From the cheeky cover montage of the artists co-piloting a biplane, to the wide-ranging but cunningly linked program, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Joonas Ahonen’s latest disc for Alpha is an intriguing, involving and, in the very best sense, a challenging delight. 

Le Monde selon George Antheil (The World according to George Antheil) explores the life and times of the futuristic jazz-age composer and pianist best known for his 1925 Ballet Mécanique. Antheil (1900-1959) is often considered an uneven composer whose piano works like Sonate Sauvage, Airplane Sonata and Death of Machines are seen more as acts of provocation than musical masterpieces. Kopatchinskaja and Ahonen set out to prove that there was more to Antheil than attention seeking, framing a performance of his 1923 Violin Sonata No 1 with works by Beethoven, who he worshipped, and Cage and Feldman, American colleagues and composers who would carry the futurist torch, albeit a very different one, long after Antheil was gone.

Of course, the naysayers will be sharpening their quills to have...