Bbc Philharmonic/Storgards - Antheil: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1

Alongside its ongoing much-lauded Copland series, the BBC Philharmonic embarks on a new American journey, this time with its chief guest conductor, John Storg�rds. Known as the �bad boy of music�, George Antheil began his career with a reputation as an enfant terrible, composing shockingly avant-garde works such as his ever-popular Ballet m�canique, inspired by the dynamism and dissonances of Stravinsky�s early ballets. Although he is well-established on the film music scene, too, it is his symphonic output � sampled here � that today survives in the concert hall. This new series documents the evolution of his musical style, which moved towards a fundamentally tonal and melody-based idiom, Antheil joining the growing ranks of famous US symphonists. The war-inspired Fourth Symphony and �joyous� Fifth clearly represent this compositional shift, breaking with what the composer called the �now pass� modernism. Also here is the premiere recording of the Texas-inspired Over the Plains, memorable for its allusions to cowboy music and offering some unexpectedly dramatic and atmospheric twists along the way.