Conductors usually want to be composers (Furtwangler a distinguished example). But they usually write eclectic assimilations of the music they best interpret. Jose Serebrier is his own man, and all these works communicate an individual melodic talent and demonstrate impressive feeling for instrumentation and colour. The Partita (or Symphony No 2) opens genially and invitingly on the woodwind in a mood almost of reverie, but soon becomes rhythmically very animated. The symphony has a very powerful funeral march as slow movement (which Stokowski admired and played separately as the Poema elegiaca). An interlude leads to an exuberant fugal finale which re-employs the Latin American rhythms and colours which permeate the opening movement. The Fantasia for strings opens busily, but soon introduces a distinctive 'folk melody of melancholy nature'. It becomes increasingly energetic, ending peremptorily with a curious, naggingly powerful ostinato.
The Solo Violin Sonata is not in the least like Bach, but romantic and appealingly songful. Winterreise is a short, passionate orchestral showpiece, deriving from an early violin concerto. It quotes (ingeniously), not from Schubert but from seasonal movements by Haydn, Glazunov and Tchaikovsky's Winter Daydreams Symphony, with all three ideas finally appearing together, plus the Dies irae at the climax of what the composer describes as a winter 'train ride'. Ambitiously scored it is spectacularly impressive. The LPO obviously enjoys itself and responds to the composer's direction with aplomb. The recording is first-rate. I do urge you to try it.'