Antheil, George

Average customer rating:

Delightful and energetic performance
World Class Musician
22 Bravos
You'll stand and shout "encore!"

Horizons - Leif Ove Andsnes

Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ballets | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

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Peter Lieberson: Neruda Songs
Arvo Pärt: Da pacem
The Journey
John Adams: The Dharma at Big Sur/My Father Knew Charles Ives
Mozart: Piano Concertos 17 & 20

ASIN: B000HC2PBS
Release Date: 2006-09-12

Tracks:

Sibelius: 13 Pieces Op. 76, No. 2 Etude
Scriabin: 2 Impromtus Op. 14, No. 1
Mendelssohn: Songs Without WordsBook VI Op. 67 - No. 2 in F Sharp minor
R. Strauss/Gieseking: Standchen (No. 2 of 6 Lieder, Op. 17)
Mompou: Paisajes - No. 2, El lago
J. S. Bach/Bussoni: Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (from 10 Chorale
Chopin: Impromptu No. 1 in A flat Op. 29
Liszt: 3 Liebestraume S541 - No. 3 "O Lieb, so land du lieben kannst!"
Shostakovich: The Golden Age Op. 22 - Polka
Albeniz: Espana Op.165, No. 2 Tango
Mompou: Cancion y danza No. 1
Chopin/Liszt: 6 Chants polonaises s480 - No. 5 Meine Freunden
Liszt: Valse - impromptu S213
Antheil: Toccata No. 2
Trenet: Chanson: Coin de rue
Halvorsen/Andsnes: Suite de morceaux caracteristiques for violin &
Grieg: Humoresque Op. 6, No. 3
Smetana: Am Seegestade ("At the Sea") - Concert Study in G sharp minor
Scott: 2 Pieces Op. 47, No. 2 Lotus Land
Ibert: 10 Histoires No. 2 Le Petit Ane blanc
Debussy: Suite bergamasque No. 3 Clair de lune
Grieg: Stemninger Op. 73, No. 4 Folketone

Amazon.com

A great player can give meaning and substance even to lightweight miniatures. Andsnes says that his musical "horizon," at first limited to "big, important" music, opened to the appreciation of the short "salon" pieces and arrangements assembled on this record only as he got older, though they had accompanied him since childhood. The program features original compositions and transcriptions, including many familiar favorites. They span several centuries and come from every corner of Europe. Andsnes' virtuosity is breath-taking, his tone is beautiful, and his legato sings regardless of the accompanying texture. Above all, he captures every style, idiom, and mood. Andsnes' phrasing, dynamics, and liberties are balanced and poised, and his love for the music speaks through every note. Listeners will choose their own favorites among these 22 very different pieces, but surely no one will be able to resist Gieseking's spectacular arrangement of Richard Strauss' "Serenade," which adds torrents of notes to the virtuosic piano part and incorporates the vocal line as well. The fleetness and clarity of the Chopin "Impromptu" here never touches the ground, while Ibert's "Little White Donkey" has charm and delicacy and Liszt's "Liebestraum" resounds with ardent passion. Andsnes' brilliant, captivating performance will induce smiles of admiration and pleasure as well as a new respect for this versatile and colorful repertoire. --Edith Eisler

Customer Reviews:

Delightful and energetic performance.......2007-03-11

I like the way he made the songs come to life. They were filled with energy and feelings.

World Class Musician.......2007-02-07

Leif Ove Andsnes is an incredible artist on the piano and his talents are showcased in this cd. His artistry has an extensive range as exhibited in the diversity of this repertoire. This is classical piano at its best.

22 Bravos.......2007-01-22

22 piano encores some familiar most not, at least to me, played with manly beauty by Leif Ove Andsnes. A treasure chest. A horizon expanding recording. 22 Bravos

You'll stand and shout "encore!".......2007-01-03

The appearance of this disk on many Best of 2006 lists came as no surprise. I heard Andsnes perform several of these selections in Chicago and Kalamazoo early in the year, and in Michigan even got a sampler CD of "Horizons" as we left the recital that whetted my appetite. Everything that makes Andsnes' playing compelling is here, but listen in particular for how, in so many of the pieces, he's able to bring out the left hand that are clearly not just microphone/recording studio wizardry. A true gem.

Average customer rating:

More fun than a litter of kittens!
Charming and delightful
My Doggies Went Nuts When They Heard This CD!
Meow

Purrfectly Classical

Manufacturer: Centaur
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ballets | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Polkas | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Waltzes | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

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Cat People

ASIN: B00005BI36
Release Date: 2001-04-24

Tracks:

Chaucer: Mice Before Milk
Copland: The Cat And The Mouse
Faure: Kitty Valse
Cage: little four paws
Anon.: St. Jerome's Cat
Scarlatti: The Cat Fugue
Weyse: Cat Cavatina
Siegmaster: Our Cat
Guastavino: Gato
Swinburne: To A Cat
Barber: The Monk And His Cat
Chopin: The Cat's Waltz
Rans: The Cat Of Cats
Martinu: March Of The Cats In The Midnight Solstice
Wolf: Mouse-Catching Rhyme
Anon.: The Wonder Of The Cat
Howhaness: Cat Dreaming
Ravel: Cat Duet
Leighton: The Cat's Lament
Dickinson: She Sights A Bird
Faure: Mi-a-ou
Ketzel: Piece For Piano Four Paws
Anon.: Cats Are Wonderful Friends
Von Dohnanyi: Cats On The Roof
Wordsworth: The Kitten And The Falling Leaves
Bizet: Puss In The Corner
Satie: Song Of The Cat
Antheil: The Dog-Cat Polka
Anon.: The Cats Of Kilkenney
Tchaikovsky: Puss-In-Boots And The White Cat
Britten: For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffrey
Salmanov: The Hungry Cat And The Well-Fad Cat
King: That Cat
Copland: I Bought Me A Cat
Confrey: Kitten On The Keys
Rossini: The Cat Duet

Customer Reviews:

More fun than a litter of kittens!.......2004-01-17

I am familiar with Mr. Lester's work, so when I found this CD, I had to get a copy. It is delightful. The wealth of music about cats is amazing! I played Copland's Cat and Mouse in a recital many years ago. I had no clue there were so many other cat tunes out there. The Cat duet that closes the CD is very funny. Zez Confrey's Kitten on the Keys rings so true - if you know cats.

Please don't let the "cute" idea behind this CD make you think the compositions or the performances are second rate. Nothing here is second rate. Noel Lester is a true artist and I admire his skill. The voices are full and rich. Even the short snippets of poetry work beautifully and I ordinarily don't like spoken word combined with my music. All the spoken word bits are very short, less than 25 seconds.

You will enjoy the playfulness and artistry of this CD. Look for more music from Mr. Lester. He is an American treasure.

Charming and delightful.......2002-10-20

This CD will appeal to lovers of classical music and cats. A surprising number of classical composers wrote piano pieces and songs about our feline friends and this disc serves up a number of surprising gems. The many moods and musical styles found are astonishing and the collection intersperses poems (about cats, of course!)and songs and duets among the piano pieces. The sound is brilliant and the performances are stellar. A winner!!

My Doggies Went Nuts When They Heard This CD!.......2002-10-20

If you love cats, or if you hate them, I'd say you'll LOVE this CD! It's clever, witty, beautifully packaged; and the music is wonderfully played --- one gem after another! Couldn't recommend highly enough. Meow!!

Meow.......2002-09-05

A very delightful album. Makes a great gift.
There are some rare musical treats that involve cats.

George Antheil: Symphony No. 3 "American"

Average customer rating:

epigonic
Simply Terrific Music
Great CD

George Antheil: Symphony No. 3 "American"

Manufacturer: Cpo Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

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Antheil: Ballet Mecanique

ASIN: B00068CVO4
Release Date: 2004-11-16

Album Description

George Antheil was one of the craziest and most original composers to come out of twentieth-century America, and his life was just as exciting and restless. The Bad Boy of Music, as he aptly termed himself in his autobiography, was not a man for small flames but, from the scandalmonger of the Ballet Mécanique to the serious composer of symphonies, fired up the engines in his quest for his own ego. In the process, he was unsystematic, unorganized, and firmly believed that talent and genius could do it all. Fortunately, fate mostly agreed with him. The chaos of the catalogue of his works and the state of his scores and performance materials, however, bring despair to those who today undertake to sort through his work. We thus are proud to announce, for the first time on CD, Antheil's Symphony No. 3, composed during 1936-39. It is an American symphony....It is the America of the future, bold, fearless, new, and coming from the very breath of the new continent. The encores also have the appropriate American flair: the Tom Sawyer and McKonkey's Ferry overtures, the jaunty Hot Time Dance, and the suite to the ballet The Capital of the World.

Customer Reviews:

epigonic.......2007-04-30

I am beginning to have some doubts about the music of George Antheil.

In the first half of the twenties, Antheil (1900-1959) was one of the great maverick innovators of American Music. The music he composed between 1921 and 1925, culminating in the famous and infamous "Ballet Mécanique", is provocative, inventive, daring and fun. But, although it made him the fad of the Paris salons, Antheil grew dissatisfied with that style of composition, later calling it "great empty chic". He strove for the wider symphonic form.

The Third Symphony "American" was slow into being. According to Antheil's autobiography "Bad Boy of Music" it was commenced in the Summer of 1931, but left aside until 1936, and completed only at the turn of 1941/2. In all those years Antheil had gone through dire straits, dabbled in this and that - writing film music, devising improbable and short-lived schemes destined to bring him a fortune - and was unable to focus.

The liner notes' outline of the symphony's gestation does not conform to what Antheil writes. Apparently based on the scholarly research of Linda Whitesitt, they maintain that Antheil actually composed TWO Third symphonies: one begun in 1931 and uncompleted by 1938, and this one, its instrumentation begun in 1936 and completed in 1939. All Antheil mentions is that when he resumed work in 1936 he first completely revised the symphony's first movement.

Anyway, Antheil appears not to have solved his BIG problem with imitation.

Direct Stravinsky quotes abound in his early compositions, but then they are integrated in a musical language that goes far beyond Stravinsky's, in its formal processes (succession of melodic cells with strong rhythmic bite, hardly any development) and its revelling in producing racket for its own sake, so therein Antheil's use of Stravinsky can be viewed as a forerunner of post-modern Collage techniques (see my reviews of George Antheil: Violin Sonatas 1, 2 & 4 , Piano Concertos of the Twenties and George Antheil: Symphonies 1 & 6).

Not so with the later works. It was often remarked, then and now, that the compositions he wrote during and immediately after the war (starting with the 4th Symphony, which was premiered by Stokowski in 1944 and signalled a significant if temporary turn of fortunes for the composer) bore strong resemblances with the war compositions of Prokofiev and Shostakovich (for the Prokofiev influence in the late piano sonatas see my review of George Antheil: The Lost Sonatas); but in my opinion their bombast points even more to Myaskovsky (see my review of Symphony # 6 referred to here above). Such connotations can be heard in the Finale of the Third as well, and also in the McKonkey's Ferry Overture from 1948. Antheil claimed he was there first, and as early as his Opera "Transatlantic" (1930). Maybe so, but in Shostakovich the bombast is the accident, in Antheil it is the norm. But that is not all.

As he was struggling with the symphonic form, Antheil professed his admiration for and busied himself with an in-depth study of the symphonies of Mahler, Bruckner and Sibelius (of the latter's, he expressed his particular fondness for the Fifth). And sure enough: the Third's second movement starts with a Bruckner-like brass chorale, only to go on with an elaboration of the third movement of Mahler's First (the striking "Bruder Jacob" movement). The Third movement has another Brucknerian chorale, leading into a boisterous and festal elaboration of American popular tunes - only to slide into a baffling, direct quotation of a passage of Sibelius' Fifth. What is the message? That nothing sounds more genuinely American than Mahler's "Angst" or Sibelius' epic vistas? To me it only sounds like immature, undigested influences. No wonder Antheil later considered that his Third hadn't "thoroughly digested American color". More imitation still in the "Hot-Time Dance" from 1948 - this time around, it is Enescu's Rumanian Rhapsodies and Khachaturian's Sabre Dance (1939-41). It was composed for the Boston Pops and, as ever, Antheil appears to be vying for the audience's claps; with only the nature of the audience and hence the musical means changed.

The Symphony's first movement is more personal. A pointer to the earlier Antheil lies in is his abiding taste for jarring succession of unrelated motives, although these are now more cogently integrated in a transformation and combination process unfolding over a longer span of time. Antheil is also capable of composing a lyrical theme of sweeping Sibelian intensity. The moods vary in rapid succession, from the (at times bombastically) heroic to the pastoral, by way of the pre-Bernstein-Broadway bounce. But then, whatever the interest of the movement's formal procedures, the musical language is not very personal nor advanced for its time and many ideas seem trite. It is the "Americana" of Copland and Thomson rather than of Ives, and the same is true with the 1949 "Tom Sawyer" Overture. In his bio Antheil complains that writing film music diverted his energies from his "serious" compositions (and specifically the Third) and ultimately corrupted them: "My symphonic writing incorporates corny movie-music solutions". Well, this is exactly what I hear in much of the Symphony as well as in the Overtures.

Colorful and lively but, again, heard before, the 17-minute Ballet-suite "Capital of the World", after a Hemingway sarcastically sinister short story about a failed bull fighter in Madrid. The suite is not just a collection of excerpts but an elaboration of some of the ballet's material into a fast-slow-fast symphonic shape. Its "Spanish tunes" are less the authentic Spain of de Falla than one that might have been depicted by Sauguet or Milhaud, or again Fallas's Spain seen through the prism of Hollywood. I prefer the complete ballet (which can be found on Antheil: Capital of the World/Symphony 5/Archipelago): it contains more ideas, so each of them seems less trite than when mono-thematically elaborated as in the suite.

If you are satisfied with epigones, you might enjoy this disc. If you want to hear what is unique to Antheil, go to his early works.

The notes are wordy but interesting and informative, with some translation errors.

Simply Terrific Music.......2005-03-24

The theme of the CD is music by George Antheil reflecting themes of Americana, and what a fabulous disc it is.

After his return to the United States in 1932, George Antheil got some much needed work writing film scores. The Third Symphony was begun in 1936 and completed in 1939. Briefly, it was numbered as his Second Symphony, which was undergoing revision, and the new symphony was also known as the American Symphony. The score has elements of America woven into the music. The long period of composition coincided with George Antheil's re-discovery of America. He eventually settled in California but spent some time traveling during these years from New York to the South and the Western states.

The opening Allegro movement immediately sweeps you up as the pictorial qualities of the music become immediately apparent. There is a lot of music in this movement as if the composer was so excited that he put too much material in it. The result is an exciting start to this symphonic journey. The second movement carries the journey onward. For me, it presents a musical picture of the American West. The themes have a Hispanic influence and there is a dance theme that reminded me of Elmer Bernstein. The third movement, The Golden Spike, was influenced by his music for the film Union Pacific rather than a direct relationship of the driving of the golden spike in 1869. There is a boisterous quality to the music, a bit like Copland, and Antheil also makes use of a theme from Sibelius' Fifth Symphony. The final movement, Back to Baltimore, conjures up visions of the American east coast but has been thought to represent California in character. The music has a sound something like Shostakovich but the style of Antheil's music was set early in his career in works like his opera Transatlantic (first performed in 1930). While we may think of Shostakovich (particularly in the use of the xylophone) it is not the kind of development that the Russian composer would have written.

Tom Sawyer was commissioned by the St. Louis Symphony. It is dance-like in its themes and was also known as California Overture (but not known why the name was applied). The music sounds like a blending of the Third and Fourth Symphonies: charming and witty.
The Hot Time Dance was composed in 1948 and was first played by the Boston Pops. The music has a distinct American flavor and seems influenced by the Romanian Rhapsody's of George Enescu. The opening clarinet solo is particularly evocative of Romanian themes, and the piece goes on exploring Americana variations. Mc Konkey's Ferry was composed to illustrate the famous painting of the crossing of the Delaware River by Washington in 1776. It is an atmospheric overture that sets out to depict the well-known scene. In a way, one could say this is film music for the crossing.

The Capitol of the World is a ballet composed in 1952, based on a short story by Ernest Hemingway. The story centers around bullfighting with Madrid as the capitol of the world. The protagonist Paco dreams of conquering his fear of the bull ring and becoming a famous matador. The suite from the ballet is recorded here and reveals what wonderfully colorful and captivating dance music it is. Reflecting upon the story, the music is influenced by Spanish rhythms, with the contrasts of light and dark on expects from the music of De Falla.

I highly recommend this CD, particularly if George Antheil is new to you. Antheil was one of the most popular American composers in the 1940s and 50s but today he is hardly known. This needs to be changed. The informative booklet has is very detailed to the point of being a short biography of the composer. I noticed that these performances were recorded in 2001; what took so long to get them on CD? I look forward to more music by George Antheil played by the Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt and Hugh Wolff.

Great CD.......2005-02-01

I always wanted to hear Antheil's Third Symphony. I want to hear everything he wrote, but it is hard to come buy. Most of his music is sadly unpublished, and rarely recorded. I am always on the lookout for new Antheil, and this was great. I would especially check out the Hot-Time Dance and Tom Sawyer California Overture. Post-war/neoclassic Antheil at its best!

Average customer rating:

The Bad Boy and the Bad Boy Tamed
New Anthiel Recording Hits Budget Market

Antheil: Ballet Mecanique
Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra
Manufacturer: Naxos American
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

4-for-3 Classical | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music

4-for-3 All Music | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music
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Bad Boy of Music
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ASIN: B00005NCYE
Release Date: 2001-09-18

Tracks:

Ballet Macanique
Serenade For String Orchestra, No. 1: Allegro
Serenade For String Orchestra, No. 1: Andante molto
Serenade For String Orchestra, No. 1: Vivo
Symphony For Five Instruments: Allegro
Symphony For Five Instruments: Lento
Symphony For Five Instruments: Presto
Concert For Chamber Orchestra

Amazon.com

George Antheil's reputation as the Bad Boy of Music (the title of his fascinating autobiography) was earned largely with his Ballet Mécanique, written to accompany an abstract silent film by the artist Fernand Leger. It was composed for player pianos and percussion, with harsh, driving rhythms, and it caused the kind of riots in Paris that were useful to a composer's reputation. Today, that reputation may keep Antheil from being taken seriously. But when you hear the Ballet (as rescored in 1953 for an early mono recording) today, it's a substantial and exciting piece of music, formally tight and not at all hard on 21st century ears. The remainder of this program shows more of Antheil's range. The Serenade is a lovely piece of Americana, with a particularly touching slow movement. The Symphony and Concert owe much to Stravinsky's "neoclassical" style; both hold up very well. Spalding drives the Ballet hard, and it sounds more frenetic than that old mono recording, but the music can take the heat. This and the remaining performances are splendidly played by the excellent chamber orchestra, and the recording is clear, well-balanced, and realistic in sound. Another Naxos winner. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews:

The Bad Boy and the Bad Boy Tamed.......2001-11-30

The main problem with the early works of George Antheil, self-styled "Bad Boy of Music," is also its chief virtue: It's derivative of Igor Stravinsky. But then if you're going to slavishly follow a model, you probably couldn't choose a better one. In the Ballet Mechanique, Antheil's most famous work, you'll hear the percussion effects of "The Rite of Spring," "L'histoire," and especially "Les Noces." But you'll also note that the contours of the melodic snippets played by the tuneable percussion are Stravinskian as well, sounding like the Russian folk melodies that give "Les Noces" such impetus.

To be fair to Antheil, his music has its own merits, for one thing being entirely trusted to the percussion and an eccentic mix of instruments at that, including airplane propellers and electric bells among the more standard piano, drums, glockenspiel, xylophones, and such. It does create a uniquely extravagant and arresting sound. And then the music's multirhythms and off-rhythms give it the enlivening thrust that so many of this century's percussion extravaganzas lack. Overall, an interesting and appealing piece.

The "Symphony for Five Instruments" and "Concert Music for Chamber Orchestra" recall the neoclassical Stravinsky of the "Octet" and "Symphonies for Wind Instruments," but the quirky instrumentation of Antheil's symphony, with the prominence given to the sometimes clownish antics of the trumpet, abetted by the trombone, recall (or anticipate) Poulenc as well. Playful and enjoyable stuff despite its obvious hommage to Stravinsky. The "Concert" is more sullen and sober-sided and so is a bit more facelessly neoclassical.

Perhaps my favorite work here is the relatively late (1948) "Serenade for Strings No. 1," a gentle, very American piece with a skittish, syncopated first movement that has elements of the barn dance along with what seems like Latin dance rhythms. The tender, deeply felt slow movement is the high point of the work. The agreeably tipsy last movement returns us to the dance. This piece shows that Antheil never lost his Stravinskian belief that, as the Russian master said, "Rhythm is all."

The performances by the Philadelphia Virtuosi are indeed virtuosic but also highly sympathetic and even loving in the serenade. The recording, made in the War Memorial building of Antheil's native Trenton, New Jersey, is wonderfully vibrant and detailed. In all, a fine tribute to this mostly forgotten composer that should garner renewed interest in his music.

New Anthiel Recording Hits Budget Market.......2001-10-23

Most readers will question the validity of introducing the works of such a little-known composer to the shelf, but this CD shows that even historical underdogs deserve their moment in the sun. The Philadelphia Virtuosi bring vibrancy and energy to Antheil's vivid soundscapes, which are amoung the most progressive works of the 1920's. To put Antheil's contributions into relief, the Ballet Mechanique on the present recording was first performed in 1926, predating the other famous avant-garde work for percussion ensemble of the era, Edgard Varese's Ionasation, of 1931-33. Of additional note on the record is the exemplary solo playing of the participants in Antheil's quirky quintet, the Symphony for Five Instruments of 1923. However, for those interested in the profound pinnacles of early 20th Century music, this disc may fall short of such inflated expectations. The music on this disc is primarily intended to divert and to delight. Influences of the Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat and of the early works of the so-called "Les Six" group conjure a reasonable example of what Antheil's witty scores have to offer. The program notes by Joshua Cheek unfortunately leave much to the imagination of the listener. For instance, the respective ensembles of the Symphony and the Concert are not enumerated, leaving the listener guessing as to the timbres he is hearing. Otherwise, congratulations to the Philadelphia Virtuosi and to Naxos for an interesting, welcome program with fine playing, polished sound and an alluring price tag.

Ballet Mecanique and other Works for Player Pianos, Percussion, and Electronics

Average customer rating:

Great Modern Music
If you like lots of pianos and drums...

Ballet Mecanique and other Works for Player Pianos, Percussion, and Electronics
George Antheil , UMass Lowell Percussion Ensemble , Jeffrey Fischer , and Paul D. Lehrman
Manufacturer: EMF Media
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

George Antheil: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2; a Jazz Symphony; Jazz Sonata
Antheil: Ballet Mecanique
Bad Boy of Music

ASIN: B00004Y6MX
Release Date: 2000-08-15

Tracks:

Double Music: John Cage and Lou Harrison
Shoot the Piano Player: Richard Grayson
Mister 528: Richard Grayson
Ritmica No. 5: Amadeo Roldan
Ritmica No. 6: Amadeo Roldan
Saltarello-Presto from Symphony No. 4: Felix Mendelsohn
Ballet Mecanique: George Antheil

Product Description

George Antheil's Ballet Mecanique, a wild, highly rhythmic composition combining industrial age sounds and jazz, is one of the most notorious musical moments of the 20th century. Antheil, an American composer living in Paris in the 1920s, composed the first version of Ballet Mecanique in 1924 for 4 player pianos, then almost immediately expanded the instrumentation to 3 xylophones, 4 bass drums, tamtam, 2 pianos, siren, 3 airplane propellors, 7 bells, and 16 synchronized player pianos. He revised it again for performances in Paris in 1926 and New York in 1927. Following the New York performance, so badly received that it almost ruined his career, he visited Berlin, then went to Hollywood where he pursued a career as film composer. He revised the work again in 1953, and that version, more practical than earlier versions, has been performed several times. The expanded 1924 version, however, was never performed until its premiere, produced by Paul Lehrman, at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell in November 1999. And this CD, a recording of that performance, is a major event!

Customer Reviews:

Great Modern Music.......2006-01-04

Experimental music is hit and miss on recordings, but such love and preparation was put into the making of this CD project, that it is an all-around success.

John Cage and Lou Harrison, both pretty well-known 20th century American composers, collaborated on the percussion quartet entitled Double Music. After deciding on tempo and meter, both composers completed separate sections of the same work: Cage wrote parts 1&3, while Harrison wrote parts 2&4. Scored for a battery of percussion including Water Buffalo bells, brake drums, sleigh bells, thunder sheet, water gong, etc., the piece, even though composed separately, works well when the parts are put together.

Richard Greyson, a California music professor, is represented here with two works for player piano(s) and electronic devices. Shoot the Piano Player or Shoot the Player Piano, is a throwback to the old wild-west saloons. Occasional off-beat dances and tunes come through, but it is a mish-mash of wild-west film ideas, complete with a gun fight; literally. His other work, Mr. 528, refers to the title "Mr. 88" one used to call a piano player. This work was composed for 6 piano players (multiplied by 88 gives the title) and electronic sounds. Completely tonal with unusual sound effects, the work is almost meditative with various sections of virtuosic piano flourishes.

The Cuban composer Amadeo Roldan is believed to be the first composer to write for percussion ensemble. Unfortunately, he only lived to be 39 years old. The works on this disk, Ritmicas 5 & 6, use Cuban percussion instruments, pitched and unpitched. Both evoke Hispanic dance rhythms, and while short in length, are interesting miniatures.

Additionally, on this disk, is an arrangement of Felix Mendelssohn's Saltarello movement from his Symphony No. 4 "Italian" arranged for 16 player pianos. Designed to be an expansion of Liszt's ultra-virtuosic transcriptions of orchestral works for piano, the 16 pianos playing the full orchestral score, surprisingly, isn't outlandishly ridiculous. The music from the Romantic Era is melodic and with the influence of the Italian dance, the Saltarello, is an exciting work.

The American-born composer George Antheil was interested in combining machines and classical music, an innovation of the time, and he was sorely mocked for it, and now, well-known for it. The Ballet Mecanique is a prime and famous example of this combination. Composed for 16 player pianos, 2 human played pianos, 3 xylophones, 4 bass drums, gong, 7 bells, siren, and 3 airplane propellers, the piece really was ahead of the technology and never quite worked. Today we usually hear a reduced and limited version (1952) that is less outrageous and watered-down, but thanks to the time and effort of the people on this recording project, we have probably the only original 1924 version available on CD. The CD liner notes provide many anecdotes on the failings of technology and public reactions. The music is unashamedly outlandish. Not particularly melodic, but primarily rhythmic and a-tonal, the pianos have huge glissandos and cluster chords, the xylophones have virtuosic moving lines, and the percussion gives the work the metrical and important timbre qualities. The sounds of buzzers, bells, and propellers just add to the chaos. Metrical times include 64/4, 7/32, and 10/16, and at a length of 30 minutes, the work ends up almost having a "mantra" or meditative feeling once you get into it, interestingly enough. The last few minutes uses varying units of silence as opposed to the first 20+minutes of unrelentless wash of sounds. Not something everyone will want to listen to, it is historically important, and a unique composition.

As mentioned before, experimental music usually loses something on record, but this CD of various premiered versions of 20th century music is a success. Please make sure you like this type of music before buying. A good buy for the rest of us.

If you like lots of pianos and drums..........2000-09-03

This is the recording of the first performance of George Antheil's 1924 Ballet Mecanique for 16 player pianos, percussion, siren, airplane propellors, and bells, that has been written up in Wired, Electronic Musician, Keyboard, Mix, Sound on Sound, Piano Today, etc. etc. and was later played at Carnegie Hall and by the San Francisco Symphony. It's totally wild, and great fun. Along with the half-hour of cacophony, there are some clever player piano pieces by Richard Grayson, and percussion pieces by John Cage, Lou Harrison, and Amadeo Roldan, plus a version of a Mendelssohn symphony for 16 player pianos that will knock your socks off. A party record for high-tech types if ever there was one. (You can check out samples at http://antheil.org.)

Average customer rating:

A well-filled and intelligently conceived disc, at a bargain price, with Antheil a real find
Le hot jazz--Real Hot
A Great Collection

Piano Concertos of the 1920s

Manufacturer: Arte Nova Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Piano Concertos of the 1920s
Christopher Hogwood Conducts Martinu, Stravinsky, Honegger
Martinu: Works for Violins and Orchestra
Gernsheim: Complete Symphonies
Klassizische Moderne, Vol. 3

ASIN: B0007X9TPW
Release Date: 2005-04-12

Tracks:

Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No. I
I. Andante Sostenuto
II. Molto Moderato. Allegro Assai
Concertino Pour Piano Et Orchestra
I. Allegramente
II. Adagio Assai
III. Presto

Album Description

Pianist Michael Rische has been heard regularly in the great concert halls at home and abroad since 1970. His numerous CDs have given him an international reputation, and his interpretations of Bach, Beethoven, Debussy and Ravel have been rated as being of unusually high quality. Particularly since his discovery of the piano concertos by Erwin Schulhoff and George Antheil (first performance on March 5, 2001 in London), Michael Rische is seen as a prominent advocate for that 20th century music in which classical music and jazz come together.

The works on this album reflect the unique cross-fertilization of jazz and classical traditions in the 1920s, both in Europe and America, best-known today from the works of George Gershwin.

Customer Reviews:

A well-filled and intelligently conceived disc, at a bargain price, with Antheil a real find.......2007-03-14

The same recording has previously been published by Arte Nova with a different cover, and I have reviewed it at length under two of its entries on Amazon (Piano Concertos of the Twenties; Piano Concertos of the 20s: Antheil, Copland, Honegger, Ravel [IMPORT]). I refer you to these reviews. It is a lengthy (70') and intelligently conceived program of (more or less) Jazz-inspired piano concertos, all composed in a same time-span (1922 to 1930) by French composers and American composers with strong French ties: Copland as a pupil of Nadia Boulanger and Antheil as the riot-stirring "Enfant terrible" of the Parisian scene between 1922 and 1927.

Antheil's 1st Piano Concerto is a real find. Despite (or because of) its numerous apparent quotations of other composers and compositions (I hear lots of Stravinsky, but also some Bloch, Ravel and even Ives and Orff - but much of the works I hear references to were actually composed later), it is very uniquely typical of Antheil in those early years, with its typical construction procedures of juxtaposition and succession of small passages of strong rhythmic and melodic flavour, with hardly any motivic development. It is brilliant, brash, colorful and immensely fun.

Honegger's short and rarely recorded Concertino is a neo-classical work with strong whiffs of Stravinsky in its first section but later on with snarling brass, march-like rhythms and a build-up of tension that are very typical of Honegger.

I cannot give an informed opinion of the interpretation of Copland's concerto, but Ravel's (for which I have done in-depth comparative listening) gets a surprisingly good performance, dynamic and light-footed and very Gallic in Rische's relative dryness and refusal to "milk the cow" in the more lyrical and effusive passages. It also benefits from outstanding support from the Köln orchestra and Israel Yinon.

It also comes at a bargain price to make Naxos blush with shame and pale with fear.

Le hot jazz--Real Hot.......2006-03-04

If this album were a movie, I guess it would be called a "high concept" flick. And the concept is a good and interesting one. France in the 1920s was in love with "le hot jazz," and all of the works on this CD have a French connection, either because the composer studied in France, worked in France--or was French. Odd-concerto-out is Aaron Copland's since it was written in 1926, after his return to America from studies with Boulanger in France. It is the second of his "American" works, the first being "Music for the Theater," and while that work is a charming, lively piece, the Concerto is pretty much a bust and probably convinced Copland that he was on the wrong track with his jazz-influenced direction. He would start approaching America from a different musical direction soon, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Of the other works on this disc, one is a certified masterwork, one an interesting dark horse, and one an attractive novelty whose only fault is to be too short (less than 11 minutes) ever to be programmed in concert. But then that's what CDs are all about. We can enjoy at home the wit and grace of Honegger's tiny Concertino, with its coolly patrician take on jazz. Honegger always has something interesting to say, and he says it memorably here.

The dark horse is George Antheil's Concerto No. 1, a piece that had to be tracked down via some skillful detective work. Apparently, this composition was mentioned in a Berlin press report of 1922 but was not even mentioned by Atheil in his autobiography of 1926. Was he trying to hide something? You be the judge. This is a wild and wooly piece that makes no bones about its obvious indebtedness--entirely to Stravinksy (Petruschka, The Rite of Spring, Ragtime, a few others maybe). It has a wah-wah jazz trumpet tune, ragtime rhythms, dance-band percussion riffs, but then it has serious modernist overtones too. Well, it's hard to describe, but it's a strangely appealing concoction.

Then there's the Ravel, one of the greatest concertos of the 20th century. In this work, Michael Rische is up against stiff competition as he is in no other of the pieces on this disc. So he obviously decided to do something different. True to the title of the CD, Rische and conductor Israel Yinon emphasize the jazz-mad Dionysian side of Ravel--and if you didn't know he had one, you should listen to this performance. The last movement gets a bit rough in spots, but that's because of the especially heady tempos and the impetuosity of the orchestral playing, which sounds like the product of a live performance, though this is a studio job. Rische's performance won't erase memories of famous recordings you've heard, but I think you will enjoy it.

The recordings, made at different times and in different places, are consistently fine, nicely ambient and yet with good definition too. This disc is a revelation.

A Great Collection.......2005-07-27

I first noticed this disc because of the world premiere of the Antheil Piano Concerto. In his book: Bad Boy of Music," Mr. Antheil mentions having written a piano concerto but provides no details about it. It required some detective work to locate the manuscript. The concerto is quite interesting and unorthodox, much like Antheil's "mechanique" driven music. It is in one movement and freely borrows from Stravinsky while also incorporating many jazz elements. Like Antheil's solo piano music of the period the concerto is characterized by drive and freedom of form. The music is appealing, thoughtful and fresh.

The Concertino of Arthur Honneger comes from 1924; the dialogue between piano and orchestra was influenced by the Brandenburg Concertos but the music, with its elements of blues, places it firmly in the 20th century. The instruments mesh well together and the overall sense is of a well composed and witty concerto.
A surprise for me was the Piano Concerto by Aaron Copland. The work dates from 1926 and was an attempt to create American music by using jazz elements. The concerto was regarded by critics as rhythmically complex, something close to the Rite of Spring and nothing short of noise. I think the opposite is true. The music is very moody and expressive, evocative of an American urban landscape. Listening to this music today I would describe it as a cross between Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, but I am only suggesting such a comparison to give an idea of what it sounds like: the music is pure Copland.

The most familiar concerto on the disc is the Ravel Piano Concerto in G, which receives an excellent performance. The concertos are all well recorded and are played by different orchestras linked by the pianist Michael Rische, who does a phenomenal job in all of them. Anyone interested in piano concertos of the 20th century will find this an irresistible collection. The price is also right.

George Antheil: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2; a Jazz Symphony; Jazz Sonata

Average customer rating:

Entertaining but a little flat
Funny, Saucy, Jazzy Piano Music Done with Panache

George Antheil: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2; a Jazz Symphony; Jazz Sonata

Manufacturer: Cpo Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:

George Antheil: Symphony No. 3 "American"
George Antheil: Symphonies 1 & 6
George Antheil: Symphonies 4 & 5
John Foulds: Dynamic Triptych; Music-Pictures III
George Antheil: Dreams (1935), Piano Concerto No. 2 (1926-7), Serenade No. 2 (1948)

ASIN: B000E0VNRK
Release Date: 2006-02-21

Tracks:

Piano Concerto No.1
Moderato
Largo
Allegro
A Jazz Symphony
Jazz Sonata
Can-Can
Sonatina
Death Of Machines
Little Shimmy

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining but a little flat.......2006-11-03

Perhaps I expected too much, but I found the music lacking melodies and presented on the same level (no drama) . O.K. for getting to know the composer, but not for repeated listening. G. Koves

Funny, Saucy, Jazzy Piano Music Done with Panache.......2006-04-20

I've been neither hot nor cold about the music of Antheil's I've heard before. And I wasn't prepared to like this issue all that much. But it knocked my socks off. I tend to like French-influenced music from early in the twentieth-century and these pieces certainly fill that bill. There is the clarity of texture, quartal harmonies, and insouciance so common in music of Ravel and Les Six. But, more, these works are quintessentially American in the impression they make. One hears echoes of Copland and Bernstein (although the latter came after the pieces heard here -- one wonders if the dance music for 'West Side Story' was influenced by Bernstein's familiarity with the Jazz Symphony). Another composer whose jazzy solo piano music comes to mind is Erwin Schulhoff. And finally there are echoes of Kurt Weill's intentionally awkward, loose-jointed style in places. Altogether marvelous stuff, this music; I'm grateful to cpo for issuing this disc.

It is rare that music makes me laugh out loud, but I guffawed a number of times, especially in the solo piano pieces -- Jazz Sonata, Can-Can, Sonatina, Death of Machines, and Little Shimmy -- by the unexpectedly eccentric rhythms and harmonies, all jazz-inflected. The same is a little less so in the two piano concertos and the Jazz Symphony (which is a piano concerto in all but name because of the important obbligato piano part).

German pianist Markus Becker, with whom I was unfamiliar, has the full measure of these pieces and he is given expert support by the NDR Radio Philharmonic under Eiji Oue. There is an immediacy to the recorded sound that is lifelike.

TT=65:38

Scott Morrison

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More Jazzy Classics from the 20s

Piano Concertos of the 1920s

Manufacturer: Arte Nova Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Piano Concertos of the 1920s
Bad Boy of Music
Antheil: Ballet Mecanique
Ervin Schulhoff: Symphonies 1-3
Vaughan Williams, Delius: Piano Concertos; Finzi: Eclouge

ASIN: B0009ML2NI
Release Date: 2005-06-14

Tracks:

I. Molto Sostenuto. Allegro Espressivo. Alla Marcia Maestoso
II. Sostenuto. Cadenza. Molto Sostenuto E Astrattamente
III. Allegro Alla Jazz. Alla Zingaresca. Tempo I. Prestissimo
A Jazz Symphony
I. Allegro
II. Adagio. Andante Con Moto
III. Allegro Agitato

Album Description

"A WELCOME EXHUMATION AMONG THESE CATCHY WORKS INSPIRED BY THE JAZZ AGE: Schulhoff's Piano Concerto was completed in 1923 after he had been one of the first central European composers to respond to early jazz, which he heard on records owned by the painter George Grosz. Schulhoff was born in Prague but after studying at the Conservatory moved to Germany where his teachers included Reger. However he soon got over that conventional background and even mixed with the dadaists in Berlin.

This concerto is a neglected curiosity: Michael Rische claims to have given the first performance outside Prague in 1993. The first movement starts with some luscious romantic left-overs and ends with a menacing march; the second uncannily anticipates some of Messiaen's personal chords under a beguiling melody; and the Allegro alla jazz finale is syncopated. The episodic layout includes two minutes in gypsy-style for violin and piano alone in the middle of the finale.

Antheil wrote his Jazz Symphony for Paul Whiteman in 1925 but it wasn't ready so the première came in 1927 with WC Handy's Orchestra and the composer at the piano...Antheil - far crazier than Schulhoff - sends up Stravinsky's ragtime pieces and there's a lengthy passage where the sage in procession from the first part of The Rite of Spring seems to have wandered into Ives's Central Park in the Dark. At the end of his kleptomaniac exploits, the most shocking thing Antheil can possibly do is to quote somebody else's pop song straight - and end on an interrupted cadence! The Gershwin gets a thoroughly reliable performance" -GRAMOPHONE (April 2004)

Customer Reviews:

More Jazzy Classics from the 20s.......2006-03-04

This is every bit as distinguished an effort as Michael Rische's Piano Concertos of the 1920s, Volume 1. If anything, it is even more of a revelation because of the inclusion of Erwin Schulhoff's Concerto. This is clearly an important work. It starts off with a mysterious, quasi-improvisatory movement that sounds like the world's most high-class movie music, but that's only because in the 1930s and 40s movie music composers would finally catch up with Schulhoff. By the end of the movement we are in a tortured musical dream world, haunted by cascading harps and slashing percussion. The next movement is quieter but equally mysterious, with a long, ruminative cadenza for the pianist. It's only in the last movement that Schulhoff unleashes his version of jazz, and it's a corker, mixing as it does jazz and Gypsy(!) music.

George Antheil's Jazz Symphony isn't in quite the same class, but it's all over in a compact 13 minutes and is predictably wild, beginning with a tango-influenced section that quickly devolves into a crazy jazz episode with wailing brass and xylophone scales. The piano enters with some Petruschka-like utterances before the tuba and banjo take us briefly back to New Orleans. Toward the end, there are the usual obeisances to (or outright plagiarisms from) Stravinsky--Petruschka, Ragtime--before we end with Busby Berkley. This Antheil's a wild and crazy guy, but I like him!

With the Gershwin Concerto, we're in familiar territory, and Rische and Marshall don't really add anything to our understanding or enjoyment of this popular work. On the other hand, if their performance doesn't rival classics such as Wild/Fiedler, they give us a thoroughly attractive reading that catches all the verve and moxie of Gershwin's best orchestral work.

This disc is a great deal of fun with (thanks to Schulhoff) a serious side as well, and I highly recommend it.

"The Pride & The Passion" and "The Agony & The Ecstacy"

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"The Pride & The Passion" and "The Agony & The Ecstacy"
George Antheil , and Alex North
Manufacturer: Cloud Nine / Silva
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00008EWQA
Release Date: 1995-05-04

Tracks:

Main Title - Ernest Gold
Juana's Flamenco - Ernest Gold
British Captain - Ernest Gold
Windmill Camp at Night - Ernest Gold
Knife Fight - Ernest Gold
Juana's Love (Theme) - Ernest Gold
Rescue of the Gun - Ernest Gold
Juana's Choice - Ernest Gold
Pride and the Passion [Bolero] - Ernest Gold
Miguel's (Theme) - Ernest Gold
Procession - Ernest Gold
Fulfillment and End Title - Ernest Gold
Mountains of Carrara (Prelude) - Alex North
Warrior Pope - Alex North
Medici - Alex North
Sketch of the Apostles - Alex North
Genesis - Alex North
Sistine Chapel - Alex North
Contessian - Alex North
Agony - Alex North
Michelangelo's Recovery - Alex North
Festivity in St Peter's Square - Alex North
War - Alex North
Michelangelo's Magnificent Achievement and Finale - Alex North

Average customer rating:

Tragic American Music
"Not an American Voice"
Forgotten American Master
No Bad Boy
Beat drums, beat! Blow, trumpets, blow!

Antheil: Symphonies 4 & 6

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

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Similar Items:

Antheil: Ballet Mecanique
Virgil Thomson: Symphony No 1-3
Roy Harris: Symphony No. 3; Symphony No. 4 'Folk Song Symphony'
George Antheil: Symphony No. 3 "American"
David Diamond: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4

ASIN: B00004NK2J
Release Date: 2000-03-14

Tracks:

McKonkey's Ferry (Washington At Trenton); A Concert Overture
Symphony No. 4: I. Moderato - Allegretto
Symphony No. 4: II. Allegro
Symphony No. 4: III. Scherzo: Presto
Symphony No. 4: IV. Allegro non troppo
Symphony No. 6: I. Maestoso - Allegro molto; marcato
Symphony No. 6: II. Larghetto
Symphony No. 6: III. Allegro

Customer Reviews:

Tragic American Music.......2006-01-04

The American infant terrible, George Antheil, is most famous for his outlandish mechanically-driven composition Ballet Mecanique. His serious concert music have not received much acclaim in the past, but now with Naxos' American Classics series, they may come into their own. Featured on the disk are his 4th and 6th Symphonies and his concert overture, McKonkey's Ferry.

Depicting George Washington's famous image as he crosses the Delaware River on Christmas night, 1776, Antheil composed the frigid McKonkey's Ferry, an American-based concert overture. The work is an aggressive, if not a bit rough-edged piece, that relies on a regularly falling melody and perpetual motion. In a minor mode throughout, Antheil shows the struggle of Washington's crossing with great imagination and musical imagery. A classic of Antheil's repertory.

His Symphony No. 4, subtitled 1942, is also a somewhat gloomy work, based around the inevitable outbreak of World War II. A brusque statement by unison brass and eventually piano, open the first movement; eventually the opening gives way to an expansive march, relying on bassoons, piccolos, and fanfares. Antheil combines the two ideas into a sort of mocking march to build to a dissonant climax; all dissolves into a quiet unrest. The second movement begins with a familiar sounding melody, almost Russian in nature, but one which is definitely tragic, almost march-like as well. A romantic interlude dispels the minor march for a while, with great leaps of yearning melodies, before the disquiet of the opening melody from the first movement returns. A dissonant and angry scherzo takes up the third movement. After a section of music put into fugue, a grotesque, dance-like feel evolves into an odd-fitting slow march to end the movement. Great tempo and mood changes make the final movement a breathtaking, nearly schizophrenic, mixture of ideas. The symphony concludes triumphantly. Traditionally orchestrated, the addition of passages for piano, xylophone, and woodblock, make this a unique look at war-time music. A creative composition and a personal viewpoint of a passionately American composer.

The Sixth Symphony begins in a menacing manner, with a short motive that becomes more rhythmical, and haunts the entire first movement. Antheil includes more marches, including a final grand march, again, almost Russian sounding. Quotations of The Battle Cry of Freedom are treated in an almost Ivesian fashion. The gritty march ends with emphatic timpani marking time. A melancholy, almost cinematic, waltz makes up the second movement. Of particular note, is a chilling solo piano and glockenspiel duet that is extremely creepy. The final movement is a rugged, forthright, nearly humorous display of optimism.

Antheil's music is often dissonant, but based in a tonal world; but especially, he is a master of writing melodies. Never in his music is there a lack of melodic material, and his settings of melodies are always inventive. The representative works on this disk are a little tragic, but certainly invigorating American music. This is the first I have heard the National Symphony of Ukraine play, and they are indeed splendid on this all-American disk. They play aggressively and with great sense of ensemble. Theodore Kuchar is true to the score and brings out all the important elements for a truly dramatic reading. If you are wanting to experience some different, and in some cases, important American music, this recording is recommended.

"Not an American Voice".......2002-10-12

To me, this CD is one of the worst in the "American Classics" from Naxos. I feel he doesn't have much of a personal stamp. Antheil sounds too much like Prokofiev and Shostakovich.(who he obviously admires) If you want to hear a great American classic, get the Creston Sym 1-3 or V. Thomson's Symphonies from the same series. Now that's memorial music!

Forgotten American Master.......2001-04-01

George Antheil (1900-1959) is forgotten today. If the music on this CD is typical, then that is a real shame. Antheil's two symphonies (excellently recorded by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine under the direction of Theodor Kuchar) are real finds. They actually make a more immediately enjoyable listen than most of Prokofiev's efforts in the form (the superb 1st and 5th symphonies excepted of course). The 6th Symphony is particularly good. Indeed as a composer I find (based on these works anyway) Antheil more interesting and enjoyable than Howard Hanson (and I like Hanson). And he is head and shoulders above more respected composers of the "hyper-complex noisemaker" school - such prolix note spinners as Milton Babbitt, and Elliott Carter. This CD is an excellent value and well worth your time. A good CD of Antheil's piano music (and he was an excellent pianist) is available on Con Legno CD expertly performed by Benedikt Koehlen. The piano music is of a more aggressively "modern" tone than the orchestral music on this CD.

No Bad Boy.......2000-11-17

Years ago I learned that Antheil was the `bad boy of (American) music', so I wondered how his music should sound. Well, if this is a bad boy, he definitely has become more boy than bad. For my ears this are well-crafted symphonies with sometimes-piquant harmonies and a jazz-rhythm here and there.

But they gave me great pleasure in these very good performances. For me it's unbelievable that Naxos can give us such great series like these American Classics, almost for nothing. I hope they will record one or two of Antheil's ballets too. And in the meantime CPO is doing a great job by recording all of Antheil's symphonies in exemplary performances.

Beat drums, beat! Blow, trumpets, blow!.......2000-10-04

Naxos' "American Classics" series has been uneven, not in the quality of the performances or in the engineering, but in the choice of repertoire. The symphonies by George Templeton Strong and Meredith Wilson vanish quickly from memory; Piston's violin concerti and Lees' Fourth Symphony, on the other hand, stand out as remarkable works and as valuable additions to the recorded catalogue. Despite some reservations, the disc of symphonic music (two symphonies and an overture) by George Antheil (1900-1959) belongs to the second category. Since everyone tells the story of Antheil's transformation from the "bad-boy" composer of the 1925 "Ballet Méchanique" to the relatively conservative symphonist of the 1940s and 50s, I'll skip it. Suffice it that Antheil recognized that he needed to connect with audience, that the symphony was the public concert-utterance par excellence, and that he could write them fluently. Symphony No. 4 dates from 1942 and is a "war symphony." Maybe more accurately it is a kind of symphonic pep-rally to stoke the morale of American audiences. Mind you, I find nothing wrong with that. (What else was Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" or Harris's Fifth Symphony?) While obviously echoing the musical vocabularies of the Soviet school (Shostakovich and Prokofiev), Antheil's Fourth manages to be a rollicking good, thoroughly march-oriented, blazingly brassy, echt American exercise in cinematographic triumphalism. It sounds for all the world like the classy soundtrack for a vintage Department of Defense film about "Our Boys in North Africa" or "The Allied Landing in Sicily." You can imagine, in your mind's ear, one of those 1940s newsreel voices narrating the action. The Sixth Symphony dates from 1948, and reflects an appreciation of Charles Ives, then being rediscovered by a hitherto coy musical establishment. Familar American tunes play hide and seek among the unfolding textures. Antheil fragments them and weaves polyphonic tapestries. The overture, "McKonkey's Ferry," is woven from the same cloth. Thoroughly enoyable. Antheil was left-wing in his sympathies. Jack up the volume, anyway, and enjoy the thumping political incorrectness of it.

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