The works in this recording encompass a span of fifty years, from my earliest orchestral piece to my most recent one. I met this wonderful French orchestra only recently, when they invited me to attend their conductorless performance of my early Elegy for Strings in Toulouse. I am delighted that they should be making the first recording. Faced with the last minute cancellation of the accordion soloist, for health reasons, and fearing the recording would be too short, I took a week off to write an extensive new work, which turned out to be a new symphony for strings, Symphonie mystique. At the end, the accordion soloist’s student came through giving a virtuoso performance of the accordion concerto. – José Serebrier