Antheil: Symphony No. 3 "American"; Tom Sawyer; Hot-Time Dance; McKonkey's Ferry; Capital of the World.

Antheil: Symphony No. 3 "American"; Tom Sawyer; Hot-Time Dance; McKonkey's Ferry; Capital of the World. Hugh Wolff, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. CPO 777 040-2.

In the 1940s a survey indicated that the four American composers whose works were most often performed at that time were George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and George Antheil. Remarkable, considering that now, more than fifty years on, the first three composers are still immensely popular and the fourth, Antheil, is practically unknown.

American composer George Antheil (1900-1959) was a self-proclaimed "bad boy" of music in the 1920s, going forth to Europe to set the world on fire in the manner of his hero, Igor Stravinsky. There was a difference, of course. Stravinsky wrote the music to back him up. Antheil's music, on the other hand, sounds more like the Hollywood film scores he eventually wrote to earn him and his family money.

Antheil's Third Symphony (1939) is subtitled "American," and while it is certainly very American in its themes and reflections on American life, it is hardly a "symphony" at all. It is more like a series of tone poems, each section a description of a different part of the country. I found most it noisy. The shorter works on the disc are aptly named for their content, "Tom Sawyer," "Hot-Time Dance," "McKonkey's Ferry," and for a Hemingway short story, "Capital of the World." The latter, a suite from his ballet, is undoubtedly the best thing in the present collection, colorful and vibrant, filled with vitality rather than mere notes.

The two best things about the disc are its sound and its informational booklet. CPO engineers do a fine job capturing the clear, open, lively sound of an orchestra going at full bore, with wide dynamic contrasts, strong bass, clean highs, and a reasonably transparent midrange. The accompanying booklet note is an extensive biographical essay on the composer by Eckhardt van den Hoogen. The essay's only drawback is that it's presented in three languages, and in order to fit all of it into one little booklet, the typeface is so small you almost need a magnifying glass to read it.

I hope that when Hugh Wolff and his Frankfurt players finish up their project with Antheil's symphonic works, they will tackle some of the man's lighter (and better) pieces, the ones he composed for film; things like The Plainsman, Union Pacific, The Buccaneer, Along the Oregon Trail, Tokyo Joe, and The Pride and the Passion. We'll see.