Antheil: Ballet Mécanique; Violin Sonata No 2; String Quartet No 1; Ballet Mécanique

New Palais Royale Orchestra and Percussion Ensemble/ Maurice PeressNimbus NI 2567 *****

As a young man, US composer and self-described "Bad Boy of Music" George Antheil (1900-59) wrote the kind of pieces that Richmal Crompton's William might have concocted had he become a composer. The Second Violin Sonata has a part for a drum, the Ballet Mécaniquecalls for a siren, a propeller blade, a pianola, and a horde of often demented pianists and percussionists. At times the pianos sound as if they're being played with boxing gloves. Antheil, whose admirers included Ezra Pound and WB Yeats, was a quintessential voice of the 1920s, and Maurice Peress's uninhibited 1990 recreation of a key 1927 New York concert gets a welcome new lease of life from Nimbus. See http://url.ie/6c45