Composer
George Antheil (1900-1959) is most remembered for his mechanistic piano
music hailed by 1920s Paris. The obsessive repetition of his Ballet
Mécanique
foreshadowed the entire minimalist movement. But by 1948, when he'd become
the third most-played American-born composer of orchestral music, his
style
reflected a more emotional, more mature personality. This centennial collection
highlights selections from Antheil's later "neo-romantic" period
—mostly reissued from the pioneering SPA label of conductor F. Charles
Adler—and including the only recordings of Antheil himself at the
piano. Also here are previously unreleased items that lend new insight
into one
of America's most engrossing mavericks. A 60-page booklet by Charles Amirkhanian,
illustrated with previously unpublished photos, accompanies this two CD
set.
Track
list of Antheil Plays Antheil Click on Tracks 2
& 18 (Disc One) to hear them DISC ONE:
THE MUSIC
1-11 Valentine Waltzes
(1949)
1 2'11
2 1'28
3 1'11
4 0'44
6 0'46
7 1'36
8 1'53
9 1'13
10 1'48
11 2'27
George
Antheil, piano
12-19 Eight Fragments
from Shelley (1950)
12 When
Soft Winds 1'39
13 To the Moon 1'17
14 When the Lamp is Shattered 4'59
15 I Stood Upon a Heaven
Cleaving Turret 2'43
16 A Dirge 3'11
17 To-Morrow 1'24
18 Sonnet to Byron 2'02
19 I Faint, I Perish with
My Love 4'03
Roger
Wagner Chorale
George
Antheil, piano
20 McKonkey’s Ferry Overture
(1948) 10'15
F.
Charles Adler, Vienna Philharmonia Orchestra
21-23 Symphony No. 5, “Joyous” (1947-48)
21 Allegro 8'25
22 Adagio molto 8'09
23 Allegretto giocoso 7'59
Herbert
Haefner, Vienna Philharmonia Orchestra
TOTAL TIME 73'23
DISC TWO: SPEECH
& STORIES
1-2 Two Odes of John
Keats (1950)
1 Ode
on a Grecian Urn 4'10
2 To a Nightingale 7'02
Vincent
Price, narrator
George
Antheil, piano
3 “The
Prostitute,” from the ballet Capital of the World (1953)1'22
George
Antheil, spoken introduction and piano
4 Peter
Pokes a Pig (Story for Peter, 1942)3'04
5 Mu-uh-uch
in the Moonlight (Story for Peter, 1942) 3'23
George
Antheil, voice and piano
6-7 Prediction of Allied Invasion of North Africa
(1942)
6 Part
One: Signposts to the Future 2'03
7 Part
Two: The Defense of Stalingrad 4'24
Manchester
Boddy, radio announcer
8 Biggest Muscles
Waltz (Story for Peter, 1942)3'23
9 Captain Peter Shoots Down Nazi Air Ship (Story for Peter, 1942)3'35
George
Antheil, voice and piano
10 George Antheil Speaks (1958)17'50
11 The SPA Interview (1981)20'00
Charles
Amirkhanian interviews Hannah M. Adler and Norman Fox
TOTAL TIME 71'08
All recordings digitally
reconstructed from surviving monaural analog audio material of variable
quality,
except for the SPA interview, which is in stereo.
