Search - Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Franz Liszt, Anton Rubinstein :: Welte-Mignon Piano Rolls, Vol. 3: Schumann, Brahms, Chopin, Sibelius

Disappointing

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 07/20/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is the third of this series to come out and the third I have reviewed. I am fascinated by the history of piano-playing and grasp at any chance to hear pianists from an earlier era. The Welte-Mignon piano rolls are probably better at reproducing the playing of great pianists of the past than the more familiar piano rolls we associated with the Player Piano. But there are still some unresolved mechanical complexities with the system and a resulting mechanical quality to the music produced. In particular there is a subtle rhythmic instability that is probably discernible by most listeners. Having said that, there are some performances here that I am very happy to have. The pianists represented are: Artur Schnabel, Ferruccio Busoni, Josef Hofmann, Carl Schmidt, Olga Samaroff, Xaver Scharwenka, Rudolph Ganz, Yolanda Mero, Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler, Fanny Davies, W. Krowsky, and Wera Schapira. It is of note that some of these pianists lived on to record phonograph records, and where they are available (e.g. Fanny Davies in some of the 'Kinderszenen') they are preferable. Who needs Schnabel's Welte-Mignon efforts when he lived well into the electric period of recording and left a huge recorded legacy, including all the Beethoven sonatas?



American pianist Fanny Bloomfield Zeisler plays two Chopin selections-the Op. 70, No. 1 Waltz, and the B Minor Scherzo, Op. 20, No 1. The former is delightful, with an almost Viennese Schwung. But the Scherzo is a dog's breakfast; I think it is the recording process, not her playing, but one cannot be sure, of course. And in the Scherzo the piano is out of tune. Ferruccio Busoni, a real giant of the piano, is ill-served here. He made a few gramophone recordings but they, too, are not so great, although preferable to the clunky Paganini/Liszt 'La campanella' here. Josef Hofmann's 'German Waltz' by Anton Rubinstein is awkward, certainly not what we would expect from Hofmann's phonographic legacy; again, I blame the recording/reproduction process here. Davies's first six sections of 'Kinderszenen' are nicely done, I must say, but when she re-recorded them two decades later, they were much better.



All in all, I have to give this issue a thumbs down. I do understand that some of this same material is available on the Pierian label, but I've not heard those. One wonders if the reproduction of these Welte-Mignon rolls are done more expertly there.



Scott Morrison"