Symphony 3: American

George Antheil was one of the craziest and most original composers to come out of twentieth-century America, and his life was just as exciting and restless. The Bad Boy of Music, as he aptly termed himself in his autobiography, was not a man for small flames but, from the scandalmonger of the Ballet Mécanique to the serious composer of symphonies, fired up the engines in his quest for his own ego. In the process, he was unsystematic, unorganized, and firmly believed that talent and genius could do it all. Fortunately, fate mostly agreed with him. The chaos of the catalogue of his works and the state of his scores and performance materials, however, bring despair to those who today undertake to sort through his work. We thus are proud to announce, for the first time on CD, Antheil’s Symphony No. 3, composed during 1936-39. It is an American symphony....It is the America of the future, bold, fearless, new, and coming from the very breath of the new continent. The encores also have the appropriate American flair: the Tom Sawyer and McKonkey’s Ferry overtures, the jaunty Hot Time Dance, and the suite to the ballet The Capital of the World.