Antheil Plays Antheil

Chronique

Antheil Plays Antheil, issued by Other Minds in San Francisco, is subtitled "The Rare SPA Recordings & Private Audio Documents 1942-1958." SPA -- short for Society of Participating Artists -- was operated from 1949 to 1959 by Norman Fox and conductor F. Charles Adler, marketing small quantities of classical recordings aimed at specialist tastes; the average run for an SPA release was about 300 copies. George Antheil's SPA recording of Valentine Waltzes (1949) is to be found here, along with his piano accompaniment for Eight Fragments of Shelley (1951) performed by the Roger Wagner Chorale, and that for Vincent Price's readings of "Two Odes of John Keats" (1950). All of these recordings were made in Los Angeles in 1951 and represent Antheil's only efforts as commercial recording artist. Other musical recordings featuring Antheil himself are of a private nature, beginning with four instantaneously cut records of humorous musical stories told by Antheil and improvised at the piano for the benefit of his then five-year-old son Peter. In addition to these pieces is a single performance, "The Prostitute," selected from a set of piano rehearsal records Antheil made in 1953 for the American Ballet Theater of his score Capital of the World (1952). There is also a casual, 18-minute long recollection by Antheil about his life recorded in 1958 by Truman Fisher for KPPC radio in Pasadena and a homemade air check of a 1942 news commentary by Los Angeles Daily News publisher Manchester Boddy largely ghostwritten by Antheil. The balance of the two-disc set contains Antheil's orchestral music as recorded by SPA; his Symphony No. 5 "Joyous" (1947-8) and McKonkey's Ferry Overture (1948). It also features a 20-minute KPFA interview conducted in 1981 by Charles Amirkhanian with F. Charles Adler's widow Hannah M. Adler and SPA label head Fox on the history of SPA with only a passing reference to Antheil himself.
Antheil Plays Antheil, is a veritable treasure trove of historical recorded material relating to the composer. But it is not wholly without problems. SPA was a no-budget label that seized upon the novelty of the long-playing record as a vehicle for works that were difficult to record on 78s due to length (such as in symphonies of Mahler or Bruckner, SPA's biggest sellers) or the obscurity of the works and/or composers, in this case Antheil. Despite the terrific intentions of both Fox and Adler, SPA recordings were among the poorest quality products offered on the long playing market in the 1950s. According to Fox, SPA's entire vault of master tapes was lost in transit as it was being transferred from Columbia's Special Products division to RCA Custom. The tapes have not been seen since. A few masters made for SPA but instead sold or given to CRI in the 1950s are the only ones that exist. The sound of the SPA recordings of Antheil's choral and chamber music comes across quite well on this Other Minds release, but the orchestral music suffers from an overly bright and somewhat tinny resonance. These are transferred from pristine copies of the vinyl albums, and as distracting as this resonance is, the result is frankly far better sounding than the digital remastering done by CRI with similar material. Other Minds is somewhat less successful with material sourced from instantaneous-cut recordings. Nevertheless, the Stories for Peter are among the most priceless gems in this collection; while illustrating the climax of the piece "Captain Peter Shoots Down Nazi Air Ship" Antheil explodes into a series of loud and forceful piano tone clusters, the only recorded example of what Antheil may have sounded like in 1920s Paris. On a purely musical front, there is also much to reward the listener; the richness of Vincent Price's readings of John Keats, the vulnerability of Antheil's sensitive and sad performances of his own masterful Valentine Waltzes, the disconnected fabric of quotation and free-association employed in the Stories for Peter are all memorable moments and moving in their own right. The documentary material, particularly the 1958 interview with Antheil, affords a rare glimpse into the personality of the composer. For expert ears, Antheil Plays Antheil is a joy and should not be missed by anyone who takes interest in the music of George Antheil.

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