George ANTHEIL
Symphonies 1 & 6; Archipelago
Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester
Frankfurt/Hugh Wolff
CPO 999 604-2 [62.35]
Crotchet
Amazon
UK
Amazon
USA
Familiar with some of George Antheil's piano music, and the Ballet
Mechanique, this CD has proved a surprise pleasure. The first symphony
(1923) has a young man (he was born in 1900, died saddened 1959) flexing
his compositional muscles with a mish-mash of influences, juxtaposed in a
collage technique with brazen confidence, bringing to mind Ives, Stravinsky
and many others. It is music about music and I enjoyed it greatly.
The sixth symphony (1948) has a very strong Shostakovich/Prokofiev presence,
with no attempt to disguise it, and something of the American in Paris in
its finale.
Archipelago (1935) celebrates Cuban-Caribbean rumba rhythm and would
make a good concert alternative to Copland's popular El Salon Mexico,
which has a similarly refreshing abandon.
If you question whether Antheil deserves to be taken seriously (his Bad Boy
tag has stuck firmly) try the slow movement of No 6; an extremely beautiful
Larghetto, Prokfievian obviously, but good music which Prokofiev himself
might have been proud to have conceived and orchestrated so movingly. On
this showing the larger works of Antheil are unfairly neglected, fully deserving
discovery or rediscovery.
Excellent recording and orchestral playing under my namesake, and an uncommonly
interesting, well written and well translated essay which provides a
mini-biography (and urges you to read Antheil's own autobiography), a sorting
out of the complex chronology and scattered scores, and notes about the works
themselves.
Reviewer
Peter Grahame Woolf
and Marc Bridle adds:
George Antheil is one of the least well known of American composers - and
one of the more controversial. Born in 1900, his heritage is predominantly
a European one, something which Antheil used to promote his reputation as
an enfant terrible of early twentieth century music. Counted amongst
his friends in his Paris and Berlin years were luminaries (and revolutionary
ones at that) such as James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Picasso, Dali and Stravinsky.
Antheil considered himself a revolutionary composer and his concerts throughout
Europe regularly caused riots. The rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany lead to
his return to the United States where, bizarrely, his reputation never really
gathered ground. He died before his sixtieth birthday, and was more widely
known as a television and film composer at the time of his death rather than
as a serious classical composer.
Both musically and technically he was an innovator. If Varése is the
name we often think of as a revolutionary composer at this time, Antheil
does not lie far behind him. His most famous work is not a symphony, but
a ballet - Mécanique (1925). A notorious work, it virtually destroyed
his reputation when it appeared in the US. It is a highly rhythmic, brutal
work that melts atonalism with industrial sounds and jazz. Technically it
is a formidable work - and is rarely performed even today - with a strongly
percussive elementalism. Pianolos, xylophones, electric bells, sirens and
tam-tams all make an appearance. It exists in different versions, each lasting
between 15 and 30 minutes. The pianola and percussion version - amazingly
- only received its premiere performance in 1999 when the Ensemble Modern
attempted to play it. There are only two recordings of the piece that I know
of (I would be grateful if someone could confirm this for me) and both are
on extremely obscure US labels.
The Antheil discography is very short anyway, but hopefully these CPO
performances of the First and Sixth symphonies will comprise part of a developing
cycle. The first symphony, Zingareska, harmonises bits of Bruckner,
Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky - without really being any of them. The orchestration
is generally dense, but there are already new tricks up Antheil's sleeve
such as the second movement's plucked strings being attacked by the bow as
they are still vibrating. The ending of the fourth movement is purely derivative:
it is fundamentally the final chord that ends the Rite of Spring.
The Sixth symphony, After Delacroix, was written almost twenty years
later and owes a clear debt to Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Thematically it
is rich, with the first movement striking a close resemblance to battle music,
and the second a mournful lament which is close in style to Prokofiev's Fifth
Symphony. The ending is joyous and up beat.
Hugh Wolff's performances could not be more persuasive. The playing, particularly
in the Sixth, has an urgency and passion that is hard to resist. The recording
is full bodied and makes much of the inner details which are so important
to the development of these works. A fascinating disc of unfamiliar music
that should be better known.
Reviewer
Marc Bridle
Performance
Sound
