George Antheil, Bad Boy of Music

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
George Antheil wrote a fascinating autobiography, Bad Boy of Music, and a lot of "bad boy" music before he settled down to a career as a mainstream film composer. His Ballet mécanique still has a lot of life in it, but most of this piano music is simply dated: nose-thumbing naughty stuff that doesn't convince anymore. Antheil had obviously heard Prokofiev's famous Sonata No. 7 before writing his own Sonata No. 4. You may enjoy the Valentine Waltzes, which find a convincing balance between romance and dissonance. And pianist Marthanne Verbit obviously takes this music more seriously than the rest of us will. --Leslie Gerber

Tracks:

Airplane Son: As Fast As Possible
Airplane Son: Andante
Son Sauvage: A La Negre, Allegro Vivo
Son Sauvage: Snakes
Son Sauvage: Ivory, Prestissimo
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: I.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: II.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: III.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: IV.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: V.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: VI.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: VII.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: VIII.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: IX.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: X.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: XI.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: XII.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: XIII.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: XXIV.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: XXV.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: XXVI.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: XL.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: XLIII.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: XLIV.
La Femme 100 Tetes After Max Ernst: XLV.
Little Shimmy
Tango From The Opera Transatlantic
Son No. 4: Allegro Giocoso-Ironico
Son No. 4: Andante Cantabile
Son No. 4: Allegro
Valentine Waltzes: I.
Valentine Waltzes: II.
Valentine Waltzes: III.
Valentine Waltzes: IV.
Valentine Waltzes: V.
Valentine Waltzes: VI.
Valentine Waltzes: VII.
Valentine Waltzes: VIII.
Valentine Waltzes: IX.
Valentine Waltzes: X.
Valentine Waltzes: XI.

Amazon.com

George Antheil wrote a fascinating autobiography, Bad Boy of Music, and a lot of "bad boy" music before he settled down to a career as a mainstream film composer. His Ballet mécanique still has a lot of life in it, but most of this piano music is simply dated: nose-thumbing naughty stuff that doesn't convince anymore. Antheil had obviously heard Prokofiev's famous Sonata No. 7 before writing his own Sonata No. 4. You may enjoy the Valentine Waltzes, which find a convincing balance between romance and dissonance. And pianist Marthanne Verbit obviously takes this music more seriously than the rest of us will. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews:

A useful survey of Antheil's piano music - but not always the best readings.......2007-04-05

This well-filled (68:23) CD came out in 1994 and was thus the first in a series that launched a mild but long due revival of interest in the piano music of George Antheil. .

Rather than concentrating on the brash and provocative early Antheil (his piano pieces from the 1920s) like Koehlen (George Antheil: Bad Boy's Piano Music) or Henck (Piano Music by Nancarrow and Antheil), Verbit offers a survey that encompasses his various compositional periods: the earth-conquering modernist is represented by the 1921 "Airplane Sonata", 1922 "Sonata Sauvage" and 1923 "Little Shimmy". Antheil the "post-neo-classic" from the early 30s is featured in the Tango from his opera "Transaltlantic" and, more significantly, in the 20 excerpts out of the 45 short preludes that make up the cycle "La Femme 100 têtes", and the later Antheil is heard in the 1948 4th Sonata and the Valentine Waltzes from 1949.

Verbit is not always interpretively at the top of the competition. In the first movement of the "Airplane Sonata" Antheil instructs to play "as fast as possible" and Verbit isn't quite as fast as Henck and Koehlen, but she is muscular and more cleanly articulated than they are. Her very moderately paced 2nd movement "Andante moderato" lends the music an almost Coplandesque-bluesy character, but almost deprives it of its contour; Henck's more animated tempo seems preferable here. In "Sonata Sauvage" she is muscular, powerful and evocative, but a comparison with Henck and Koehlen shows them in the outer movements to be faster, more electric and hectic, producing more unleashed energy. In the finale despite all the power and din she produces she doesn't quite convey the "xylophonic" impression called for by Antheil, that Koehlen captures. On the other hand her "Little Shimmy" is perfectly judged, at a tempo that's neither too fast nor too slow, sounding like a vaguely nonchalant blues, and she easily scores over the hard-driven Henck and the teutonically heavy Koehlen.

"La Femme 100 têtes" is a wonderfully imaginative cycle of short preludes inspired by a book of engravings by Max Ernst. Its title means literally, in French as in English "The Woman One Hundred Heads" (and not "The Woman with a hundred heads", as Antheil maintains in his autobiography "Bad Boy of Music"), but through a phonetic play on words it can also mean "The Woman without a Head" or "The Woman stubbornly persists". Though in his book Antheil boasts having written 100 of them, he completed apparently only 45. Much of the earlier, hammering Antheil is still present in those short pieces (none is longer than 2 minutes and the shortest zips through in 10 seconds) based on very simple and typically young-Antheil, repetitive melodic/rhythmic cells. Possibly to avoid an impression of monotony Verbit plays only 20, but I find the choice regrettable, as I don't find the cycle monotonous and the pieces that she left aside are as good as those included. Interpretively, Verbit is often atmospheric and she finds fine colors, but she also often favors slow tempos at the expense of some snap and piquancy (as in Nr. 1 "Thoughtfully, not too slow", 3 "Faintly energetic", 7 "Sad") or even of a sense of frenzy (5 "furioso", 12 "Brilliant clean" where her articulation lacks clarity). On the other hand she has plenty of muscle in 8 "Electrical (spiccato)", 10 ("Slightly brutal tempo"), 11 ("Bawdy ferocious tempo"), 25 ("Minuet?"), 26 ("Onward Christian Soldiers") and 44 ("Cruel (Quick)"). Still, it is better to have the complete cycle, and Benedikt Koehlen plays it excellently (see my review of Piano Pictures: Satie Sports & Divertissements / Antheil La Femme 100 têtes).

In the 4th sonata the pounding Antheil is still there but whereas the pounding in the early works was mechanistically devoid of emotion (other than the joy of making such a racket), by 1948 you can feel the anger and bitterness of the composer who failed to live up to his early promises. With its motoric rhythms in the outer movements and bitter-sweet harmonies and terse counterpoint in the middle "Andante Cantabile", the sonata is in fact strikingly reminiscent of Prokofiev's War Sonatas - a feature I had already remarked with the contemporary 4th Violin and Piano Sonata (see my review of George Antheil: Violin Sonatas 1, 2 & 4) - and it is hard to believe that the Toccata-like finale wasn't inspired by the Finale of Prokofiev's 7th. Strange how Antheil went from one Russian to the other - from the Stravinsky quotations of the 1920s to the Prokofiev similitudes of the 1940s. The Sonata's 1st movement also has a secondary motive that is a mock imitation of a trite early Chopin run - Antheil's iconoclastic sense of humor is still there. Verbit is more hectic and energetic than Guy Livingston (George Antheil: The Lost Sonatas) and Eric Parkin (on a 1987 Preamble CD of American Piano Music Vol.1, with works of Barber, Copland, Gershwin, Stevens and Waxman), but also, in the first movement, not as clearly articulated. As a result, for all of Verbit's impressive power, it is Parkin that brings out better the Prokofiev-like march rhythms and kinetic energy and Livingston its neo-classical "stravinskysms".

The intimate Valentine Waltzes weren't destined for publication. Don't expect much: they are walzes, period. Their apparent triteness, wry humor and emotional restraint recalls Satie, a musician Antheil much admired, and I also hear some Brahms in the 4th. It is not the most significant Antheil, but Verbit's is the only recording, so she very much has the field to herself here.

In sum this is a useful overview of Antheil's various compositional styles but not as interesting as Livingston's program. It is also not the disc I would recommend if you have only one CD of the piano music of Antheil: go instead to Koehlen's Col Legno collection of the early pieces, and if you enjoy it as much as I do, complete it with Koehlen's "Femme 100 têtes", then Livingston.

Average customer rating:

One of the best recordings of Anheil's piano music and the one to have if you have only one
American Pathfinder struts his stuff
The bad boy was ahead of his times or level with it

George Antheil: Bad Boy's Piano Music

Manufacturer: Col Legno
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Duets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

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

ASIN: B000007NO6
Release Date: 2000-08-12

Tracks:

Fireworks And The Profane Waltzes: Fireworks
Fireworks And The Profane Waltzes: I. Tempo Di Valse
Fireworks And The Profane Waltzes: II. Over Sentimental - Exaggerated
The Golden Bird, After Brancusi
Second Son 'The Airplane': Lent
Second Son 'The Airplane': Andante Moderato
Jazz Son No.4
Mechanisms: Mechanism Interrhythmic. Languez/Mechanism Cubistic. Moderato/Mechanism Eliptic...
Third Son 'Death Of Machines'
(Little) Shimmy
Son Sauvage: Niggers. Allegro Vivo - Joyeuse Marcato, A La Negre
Son Sauvage: Snakes. (Lento) - Prestissimo - Lento
Son Sauvage: Ivory. Moderato - Xylophonic. Prestissimo
Son V: Mechanistically
Son: Allegro Marcato
Son 1932

Customer Reviews:

One of the best recordings of Anheil's piano music and the one to have if you have only one .......2007-04-04

Though released by Col Legno in 1995, this Antheil piano collection was recorded by the Cologne Radio as early as 1989/90, so it must have been a precursor in the long due Antheil rediscovery that took place in the nineties. It was followed by recordings by Marthanne Verbit (Albany, 1994: George Antheil, Bad Boy of Music), Herbert Henck (ECM, 1999: Piano Music by Nancarrow and Antheil) and Guy Livingston (Wergo George Antheil: The Lost Sonatas). Of all these, Koehlen remains one of the best.

First, it is a fairly thorough survey, at least of Antheil's piano works from the 1920s - his most innovative and daring period. Left out are the marvelous cycle of short preludes "La Femme 100 Tête" written in the early 30s - which Koelen has recorded complete on another Col Legno CD (Piano Pictures: Satie Sports & Divertissements / Antheil La Femme 100 têtes) - and the compositions from Antheil's Hollywood period that are included in the collections of Verbit and Livingston. But among the pieces included are the 1919 "Fireworks and the Profane Waltzes" (Fireworks is especially dazzling) and the mesmerizing 1921 "The Golden Bird, after Brancusi"; all these pieces date from before Antheil's departure for Europe, and to my knowledge Koehlen's is still as of today the only recording, which makes it invaluable. His is also, I believe, the only recording of the short 1922/3 Sonata V (one of the three 5th Sonatas Antheil composed! His music was rarely published and his manuscripts are apparently in a state of shambles), a kind of ragtime with a medley of tunes from Stravinsky's Soldier Tale and Sacre to Fuiculi-funiculà. The disc is, roughly, chronologically ordered.

Comparison with Henck, Verbit and various others shows Koehlen's to be an excellent interpretation, often the best. He isn't entirely successful throughout, though. In the 1922 "Jazz Sonata" Antheil instructs to play "as rapidly as it is possible to execute cleanly and with even touch and dynamics like a player piano", but Koehlen (like Henck) appears to have read the instruction only as far as the word "possible". The impression is less of a mechanical player piano than that of a frenzied, demented ragtime bringing to the dancers collapse. In the "Airplane Sonata" (1921) Antheil instructs to take the 1st movement "as fast as possible" and Koelen is here appropriately hectic, but like Verbit he takes the 2nd movement "Andante moderato" at a very moderate tempo indeed, which deprives the movement of much sense of shape; Henck's faster tempo is more effective here. Koehlen's "Little Shimmy" is teutonically slow and ponderous, and the nice bluesy flavor that Verbit and Steffen Schleiermacher (in his Music at the Bauhaus collection on MDG) capture so well is lost in the process.

On the other hand, in the Sonata "Death of the Machines" Koehlen strikes a fine balance of tempo and clear-cut articulation, neither ludicrously slow as Markus Becker (on a CPO CD of George Antheil: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2; a Jazz Symphony; Jazz Sonata) nor excessively fast as Henck. In the 1923 "Sonate Sauvage" he has plenty of savagery and power, and his 1932 "Sonatina for Radio" is Gershwinesque it its merry agitation.

"Mechanism" is an extraordinary piece, an 8-movement Sonata that, for once, rarely pounds, but plays instead on mysterious chordal resonances that are evocative of some of Messiaen's "20 Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus". As the title of the last movement indicates ("Mechanism planetary" - adagio), it is, as with Messiaen, music of the celestial spheres. Koehlen plays them with a fine sense of atmosphere, although his slow tempo and "time-suspended" approach sometimes threatens to dissolve the music's shape. At a more animated tempo Henck presents a valid alternative. Livingston plays an abridged version of the same work, under the title "Woman Sonata".

The liner notes in their English version appear to be long on the composer's biography but short on information about the compositions themselves: this is only because they omit to translate the last 3 pages of the thorough and fascinating German original notes. A shame. With a total time of 52:31 there was ample space on the disc to add compositions from Antheil's later period. But still, as it is, this is the CD of Antheil's piano compositions that I recommend if you have only one - but the music is so good, it deserves to be complemented with Koehlen's recording of "La Femme 100 Têtes" and possibly Livingston's collection.

American Pathfinder struts his stuff.......2001-04-01

George Antheil (1900-1959)was a man whose music provoked riots in Paris 75 years ago. Sadly he seems to have been completely forgotten today. The piano was his instrument and he writes for it with considerable skill. Benedikt Koehlen is more than equal to the formidable demands that Antheil places on the performer. The pieces on this well recorded CD still sound quite "modern." All five of Antheil's piano sonatas are recorded here as well as six other works of considerable interest. If you like the Prokofiev of the 6th Sonata or the Bartok of the 3 Etudes, then you should enjoy this.

The bad boy was ahead of his times or level with it.......2000-04-23

George Antheil has been having a healthy resurgence of interests with performances of his magnum opus Ballet mechanique with Dennis Russell Davies in New York recently and one expected San Francisco with Michael Tilson Thomas . Antheil's musical gifts here was he caught the negativity of the age, the transitional period between the Wars,when national hatreds and opposing ideologies began festering in the hearts of men,he was labeled by the French, the Futurist pianist when he gave his solo concerts there in the Twenties. But the Futurists were not a bunch I would like to be associated with in light of their Fascists affiliations.Antheil was smart enough never to have written music with such odious overtones yet his music certainly captured this dark page in politics.Needless to say these concerts were accompanied with riots and verbal slinging,if not open violence. Antheil in retrospect is a fascinating bad boy musically for having utilized such innovations for his time as chord clusters, exlpoiting the extremes of piano sonorities with high register tremoli,bass drum like thuds,glissandi,high dynamic levels,pure texture,the obviously motoric(which the Russians adopted simultaneously Prokofiev and Mosolov) infiltrated with an overwhelming demeanor of anger and brutality, something Edgar Varese also exploited in a quite different way. This disc features all the primary piano works the various Piano Sonatas all written in the Twenties a year apart from each other, the short Jazz Sonata(1922), a romp up the scale in octaves with high syncopation,jerks and jabs. The Third Sonata(1923) is here subtitled "Death of Machines" and the ever popular Second Sonata(1921) "The Airplane",the most widely played of the set. Antheil's musical language is fairly one-dimensional except for him rather than representing himself with one seminal work I think you need to here a few to get the full scale of his creativity. Mechanisms(1923) has fascinating features, a bit more abstract.less graphic than the Sonatas,but not any less compelling .This is one large work about 13 minutes if played slowly with a treatise like content of representing different aspects of motoric or mechanical like gestures. Machines at this time, recall, was like our Silicon Valley today it ,they represented the future of wealth, those who came the United States as Edgar Varese thought he was stepping into the future with the high level of citylife and the conflagrations of street noises, the human condition growing more robotic and inpersonal. Benedikt Koehlen has a fine grasp and control of these fantastically difficult pieces. Their physicalness is enough to be felt aggressivly making an indelible mark. Antheil had an innate gift for length, much of this music is like a small miniature explosion never overspending the time he allows like the Jazz Sonata a mere one and a half minutes.

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