The performances (and performers) on this extremely well recorded disc sound very comfortable with music that hardly could have been familiar. Pianist Guy Livingston, a fine artist who deserves to be better known, has a field day with the concerto, and the playing in general is characterful and (above all) rhythmically sharp. It's really good to see New World giving some attention to worthy music other than that on the outer fringes of the avant-garde (i.e., something that normal listeners might enjoy and even want to buy). Mind you, I'm not questioning the label's dedication to the cause, only the mix. With so much attractive American music yet to be performed and recorded, if outfits like this don't do it, then aside from the always admirable Naxos, who will?

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

The American composer George Antheil (1900–1959) was quite young when he earned his place in musical history as “the bad boy of music.” He was one of the most flamboyant of the futurist artists in Paris during the 1920s. That phase of his career proved to be brief. Beginning with this Piano Concerto No. 2 (1926) he continued producing works in many musical forms for over 30 years, all of them seeming conservative when compared to his most famous—because most original and scandalous—early works. Recently, perhaps inspired by the centenary of his birth, writers and performers have taken an increasing interest in Antheil and his music. Many of his symphonies, piano pieces, and other works are currently available on CDs, and an Antheil Society maintains a lively Web site.

The present disc presents premiere recordings of three interesting works. Earliest is the Piano Concerto mentioned above, a work in three movements taking a bit less than 22 minutes, and definitely in the neo-Classical style introduced by Igor Stravinsky after World War II. It was anticipated in 1917 by the “Classical” Symphony of Sergei Prokofiev. Where Prokofiev had Haydn in mind, Antheil went back to J. S. Bach for his inspiration. This is Bach updated, with more abrupt changes of direction than J. S. B. would have permitted, and a bit more dissonance. The writing for both piano and orchestra is lean and spare—a far distance from the lush writing in Romantic piano concertos still being practiced by Sergei Rachmaninoff. A lot of neo-Classical pieces from the 1920s to the 1950s strike me as musical voyages through the salt flats of Utah, but this work has held my attention through several listenings. Still, the other two works on the disc strike me as considerably better.

Dreams (1936), lasting here about 28 minutes, is ballet music written in New York City for Balanchine. Divided unequally into nine episodes, it offers a variety of speeds, rhythms, and colorful orchestral effects, as ballet music should. If it seemed too modern in the 1930s, the style is one that seems mainstream enough now: that of France’s Les Six, (Poulenc, Auric, Tailleferre, etc.), inspired by Eric Satie and the popular music of the times, including jazz and the fox-trot, as well as marches and waltzes. The music William Walton wrote for Edith Sitwell’s Façade is an earlier example of the same style. Serenade No. 2 (1948) is in three movements, and lasts 22 minutes. It might more properly be titled Symphony in C for Small Orchestra, for this is serious, well-organized music. The first movement, moderately fast, reminds one of the symphonies written a few years later by Malcolm Arnold in his serious vein. The gestures of popular and military music are pressed into a forward-thrusting argument suggesting that World War II, which had inspired Antheil’s Symphony No. 4, had not been forgotten. The remarkable slow movement might be called a fantasia on the theme of the second movement of Dvořák’s “American” Quartet. Antheil and Dvořák both posit a descending A, G, F, D, but differ slightly in values. The annotator says, correctly, that this music is “dark and foreboding.” The finale is typically energetic and boisterous, with lyrical second subject and a triumphant conclusion.

Guy Livingston plays the solo in the piano concerto in a style entirely appropriate to the music, and also writes the extensive and informative notes. Daniel Spalding leads his small orchestra of 28 players, all named, in performances that make a strong case for all three pieces. The engineers have recorded the whole program in splendid sound; the orchestra often sounds much larger than its stated size. Strongly recommended.

FANFARE: Robert McColley