Antheil composed his Sonatina and Violin Concerto for Werner Gebauer, a German-born violinist who emigrated to the US in 1938. The two met in early 1945 and found they shared interests in literature and science as well as music. (A few years earlier, Antheil and actress Hedy Lamarr had invented a method of encryption known as ‘frequency-hopping’ – inspired in part by player piano rolls – to aid radio controlled torpedoes, laying the groundwork for technology such as Wi Fi and Bluetooth.) The Sonatina, written for Gebauer’s New York recital debut in December 1945, is a relatively slender work that, like much of Antheil’s music from this period, is charged by stark stylistic contrasts. The opening blatantly mimics Prokofiev and Shostakovich, for example, but suddenly lurches into a mood of dreamy Americana.

The following year Gebauer – now leader of the newly professionalised Dallas Symphony – commissioned the Concerto. It was premiered in early 1947 under Antal Dorati, then never played again. One can almost understand why: sprawling, rhapsodic, rhythmically complex and brilliantly orchestrated, it’s enormously challenging for all concerned. An extremely rough-sounding acetate of that performance – played with astonishing authority and gusto by Gebauer – has survived (I heard it on YouTube). Violinist Hannah Leland and pianist Aimee Fincher of the Duo Odéon are not quite so fearlessly mercurial but they follow the score’s unpredictable, occasionally bewildering twists and turns without faltering. More importantly, they find an emotional core to music that might easily come across as superficial. There are passages, as in the development section of the first movement (around 6'24"), where one feels the lack of orchestral colour and textural detail, but that’s simply the nature of a piano reduction. As an encore, we’re given a sweetly nostalgic trio of waltzes arranged by Gebauer from Antheil’s film score to Specter of the Rose.

I do hope Leland (or Mark Fewer, who made a superb recording of the Violin Sonatas for Azica a few years ago) gets the chance to record the Concerto with orchestra. In the meantime, I’m grateful to the Duo Odéon for their zealous advocacy. This is an auspicious debut CD and a vital addition to the Antheil discography.