George Antheil - Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-4 (Tianwa Yang; Nicholas Rimmer)

Information

Composer: George Antheil

1. Violin Sonata No. 1: I. Allegro moderato
2. Violin Sonata No. 1: II. Andante moderato
3. Violin Sonata No. 1: III. Funebre, lento espressivo
4. Violin Sonata No. 1: IV. Presto
5. Violin Sonata No. 2
6. Violin Sonata No. 3
7. Violin Sonata No. 4: I. Scherzo
8. Violin Sonata No. 4: II. Passacaglia Variations
9. Violin Sonata No. 4: III. Toccata-Rondo

Tianwa Yang, violin

Nicholas Rimmer, piano

Date: 2023

Label: Naxos

https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.559937

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

George Antheil started his career writing wild and crazy works that went all over the place, and often presaged modernists who came after him, as his three violin sonatas from 1923 and 1924 bear out. By the time he composed his 1947/48 Fourth violin sonata, however, Antheil had considerably toned down his erstwhile “bad boy of music” image to become a distinctive mainstream modernist.

Sonata No. 1’s first movement is pure Stravinsky savagery, starting with L’Histoire du Soldat and settling into The Rite of Spring’s chugging rhythms piling up on top of one another. By contrast, the second movement’s delicate piano patterns are offset by the violin’s rapid glissando outbursts. The short and compact single-movement Sonata No. 2 evokes images of Max Fleisher cartoons gone haywire, with hints of vaudeville tunes and unpredictable mood shifts, not to mention added drums at the end. Sonata No. 3 similarly transpires in a single uninterrupted movement, offering a gentler, more songful take on Stravinsky’s rhythmic asymmetry.

Imagine Ives in a patriotic mood welded on to Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf on steroids, and you’ll get an idea of Sonata No. 4’s opening Scherzo. The second-movement variations are based on a six-bar passacaglia theme stated at the outset by the piano. Here the music’s easy flow and seeming spontaneity actually results from rigor and control, notably in the seventh variation, which is an elaborate canon. The Toccata finale evokes the unbridled energy of Antheil’s youth, yet with a richer harmonic palette and steadier momentum.

It is obvious that violinist Tianwa Yang and pianist Nicholas Rimmer have prepared these unwieldy scores with the utmost care and attention to detail, not to mention their effortless instrumental mastery. If I wanted to be picky, I’d lean toward the terser, harder-edged fast movements in an earlier Antheil sonata cycle on the Azica label featuring violinist Mark Fewer and composer/pianist John Novacek. In any event, Naxos’ superior engineering and superb annotations enhance my recommendation of a disc that truly contributes to the catalog.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday

More reviews:

https://artmusiclounge.wordpress.com/2023/06/17/yang-plays-antheil/
https://musicwebinternational.com/2023/08/antheil-violin-sonatas-naxos/

https://www.thestrad.com/reviews/tianwa-yang-antheil-violin-sonatas/16674.article

https://www.allmusic.com/album/george-antheil-violin-sonatas-nos-1-4-mw0003989071

https://www.naxos.com/Review/Detail/?catalogueid=8.559937&languageid=EN

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George Antheil (July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, mechanical – of the early 20th century. Spending much of the 1920s in Europe, Antheil returned to the US in the 1930s, and thereafter spent much of his time composing music for films and, eventually, television. A man of diverse interests and talents, Antheil was constantly reinventing himself. He also wrote magazine articles, an autobiography, a mystery novel, newspaper and music columns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Antheil

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Tianwa Yang (杨天娲, born April 8, 1987) is a Chinese classical violinist. She studied with Lin Yaoji at the Central Conservatory of Music. Yang debuted in Europe in 2001, performing with the Czech Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra in Prague. Her North American debut was in the 2007-2008 season when she performed at the Virginia Arts Festival with the Virginia Symphony. Yang recorded her first CD in 2000, at the age of 13, with a recording of Paganini's 24 Caprices, on the Hugo Classical label. In 2004, she began recording for Naxos, starting with a series of the complete works of Pablo de Sarasate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianwa_Yang

https://tianwayang.com/

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Nicholas Rimmer was born in 1981 in England and studied in Cambridge, Hanover, Berlin and Cologne. A pianist with a keen interest in chamber music, Lied, as well as in historical keyboard instruments, he has appeared in many major concert venues such as Wigmore Hall, Tonhalle Zürich and the Philharmonie Berlin. He has appeared as soloist with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie and the Swiss Chamber Orchestra CHAARTS. His varied discography numbers over 20 albums. As of 2019 Nicholas Rimmer holds a professorship for piano at the Freiburg University of Music.

https://www.naxos.com/Bio/Person/Nicholas_Rimmer/3185

https://nicholasrimmer.com/

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