George Antheil: Piano Music, Volume One: Late Works, 1939–55
The American composer George Antheil (1900–59) enjoyed the sobriquet ‘the Bad Boy of Music’ thanks to the mechanistic scores of his early career. This anthology of piano music from the last twenty years of his life reveals a muse that could also be affectionate, flirtatious and capricious – but the ‘Bad Boy’ occasionally re-emerged, as in the diabolical mischief of the wild, peppery, Prokofievan toccatas also recorded here.
Judy Pang, piano
Listen To This Recording:
-
Mother’s Day Piece (1939)
- Mother’s Day Piece
- The Ben Hecht Valses
- Musical Picture of a Friend
- I Opening Choral
- II A la valse
- III Mexicali
- IV Valse Passion
- V Habañera-Rhumba
- VI Love Affair Valse
- VII Autumn Fancy
- VIII Gamin Valse
- IX Martinique
- X Grand Climax
- XI Valse of the Female Gamin Who Fell in Love Hopelessly For a Time
- XII Gay American Valse
- XIII Finale Rhumbetta
- No. 1
- No. 2
- No. 1
- No. 2
- No. 3
- No. 4
- No. 5
- No. 6
- No. 7
- No. 8
- No. 9
- No. 10
- No. 11
- III. Presto
- Waltzes from Volpone
- Berceuse for Thomas Montgomery Newman
The Ben Hecht Valses (1942)*
Musical Picture of a Friend (1946)
Carnival of the Beautiful Dresses (1939/1946)
Two Toccatas (1948)*
Valentine Waltzes (1949)*
Piano Sonata No. 5 (first version, 1950)
Waltzes from Volpone (second version, 1949–53/1955)
Berceuse for Thomas Montgomery Newman (1955)
ALL EXCEPT * FIRST RECORDINGS
MusicWeb International :
‘I have enjoyed this disc greatly. Indeed it has not been off my CD player for the last four days. Judy Pang is an excellent exponent and champion on Antheil’s music. She has the ability to bring out the sweetness of the emotional pieces, and the agility and power to express the more forthright components through of the more powerful pieces of the composer and his music. I look forward to the future volumes of this series, especially if Pang is playing them. She has an ability to bring to the fore every nuance of this music.’
—Stuart Sillitoe, MusicWeb International