Maestro Serebrier to Lead BSO
Uruguayan-American conductor and composer José Serebrier, one of the most recorded conductors alive, will lead the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra this weekend in its performance of Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) and Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). As an added treat, Serebrier will be conducting his own orchestration of Grieg's Songs, which has been performed around the world to much acclaim. The orchestration was even published by Grieg's original publisher. Serebrier, who has written more than 100 compositions, is very successful at recording his orchestrations. In addition to Grieg, Serebrier has recorded his orchestrations of Tchaikovsky, Janacek, Bizet, and Gershwin. He recorded his orchestration of Bizet's Carmen with the U.S. Marine Corp Band in 2007. Serebrier recorded Grieg's Songs with the weekend's soloist, soprano Carole Farley in 1999. The two have recorded together 16 times, and she has recorded Sebrier's music twice: the world premiere of the maestro's composition Erotica and the Grammy-nominated performance Symphony No. 3 (Symphonie Mystique) with the Orchestre de Chambre de Toulouse.
The BSO will be performing selections from Grieg's Incidental Music to Peer Gynt, written for Henrik Ibsen's satirical, Norwegian pastorale. This remarkable evening of Scandinavian composition will conclude with Sibelius's Symphony No. 1. Written in the same year as Sibelius's patriotic reaction to the 1898 Russian threat to Finland, this piece has long been dismissed as lacking in Sibelius's usual sharpness, which can be as startling as light from a glacier. Yet, the First has a rumbling passion that helps the listener to "read" the program of the BSO this year. With the earlier Mahler and Mendelssohn, Sibelius's Symphony No. 1 is another 19th-century remnant, music from the age of nationalism that, despite its earnest seriousness, seems innocent in the wake of twentieth-century carnage.
Last weekend Maestro Serebrier exhibited the talents of violinist Rachel Barton Pine in the violin concerto. This particular piece of music demands strength, speed, passion, grace, and fire. There is a special connection between conductor and soloist in any performance, but the sheer difficulty of this particular piece of music cements the relationship. Recordings of Anne Sophie-Mutter, Sarah Chang, Itzhak Perlman, and, of course, Jascha Heifitz, are the common fare. Ms. Barton's sparkling performance was all that more delightful because her specialty is the Baroque. This piece is for every violinist, and we are thankful Ms. Barton made it her own.