Herbert Henck - Conlon Nancarrow / George Antheil: Piano Music

Это напоминает мне фортепианные этюды Лигети.

Conlon Nancarrow - Three 2-part studies - I. Presto





Conlon Nancarrow - Prelude (Allegro molto):





А это - развеселившегося Дебюсси.
George Antheil - Sonatina fur Radio (allegro moderato)




George Antheil (1900-1959) became notorious and found it hard to be taken seriously in USA after the failure of his Ballet Mechanique in New York. He was a man of many parts and a very considerable writer, with an excellent and entertaining autobiography, 'The Bad Boy of Music'. His piano music, with which he toured, brought him to public notice and caused a major riot in Paris. He was rated the loudest pianist ever to play at Wigmore Hall in London. This is a good selection of it, and shows his instinct for rhythm and interest in jazz. Several of the titles allude to machines. Sonata Sauvage which ends 'xylophonic prestissimo'. There is a Sonatina for radio, and one called The Aeroplane, begins 'as fast as possible' Antheil's Jazz Sonata is marked at one point 'like a player piano'.

Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997) is best known for his dazzling studies for the player piano, which extend rhythmic complexity to the ultimate. There are a few early pieces for piano composed in the 1930s and included here - it was the finding that their enormous rhythmic demands proved insuperable to pianists of the day which led to his exploration of a medium to express his ideas, and to a life of isolation and exile in which he laboriously punched out his music on paper rolls. Only in his last years did he enjoy international fame and his Studies for Player Piano latterly attained cult status.

Herbert Henck supplies his own readable essay on the piano music of both composers and the ECM production is characteristic of their care and individuality. The cover picture is unwittingly prophetic of our sad rural times, with a sad looking solitary cow! Recommended, despite short measure at under 40 mins.


By taking the human performer out of the equation, Nancarrow was able to write music of nearly unlimited density and rhythmic complexity. I didn't know, however, that George Antheil composed music for the player piano as well. The original version of his Ballet mecanique included no fewer than 16 of those instruments, an inspiration soon whittled down by the knife of practicality and economy. It is ironic that this connection between the two composers is made in the context of a CD that contains no music for player piano. (Antheil's "Jazz Sonata" does include the instruction "like a player-piano.")

In the past year or two there has been a rebirth of interest in Antheil's music. His colorful life certainly hasn't inhibited this; his achievements included the refinement, with actress Hedy Lamarr, of radio-controlled torpedoes! (Check my other Antheil reviews on Classical Net for additional biographical information.) Henck's selection of music by Antheil appears to be the most generous currently available on CD. The music reflects his impudent intelligence (he was, after all, the "Bad Boy of Music"), his piano virtuosity, and his interest in machinery and other modern innovations, namely jazz rhythms. These works come from his European years (1922-33), when he was reviled, embraced, and then reviled again as the Nazis rose to power. (When he returned to the United States, he was unable to repeat his European successes.) Tempo indications such as "to be played as fast as possible" (in the "Airplane" sonata) and "as rapidly as it is possible to execute cleanly and with even touch and dynamics" (the "Jazz Sonata") show that Henck has his work cut out for him. He triumphs over the difficulties, however, and he convincingly animates Antheil's cocky excursions into syncopation.

Nancarrow's works for player piano have overshadowed the rest of his output, so it is good that Henck has included three brief works on this CD. The rhythmic intricacies of works such as these so frustrated flesh-and-blood pianists that Nancarrow was driven to discover the "eureka" of the player piano. Having said that, nine minutes of Nancarrow makes a lopsided CD, and the stylistic differences between Nancarrow's and Antheil's music, while not exactly jarring, exacerbate the lopsidedness. Henck, an established master in modern music of the most demanding sort, deals with Nancarrow's cruel challenges with confidence.


[85M on depositfiles]