GEORGE ANTHEIL (1900-1959): Sonatina for Violin and Piano, 3 Valses from “Specter of the Rose” (arr. Werner Gebauer [1918-2013]), Violin Concerto (vln./pno. reduction).

Description: All three of these works are associated with the Austrian-American violinist Werner Gebauer who became friends with Antheil in the 1940s. The Sonatina (1945) and concerto (1946) were dedicated to Gebauer and the violinist did his own arrangement of the waltzes from the score for a film which the composer wrote in 1947. The 14-minute Sonatina is whimsical and brash with both an American feel and a Prokofievian angularity but the concerto is much bigger. In fact, this recording uses the original manuscript and is, at 41 minutes, almost a dozen minutes longer than the 1949 recording Gebauer made with Antal Dorati and the Dallas Symphony (available on YouTube) where large cuts were made during rehearsals and violin lines altered. The first movement was based on Antheil’s early (1924) violin sonata and is more dissonant than the other two movements which are in his later, neo-romantic style. Hannah Leland (violin), Aimee Fincher (piano).