Eugene Goossens, Morton Gould - John Antill: Corroboree - Suite from the ballet / Morton Gould: Interplay ballet music (1959, 1961) [2012] Hi-Res

This 1959 recording of Antill’s Corroboree, engineered by Bert Whyte, has been an audiophile cult favorite ever since. The extraordinary suite from a ballet seems to be the only thing out there by the Australian composer, who created a percussion-heavy suite from which we have here five-movements—a musical evocation of an Australian Aboriginal dance ceremony. Conductor Goossens is responsible for having discovered the unusual, primitive-sounding work when he took over the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In some ways it is a sort of Australian counterpart to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. (By the way, there’s also a competing CD of the work performed by the Sydney Symphony; it doesn’t equal the fidelity of this one.)
The five selected movements are: Welcome Ceremony, Dance to the Evening Star, A Rain Dance, Procession of Totems, and Closing Fire Ceremony. Although it’s full of violent orchestral sounds with a strong emphasis on the percussion section, there are also sections at lower volumes with the percussion contributing to interesting coloristic effects. There’s no digeridoos in it, but plenty of low-register eerie sounds nevertheless. (If such a work were composed today, there probably would be.) One of the online reviewers brought up a very interesting point on the several works which supported the Futurist movement of the early 20th century—machine-music works such as Mossolov’s Iron Foundry and Honegger’s Pacific 231. Namely how the primitive evocations in the music of the Antill and Stravinsky works also easily portray the machine world.
The work was originally a piano concerto written for Jose Iturbi, but choreographer Jerome Robbins heard it on the radio and decided it would be perfect as dance music for his new ballet. It fits right in with the style of George Gershwin, and even has a Blues movement. It now has a new title of Interplay, and as no other pianist is credited, it is presumably Gould himself who is the soloist. The work is in four movements.
—John Sunier


Tracks:

Antill Corroboree Suite from Ballet
1) Welcome Ceremony
2) Dance To The Evening Star
3) A Rain Dance
4) Procession Of Totems
5) Closing Fire Ceremony

Gould Interplay Ballet Music
6) With drive and vigor
7) Gavotte
8) Blues
9) Very fast, with verve and gusto

Personnel:

London Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Goossens
Morton Gould & his Orchestra