"I'm crazy about Antheil. His music is
madcap, charming and wonderfully American.
But for a handful of pieces, his works are
little known." Thus declares Miller Theatre
executive director George Steel. On 7
October, pianist Guy Livingston joins Daniel
Spalding and the Philadelphia Virtuosi
Chamber Orchestra at Miller to reintroduce to
American audiences three forgotten scores of
George Antheil: PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 - in its
American premiere; DREAMS BALLET, and
SERENADE NO. 2 FOR CHAMBER ORCHESTRA. Steel
continues, "For a few years now, I've been
speaking with Guy about presenting a portrait
concert here at Miller Theatre, and recently
Daniel and I have been talking about the same
thing. It's a three-way love affair for
Antheil's music." The concert offers the
second performance of both DREAMS BALLET and
SERENADE NO. 2, which haven't been played
since their premieres. The program repeats in
Philadelphia on the 9th.
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“George Antheil’s music has wit, humor, and
is always full of fabulous colors.”
— Daniel Spalding
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PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 premiered in Paris on 12
March 1927, as part of the popular series
"Concerts Golschmann," presented by the
brothers Vladimir Golschmann, conductor, and
pianist Boris Golschmann. Written after
BALLET MÉCANIQUE, this work evidences
Antheil's change in compositional style as he
himself called it "neoclassic." After
returning to the US in the early thirties,
Antheil wrote a series of ballets for Georges
Balanchine and the American Ballet. DREAMS
BALLET was first performed on 5 March 1935
conducted by Sandor Harmati. Antheil noted of
this work "We are trying, in American style
and spirit, to revive the Diaghilev
tradition." Antheil's SERENADE NO. 2 was
premiered on 26 February 1950 by the Los
Angeles Chamber Symphony. Composed as a
companion work to his SERENADE FOR STRING
ORCHESTRA, it illustrates the composer's gift
and imagination for creating mosaic,
block-like structures featuring
America-inspired melody and energetic
orchestration.
