In its American Classics series Naxos has a cycle of Antheil Symphonies and other works ongoing, with the young conductor Theodor Kuchar leading the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. The Fourth and Sixth Symphonies appear on the first issue in that cycle, along with a short work called McKonkey's Ferry, and in all those works the voice of Shostakovich can be heard. Here, in the First, from 1923 when the composer was twenty-three, no such influence can be discerned, and neither does the work in any substantial way ...
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In its American Classics series Naxos has a cycle of Antheil Symphonies and other works ongoing, with the young conductor Theodor Kuchar leading the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. The Fourth and Sixth Symphonies appear on the first issue in that cycle, along with a short work called McKonkey's Ferry, and in all those works the voice of Shostakovich can be heard. Here, in the First, from 1923 when the composer was twenty-three, no such influence can be discerned, and neither does the work in any substantial way sound immature. Already Antheil had developed a sure sense of orchestration, if not of style. This work, in fact, sounds as though it contains a variety of influences, from the music of Les Six (he was living in France at the time he wrote this symphony) to that of Stravinsky.The work is interesting, to be sure, but for all its seeming maturity does not rise to the level of his later symphonies. At least its colors and changing moods point the way to his career as a successful...
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