A Window in Time: Rachmaninoff Performs His Solo Piano Works

A Window in Time: Rachmaninoff Performs His Solo Piano Works

A Window in Time: Rachmaninoff Performs His Solo Piano Works
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CD Details

Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1998-08-25
Music Label: Telarc
Soundtracks:
  1. Prelude In C-Sharp Minor, Op. 3, No. 2
  2. Lilacs, Op. 21, No. 5
  3. The Flight Of The Bumblebee
  4. Elegie, Op. 3, No. 1
  5. Barcarolle, Op. 10, No. 3
  6. Liebesfreud
  7. Liebesleid
  8. Melodie, Op. 3, No. 3
  9. Etude-Tableau In B Minor, Op. 39, No. 4
  10. Wohin?
  11. Polichinelle, Op. 3, No. 4
  12. Polka De V.R.
  13. Prelude In G Minor, Op. 23, No. 5
  14. Serenade, Op. 3, No. 5
  15. Minuet
  16. Hopak
  17. Etude-Tableau In A Minor, Op. 39, No. 6
  18. Humoresque Op. 10, No. 5
  19. The Star-Spangled Banner

Music reviews of A Window in Time: Rachmaninoff Performs His Solo Piano Works

Music Review: Interesting, but not Rachmaninoff
Rating: 3 Stars

My earlier review, part of which is below, is not as helpful as I intended it to be. The recordings of piano rolls are interesting. They sound very good because they use modern recording techniques and excellent pianos. We can probably assume the rolls sound very much like the rolls originally produced by the artist and duplicated for sale 85-90 years ago. BUT...a piano roll cannot possibly sound like the performance that created it. The crucial data that makes one pianist sound different from another, makes a pianist sound different from a piano machine, and makes artistry from the composer's notes, this crucial data was never recorded on the rolls. This makes the rolls a curiosity - nothing more - and you are fooling yourself if you think the listening experience is anything like being in the room while Rachmaninoff played.

Piano roll technology is so limited that any experienced pianist will tell you it cannot possibly sound like the original performance. Even modern sequencing technology falls short in some aspects. First, the advanced Ampico machine of the time is only a record of the original timings of the notes and pedal work - and that is only relative. The artistry comes in all the subtleties beyond the mere timings. This equipment simply could not record the infinite variety of touches used by a great virtuoso. I'm not just talking about volume, which Ampico could pick up to some degree, but the approach. Nor can it record the subtle use of the pedals. In the hands of a master, the piano is capable of so many colors depending on the particular techniques applied. Also, remember that the piano not only responds to the player, but the pianist responds to the instrument. The virtuoso is making thousands of judgements based on what he/she hears back from the piano and the acoustics of the room. And even the most minute variances in the adjustment of the action and pedals changes how the pedals will work and how the hammers will respond to the keys. The one thing the Ampico does capture fairly well is the rubato as used by an artist like Rachmaninoff. Because the roll moves at a constant speed during recording and playback, it will capture hesitations, tempo changes, fermatas, etc as executed by the player. No, even with the hiss and scratches, the primitive old sound recordings are a much better record of the great pianists of the first half of the 20th century. Eventually, it may be possible with digital sound editing to bring those recordings closer to the original sound quality experienced by witnesses to those great performances.
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Description of A Window in Time: Rachmaninoff Performs His Solo Piano Works

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This collection of Rachmaninoff's solo piano performances relies on a mix of old and new technologies. Between 1919 and 1929, Rachmaninoff cut these 19 performances to piano rolls, which would then be played back through reproducing pianos capable of accurately re-creating the original performances through pneumatic devices that animated the rolls with living nuances and shades--a facet that differentiated the classier reproduction keyboards from the more common "player pianos." This set updates the technology with electronic devices--transparently, though expertly, replacing the pneumatics. Played back on a Bösendorfer Reproducing Piano, this collection sounds astounding, full of Rachmaninoff's lickety-quick motion and his punching intensity when striking the keys. There are 18 Rachmaninoff selections--some of them collaborations--and one gem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," taken to new places in this 1919 reading. --Andrew Bartlett

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