JOSÉ SEREBRIER SYMPHONY NO. 3 (Symphonie Mystique) for String Orchestra
My third symphony was written in the period of a week, to meet the deadline of an imminent recording session. It is in the traditional four-movement format, but there the tradition ends. Of the four movements, only the first is in a traditional form, in this case, A-B-A. The succeeding movements are all quite rhapsodic. The opening, the only fast movement in the work, is a rather brash, aggressive molto perpetuo with obsessive, repeated rhythms. The Slavic-sounding melody of the second subject reappears throughout the other movements in several guises, not so much as a leitmotiv, but as a memory of things past. The 2nd movement opens with a long cello line, which builds in a dark climate using the interval of the semitone, sometimes extended across octaves. A haunting high violin line intercedes, like a voice from afar. It leads to a series of interludes that have a feeling of unresolved conflict, and the movement ends quietly and questioningly. The 3rd movement is also a fantasy or rhapsody, but very different in character from the 2nd. It opens quietly with the second violins, soon joined by the violas, and soon followed by anxious, anguished sounds. It is eventually interrupted by a sad, cryptic waltz that returns incessantly, over and over. Eventually it gives up, and the movement ends in resignation. The unusual nature of the finale gives the Symphony its subtitle. After a short introduction (again based on the 2nd motive of the first movement), it changes character, leading to a repeated, passacaglia-like drone that serves as the backdrop for a distant voice -- a disembodied sound, wordless and mystical. Echoes of that recurrent 2nd motive from the first movement make their final ghostly appearances, hidden under the string ostinato. The subtitle was suggested by the musicians of the Orchestre de Chambre National de Toulouse, for whom the work was written. It seemed appropriate to retain the original French. -- JosĂŠ Serebrier Duration: 25 minutes
Recorded on Naxos American Classics 8.559183 by the Toulouse National Chamber Orchestra
To C.
Symphony No. 3 José Serebrier
(Symphonie Mystique) Presto
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© Copyright 2003 by Peermusic III, Ltd. International Copyright Secured. Printed in the U.S.A. All Rights Reserved.
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Voice
New York January 7 to 15, 2003