George Antheil’s Ballet Mécanique

Recreated and Conducted by Maurice Peress.

George Antheil’s avant-garde signature piece, the Ballet Méchanique, created riots in Paris at the Theatre Champs Elysees in June of 1926, and the following April in New York’s Carnegie Hall. Even though it was the focus of one of the most written about events in 20th century American music history, it was not to be heard again for 62 years, until American conductor and musicologist Maurice Peress searched out the original score and restaged the 1927 concert in the very same Carnegie Hall on July 12, 1989.

This world premiere recording now makes it possible to hear the original which contained Antheil’s most advanced ideas; a futurist, machine-age, ragtime inspired music, of a complexity beyond human playing capabilities and a conception beyond most music composed in 1925.