideas.

Because Ives's Fourth predicates on multiple levels and different pulses, performance predicates on precise attention to detail and accurate timing.  The BBCSO, under Andrew Litton, achieved the feat, creating the swirling textures and quirky ins and outs, weaving a whole fabric from the numerous contrary inner cells.  Nowadays we're perhaps used to multi-dimension music, but once it must have seemed hard to achieve.  All the more reason to honour the vision of Leopold Stokowski, who believed in the piece and was instrumental in bringing it to public attention.  When Stokowski first conducted it with the American Symphony Orchestra,in 1954, he needed dozens of hours of rehearsal.  Stokowski's assistant conductor was José Serebrier.  Two main conductors, together conducting an orchestra operating in two sections, with a third, smaller unit, conducted by a third conductor. Not an easy task! When Serebrier recorded Ives's Fourth  in London a few years later, he wasn't allowed the luxury of unlimited rehearsal, or the company of other conductors.  Luckily, he was conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra and could rely on players who learned fast and well. He divided the orchestra up into different sections, relying on the section leaders to lead their units.  The recording is still a testimony to creative problem-solving in performance practice. .

Below Stokowski and Serebrier conduct Ives Fourth for prime time TV in the early 1960's Imagine new music getting such mass coverage now, when the media has fooled audiences into thinking that anything difficult is wrong. Without pioneers, like Ives, Stokowski and Serebrier  where would be be? ?

José Serebrier Dvořák Xiogang Ye, London 12th June

Warner Classics is releasing the  complete set of Dvořák’s symphonies conducted by José Serebrier.. Individually, these performances are lively, perceptive readings, following on his highly acclaimed Glazunov series.  Read my review HERE of his exceptional Dvořák Symphony no 9 which really feels inspired "by the New World" and what it promises. A perfomance truly from the soul, with personal resonace from Serebrier, who came to the United States in his teens, mentored by Leopold Stokowski.  Read more about Serebrier's remarkable life HERE,

On Friday, 12th June, there's a chance to hear Serebrier conduct Dvořák 's Slavonic Dances live at the Cadogan Hall, London, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Also on the programme, Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures  at an Exhibition, another Serebrier favourite. But what makes Serebrier concerts so special is that he includes new works, not necessarily the most shockingly avant garde, but works which interest him, and which he cares about. He'll conduct the UK premiere of The Last Paradise by Beijing composer Xiaogang Ye.

The Last Paradise recounts the sad fate of a protagonist – portrayed by the violin – culminating in his funeral and his eventual happiness upon the release of his spirit into the afterlife. Ye explained to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. "My family suffered extremely – nearly all kinds of humiliation – during my youth. It was during the Cultural Revolution, which was really a hard time. Life was a harsh struggle for survival. The villagers believed that death was an escape from a painful life and the start of a new journey. I also imagined that my life would end this way, and when I was released from all the pain of this world I would be carried toward heaven and eternal happiness."

The soloist will be Cho-Liang Lin, who gave the world premiere in 2013 in New York. 

Dvořák Symphony no 8 José Serebrier

New Dvořák Symphony no 8 ! José Serebrier continues his highly esteemed Dvořák series. Read my review of his Dvořák Symphony no 9 (The New World)  and see why Serebrier's approach is so distinctive. Enjoy !
 
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Deanna Durbin EXCLUSIVE personal tribute

"How many child-prodigy artists or entertainers fulfil their youthful promise, pull out of the public eye entirely by their late twenties of their own volition, and are still remembered fondly—by millions—more than six decades later?"

Here is a beautifully written tribute from one singer to another, written by Danielle Woerner, my friend.

 "Deanna Durbin died earlier this week. She was 91, and though she committed her last film to celluloid in 1948, the singer-actress wasn’t forgotten. The darling of Depression-era and 1940s Hollywood, Durbin kept Universal Pictures afloat; and by 1947, at the age of 26, she’d surpassed even Bette Davis as the highest-salaried woman in America.

Unlike Davis, though, Durbin’s characters were never permitted to mature along with the woman who played them. She was typecast as the “plucky” (NY Times obit) young lady who was always able to save the inept adults around her from ruin--often with the help of friends from the less ritzy rungs of the social ladder. (Hayley Mills would take on that can-do girl-next-door role for a while in the early 1960s.) Though Deanna’s singing voice was mature and full for her age, even at 13 when she started in pictures, neither the studio nor her audiences accepted her as anything but a stock ingénue as she herself matured, and the gravity of World War II ruptured our sense of innocence. This was one of the frustrations that caused Durbin to choose retirement in the French countryside (with her third husband, director Charles David) over the “goldfish bowl” she had endured in the film industry. Before she was 30, yet. Since she was brought to Hollywood when just a year old, singing children’s songs by the time she could talk, perhaps that qualifies as one lifetime already.

I was both saddened to hear of her passing this week, and a little surprised she had still been with us. Her self-imposed private exile had worked well. But the obituaries and wikipedia are full of her life’s details. To me, as a singer-actress, what was so special about Durbin was not just the maturity and richness of her voice and technique even in her teens; the naturalness of her acting in 21 movies (they did call them “movies” when she made ‘em); the number of fans she gathered around the world. It was the enduring emotional connection she created with those who watched her in black & white, and listened to her recordings—not only at the time they were made, but for decades after she’d exited the scene. Though ”purity” is often used to describe her, that’s a gloss. Her naturalness was grounded in a quality older and deeper than her years. And she played an iconic role, much bigger than the girl next door. 

 My first exposure to Durbin was in the mid-’80s, when I stumbled upon One Hundred Men and a Girl on the late-night movie, probably Channel 11, in New York City. I was a young classical/operatic soprano, and of course had heard of her—a name always uttered with fondness, it seemed. The 1937 comedy was a sweet predictable story: Durbin persuades world-famous conductor Leopold Stokowski (playing himself) to conduct an orchestra of 100 unemployed musicians, including her trombonist father, portrayed by Adolphe Menjou. The moment when she began singing the Mozart “Alleluia” from the first tier box of the concert hall, walking downstairs and to the foot of the stage as she sang, was etched in my mind as a kind of artistic heroism—albeit chutzpah, in the real world of the music business. Only in the movies. My father, a professional bass soloist in Philadelphia, had worked with Stokowski during the latter’s fitful tenure as conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. My childhood included stories of the chimerical, moody Leopold: how he’d pass Dad on the street one day, turning his face away as if he didn’t know him, and the next day would grab Dad by the arm, greet him like a long-lost brother and wonder aloud why Dad had been about to walk by without saying hello. Watching the scene in the movie, I knew Stokowski wasn’t always that lamb in the script who indulgently greeted the young upstart soprano co-opting his rehearsal.

As it happened, a few months after seeing the film, I was late for a rehearsal (another stalled subway train!) at historic Trinity Church in lower Manhattan. As I hurried into the dimly lit sanctuary, I could hear the motet that included my solo already starting overhead. I dashed up the stone stairs to the choir loft just in time to begin singing my part, right on cue. The director—also indulgent—teased me later about my “Deanna Durbin moment.” Thanks to Channel 11, I knew exactly what he meant. The Deanna Durbin moment. The moment when beautiful music, artfully and heartfully executed (OK, ok, by a solo soprano), saves the day for everyone. We could use more such moments, couldn’t we?

Bless you, Deanna. Even if you outgrew the part."

 Danielle Woernerhttp://daniellewoerner.com 

This lovely tribute ties in with another personal remembrance of Deanna Durbin. Five years ago, I was at the Cadogan Hall, where José Serebrier was being interviewed by Edward Seckerson before conducting a concert. The discussion turned to Stokowski, who was Serebrier's mentor and close friend. A lady in the audience stood up to add some words. She must have been in her mid 80's but she was tall, straight and elegant, silver hair immaculately coiffed. She wore expensive slacks and a silk shirt. Quietly, she added, "I knew Stokowski too. I am Deanna Durbin".

José Serebrier tours China

In China, people take classical music seriously, so it's interesting . People listen, children get involved.  So it's always interesting to read about concerts and audiences there. Last year José Serebrier toured China with the Youith Ochestra of the Americas, bringing together young musicians from North and South America with Chinese musicians :  a fruitful exchange that worked both ways.  Read more here.

This year, Serebrier toured China again, this time with the Russian National Orchestra, which he's been conducting for a long time and with whom he's made many recordings. The tour started in Beijing, inside the Great Hall of the People, in Tian An Men Square, built by the Ming Emperors. It was a joint concert between the RNO and the China National Symphony Orchestra. Serebrier and his counterpart Maestro En Shao presented a programme based on the theme of oceans. The Ming Dynasty connection is implicit, for it was during the reign of the Emperor Yongle that Admiral Zheng He sailed through Asia with his magnficent  fleet.

Serebrier and the RNO gave eight more concerts in six cities, "bringing music to such culture-hungry people, spreading the message that music, of all kinds, brings people together beyond cultural or political barriers, helping to create an atmosphere of understanding and paving the way for closer communication between peoples"

 In the West, we take music for granted, and often think in mean-spirited terms.  So it's heart warming to read about Serebrier's reaction to the ordinary people who came to his concerts in China. "The most important element for me was to touch the hearts of the public, to move them and give them an artistic experience that would inspire them to come back for more music, to touch their souls. It was fantastic to turn around to accept the public’s applause and to see all those smiling faces. Many of these people were first-time concert goers, so the challenge was especially important for me to inspire them and to leave them with a warm, glowing feeling."  This is what music should be. We should never forget. To lose the magic of music and of listening, that's like losing life. Read more here.

Youth Orchestra of the Americas tours China

The Youth Orchestra of the Americas marks its tenth annivesary by touring China. The orchestra brings together talented young musicans from 20 different countries mainly in Latin America, so they can work together and with experienced professionals like Plácido Domingo, Yo-Yo Ma, Helmut Rilling, Kent Nagano and Philip Glass. High level music education, emphasizing performace, and interaction with other musicians and communities. The mission statement "music transforming lives".

The youth orchestra tradition in Latin America goes back many decades. Sixty years ago in Uruguay,  José Serebrier organized a schoolboy orchestra. They had no models to follow. No TV, few international concerts and little formal training. Serebrier was only 11, and his friends were very much younger than youth orchestra members are now. Some still wore short pants and thought they had to play from memory! So it's good that Serebrier will lead the Youth Orchestra of America on its biggest ever tour.

The YOA tour of China starts 14th December with a week long residence in Chongqing at the Sichuan Academy of Arts, associated with a thriving conservatoire. Graduates include Yundi Li, Wen Wei and Ning Fen. After working with their Chinese peers, the YOA weill give two concerts, then move on to Guangzhou where they'll play at the new opera house designed by Zaha Hadid. (read more here) Then they fly up north to Beijing andShanghai, also visiting regional centres like Xian, Dalian and Lanzhou in remote Gansu. For orchestra members it will be an unprecedented opportunity to visit famous sites like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and the Terracotta Warriors but also to to meet young local musicans like themselves. Being an artist is much more than just playing notes.  The Youth Orchestra of the America's motto is "Music transforming lives". They aren't likely to forget this experience!

IRR raves Dvořák 9 Serebrier

"Outstanding, should rank with the finest", says Robert Maxwell-Walker in the International Record Review of the new Dvořák Symphony no 9 From the New World by José Serebrier and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. ".... the wood wind, so fresh and intensely musical are the phrases and characterisation both of the principals and as a unit. It is as though they have just discovered the music: there is nothing tired or thoughtlessly predictable about this performance, all the way through – it is deeply impressive, such as to reinforce one’s faith in the classical record business. The conductor’s tempos and internal orchestral balance are flawless. Nor are these musical qualities confined to the performance of the Symphony; the Slavonic Dances which open and close the disc are fresh and lively and intensely musical ; the Czech Suite, likewise, is not ‘run-through’ in any superficial manner; these artists’ individual and corporate respect for all the music here is uplifting to a degree."

I'm thrilled.  Please read my review HERE. Serebrier brings such freshness to this performance, I think, because he cares deeply about the music and the concepts behind it. As a young boy in Uruguay he discovered the music of America and formed the first South American youth orchestra in order to get it performed. At 17, he went to study in the US and was mentored by Stokowski. Serebrier assisted Stokowski on the first recording of Charles Ives's Symphony no 4 and later conducted it with the LSO. What I like about Serebrier us that he doesn't follow received wisdom but thinks - and feels - for himself.  A true original !

New Dvořák series - Serebrier, Bournemouth, Warner

When Dvořák went to America, he was struck by the Shock of the New. In 1893, there was no TV, no film, no mass communication, so the impact of this strange new world must have been extreme. Dvořák's Symphony no 9, "From the New World" op 95 is so familiar now that it's thrilling to hear this new recording, first in a series of Dvořák symphonies from Warner Classics. José Serebrier conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, one of the best outside London (and good enough to show London a thing or two!). If the rest of the series is as good as this disc, Bournemouth will get the respect it deserves.

Serebrier has conducted and recorded Dvořák many times, but this performance is electrified by a glorious sense of discovery. Might this have been what Dvořák and many millions of Europeans before him and after have felt when they encountered America?  There are many more venerable recordings, but this bursts with open-hearted exuberance. Serebrier shows what America might have meant for Dvořák, a man steeped in European tradition, from a land-locked country. Expansive, surging crescendi, suggesting wide open spaces, not just physical but as creative opportunity. Vigorous rhythmic power, evoking the liveliness of American "can do" enterprise. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra here is very bright, and very brassy, more like an American orchestra, which suits this symphony well, and they sound invigorated.

Dvořák's big codas dazzle, creating large forms, but above all, Serebrier shows how the essence of this symphony lies in lyrical detail.  Mountains, plains, cities and technology - do some of these rhythms suggest trains, and machines ? Yet the symphony's finest moments stress individuality, either human or from nature. Hence the delicate "vernal" motifs like the wonderful English horn motif, now known as "going home".  It wasn't borrowed music but Dvořák's own, representing, perhaps, idealistic innocence. That's why it became a spiritual, not the other way round. Serebrier separates notes so each is heard clearly. This creates a magical sense of wonder, but hints at fragility. The Largo dissolves with exquisite tenderness. Even in the vigorous, confident Allegro con fuoco, the pure, clean sounds of solo instrments shine. The sound recording is so good you can hear piccolo and triangle ring. This is where studio recording proves its worth, for that pristine clarity is very much at the heart of this symphony.

It's prescient that this Volume One in Serebrier's Dvořák series with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra starts with the Slavonic Dance op 46 no 1 (presto) because the first chord explodes! It's followed by an unusually  alert reading that feels like dance on a grand scale, yet even the tiny whips - like fast moving footsteps - are deftly precise. Surrounding From the New World with the Czech Suite op 39 and the Slavonic Dance op 72 no 2 (allegretto) is perceptive, for it underlines the idea of dance in the symphony.  Dance is rhythmic pattern, and movement, and From the New World uses ensemble patterns as well as motivic freedom.  Dancers in groups, dancers solo, all functioning in a complex whole. You can almost visualize an American city with teeming traffic in a very un-European grid of streets. Or buildings as hives of activity. Maybe that's what Dvořák really meant about using "Indian" sounds, stomping ostinato as a rhythm of life.

 http://www.amazon.com/Dvorak-Symphony-No-New-World/dp/B005MQJPZS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321775940&sr=8-1

José Serebrier conducts Gershwin at the Cadogan Hall

Good news! José Serebrier conducts an all-Gershwin progremme at the Cadogan Hall tonight. Bad news, it's sold out! (returns only). This should be exciting.  South American youth orchestras? Serebrier created the first, aged 14, playing before the President of Uruguay, who was a musican. What's more, they did a Festival of American Music, playing Edgard Varèse and Charles Ruggles who even now are pretty avant garde. Serebrier was too young to know kids weren't "supposed" to be safe. He was carried away by enthusiasm and his love for interesting music. He's still as adventurous and dynamic today.

Tonight's Gershwin concert will include Rhapsody in Blue (Pianist Shelly Berg), An American in Paris and Variations on I Got Rhythm. But what makes this programme special is that it includes Serebrier's own adaptations for orchestra  of Gershwin's Lullaby and Three Preludes. 

The Guinness Book of Records should award something to Serebrier for having conducted more recordings than anyone else. He works well with orchestras, and his preparation is meticulous. Get the basics right, and from that flows energy and verve. Serebrier's recordings of Russian masters are superb.  His wonderful complete series of symphonies by Alexander Glazunov (essential listening) has now expanded to include the Glazunov Concertos. When Serebrier approaches things, he does so thoroughly and with great enthusiasm. I've often watched him conduct live to study the way he interacts with his players. He's a born motivator, who gets the best out of those he works with. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will be having a good time, as Serebrier's commitment to Gershwin goes back a long way. Serebrier worked with Copland and Stokowski, with whom he conducted Charles Ives's Fourth Symphony, then considered unperformable because it was so difficult. Now it's standard repertoire.  Serebrier knows Gershwin well, and has recorded him before. Hopefully, this concert will herald a new series, making Gershwin part of the classical mainstream as he deserves.

Listen to BBC Radio 3 for an interesting conversation between Serebrier and Susanna Mälkki. They have a lot in common!  Serebrier knew Boulez in Cleveland and recounts how George Szell listened in stunned admiration when Boulez conducted Mahler 5, a work Szell loved dearly.