Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.
An Antheil premiere (or two)
Synopsis
It was on today’s date in 1926, an avant-garde musical piece entitled “Ballet Mechanique,” scored for multiple pianos and percussion, had its PUBLIC premiere at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris. Its composer was a 25-year old American named George Antheil.
But Antheil’s piece had its PRIVATE premiere earlier that year at the palatial Parisian home of a very beautiful – and very rich – young American who wanted to break into elite European society. Antheil suggested that the lure of cutting edge music and buckets of free champagne would win over her specially invited audience of Parisian bluebloods.
Antheil described the scene as follows: “8 grand pianos filled up the giant living room completely and without an extra inch of room, while the xylophones and percussion were located in the side room and on the giant staircase. [The conductor] stood at the top of the piano in the center. To this already jammed-packed house, add 200 guests!"
Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the champagne, but it did the trick. “The last we saw of our beautiful young hostess that day,” Antheil recalled, “she was being thrown up and down in a blanket by two princesses, a duchess, and three Italian marchesas.”
Music Played in Today's ProgramGeorge Antheil (1900 - 1959): Ballet Mecanique (Ensemble Modern; HK Gruber, cond.) RCA 68066