7 Légende no.1: St. François d'Assise: la prédication aux oiseaux 8:52
8 Légende no.2: St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots 7:12
Almost every important pianist and composer from the
beginning of the last century recorded piano rolls. Particularly when
developments were such that dynamics, pedal operation, etc. could also be
recorded on the roll, recording rolls became more interesting than recording
78t. records for a mechanical horn: the sound quality of a real piano was of
course nicer than the tinny sound of the early piano recordings. There is a
wonderful site on the history of the reproducing piano. And in Amsterdam is the
Pianola Museum, which I can heartily recommend to everyone.
The 3 most important reproducing piano systems were Welte
Mignon, Duo-Art and Ampico. Less important were Hupfeld DEA and Philipps Duca.
In 1904, the German company Welte-Mignon developed the
first system in which not only the notes but also the pedal operation,
dynamics, etc. could be recorded on the roll. Eugene d'Albert, Wilhelm
Backhaus, Ferrucio Busoni, Claude Debussy, Edwin Fischer, Walter Gieseking,
Arthur de Greef, Edvard Grieg, Paul Hindemith, Wanda Landowska, Ruggiero
Leoncavallo, Gustav Mahler, Arthur Nikisch, Egon Petri, Raoul Pugno, Camille
Saint-Saëns, Richard Strauss, Max Reger, Artur Schnabel and Alexander Scriabin
have recorded roles for Welte-Mignon.
In 1913, the Aeolian Company developed the Duo-Art
system. They recruited Harold Bauer, Ferrucio Busoni, Teresa Carreño, Edwin
Fischer, Arthur Friedheim, Ignaz Friedman, Rudolph Ganz, George Gershwin,
Leopold Godowski, Percy Grainger, Josef Hofmann, Ignace Jan Paderewski, Sergei
Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky.
Also in 1913, Ampico (American Piano Company) came on the
market with a reproducing system. Josef Lhévinne, Moriz Rosenthal and Sergei
Rachmaninoff are the most famous performers on Ampico.
In the 1970s Everest released a series of LPs: Everest
Archive of Piano Music, with reproducing Duo-Art piano rolls, played by famous
pianists. The piano used for this Duo-Art series by Everest is a Steinway,
built in 1929 from the collection of Harold L. Powell, North Hollywood,
California. All rolls used in the Everest Duo-Art series were played between
1916 and 1925.
Arthur Friedheim (St. Petersburg, 26.10.1859 - New York
City, 19.10.1932): Russian pianist, conductor and composer. Studied one year
with Anton Rubinstein, was dissatisfied with it and went to Franz Liszt. The
latter accepted him after some hesitation in 1880. During the last eight years
of Liszt's life Friedheim remained his pupil, also acted as secretary and lived
with Liszt in Rome and Weimar.
Then from 1891-1895: United States, then England
(teaching until 1904 at the Royal Manchester College of Music).
From 1908-1911: conductor in Munich; 1915 United States;
1921 Canada (professor at Canadian Academy of Music).
He made only 3 78t. records around 1912 for Columbia. One
of them is an oddity: in Chopin's funeral march he simply stops at 2/3, due to
lack of space on the record side.
Arthur Friedheim recorded roles for Welte-Mignon,
Philipps Duca and Triphonola in addition to Duo-Art.See you on Thursday, May 1, for this year's MUSICAL MONTH OF MAY, with new music comps all month long --- starting with a special Walpurgisnacht concoction! See ya then!
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