Antheil: Symphonies Nos. 4 And 6 / McKonkey's Ferry

It is seldom thought about, but the American tradition of serious music has a well documented repertoire of symphonists; Copland,Mennin,Schuman,Bernstein,Roy Harris, Hanson,Diamond,Corigliano,Harbison, and Antheil.Many of these symphonies were written during the War,(we always had some international conflict), and American was thought of even then as the savior from Fascism, as policeman of the world, and the content of these symphonies for the most part adopted this triumphantism, but it also looks at and commented on the horrors and ambiguities of War, and that perhaps America's role had an air of anxiety,brutality and opaqueness attached to its face. Especially if you are an outsider looking in. These Antheil Symphonies are again great marvelous works but hardly ever played. The Chicago Symphony has yet to do one, and I can't phanthom the reason except the time honored one the reason of politics. These orchestral works are the late Antheil, he died in 1959, after having literally a thunderous start of a career hanging out with the avant garde in Paris during the Twenties with James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Picasso, and Erik Satie, all who attended his piano solo concerts. This popularity came to an end by the time of the Depression, when he retuned to the States as a War correspondent, and writer of a column, settling in Hollywood writing film scores. All these works here are powerful,with the brass proclaiming itself unencumbered by anyone. But then the gentle Antheil also introduces in quick succession of isolated colours of the flute,almost like Yankee Doodle. Antheil was a fair orchestrator,very robust sound he achieves,doubling the same tones,but it's odd that his more experimentalist strains, of the Ballet mechannique, of chord clusters, and extra-musical sounds, as airplane propellors, and the motoric drive, didn't find its way into his thinking for the orchestra. McKonkey's Ferry is a truly patriotic piece after the image of Washington crossing the Delaware on Christmas. Very livily,yet heavy and burdensome for an overture,it doesn't let you go, like Antehil tells us that something else more dangerous is at stake here. The National Symphony of the Ukraine with Theodore Kuchar play just as well as if Solti or Bernstein had a hand in the proceedings, with lots of balance yet the sound is harsh and strained, almost cracking from the sheer weight, a powerful sound from the top down,clean impacted sound. The contrast with Shostakovich is a fairly apt one, however Antheil's creativity had a greater conceptual freedom, greater imagination for structure and genre, although both were practicing film composers who brought that art to their orchestrations.

Years ago I learned that Antheil was the `bad boy of (American) music', so I wondered how his music should sound. Well, if this is a bad boy, he definitely has become more boy than bad. For my ears this are well-crafted symphonies with sometimes-piquant harmonies and a jazz-rhythm here and there.

But they gave me great pleasure in these very good performances. For me it's unbelievable that Naxos can give us such great series like these American Classics, almost for nothing. I hope they will record one or two of Antheil's ballets too. And in the meantime CPO is doing a great job by recording all of Antheil's symphonies in exemplary performances.

The Naxos release of George Antheil's <Symphony No. 4, Symphony No.6, McKonkey's Ferry> (8.559033) gives a quotation comparing this American's music with that of Shastakovich. Indeed without being told the composer of the 4th Symphony, I might have guessed (at least) at a Russian origin. Like Shastakovich, Antheil tried to show the horrors of war (which he knew very well as a war correspondent) in musical terms; and the results are quite effective. The subtitle of the work is "1942." The cover of the CD shows Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People," which Antheil says was his inspiration for the 6th Symphony. Finally, "McKonkey's Ferry," which opens the program, is a tone poem celebrating Washington's crossing the Delaware on Christmas Eve.

This is all new stuff to me. While I find it a bit blustery here and there--others might find more subtlety in those passages than I do-- I feel the composer did accomplish what he set out to do. And given the Naxos budget price, you too will probably find this well worth the purchase. The National Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine is under Theodore Kuchar.