Duo-Art CD's (AKA The Gershwin Controversy)
By Rocci Cirone
Now... I'm not sure If we're talking about the same set/brand of CD's, but I've had some luck with the "Gershwin plays Gershwin" and "Paderewski plays Paderewski" CD's put out by LaserLight Digital. Since these CD's only cost about $4 *new*, I wasn't expecting perfection... but was pleasantly suprised to find they were of pretty good quality. I compared the performance of what was on the disks with some of the same Duo-Art rolls on a 1914 Weber FF and couldn't hear much difference at all. The only gripe I have is that the piano used on the Paderewski recordings had one noisy key - kinda made a sort of "plink" sound on release. I don't know if they were scanned Duo-Art rolls being played on a newer MIDI piano, a Pianocorder (who knows?), or even an actual DuoArt (sometimes I can swear I hear the very faint hum of ye-old Duo-Art vacuum motor)
SO... to sum up...
$8 for two CDs..
. + They happen to contain some of my favorite songs/rolls...
+ I can't bring my Duo-Art in the car with me when I commute...
= a pretty good deal!
On a humorous side note... I have a friend who is in Medical school. The other day he recounted a funny occurance at the cadaver lab. In this lab students often write on large white boards if they find something of interest during one of their dissections. A while ago my friend (also an AMICA member) nearly broke down laughing when some jokester had written these words on a white board... "Mighty Wurlitzer organ found in cecum of table 8." Even more funny was the number of students who scrambled into their anatomy books to find out exactly what a Wurlitzer organ is...
Rocci Cirone - San Jose, CA
CironeRA@perkin-elmer.com
salcicce@earthlink.net
[ Editor's Note:
[
[ Gee, I had no idea that Spencer's message would generate
[ so much discussion. For what its worth, there are several
[ albums which have the phrase "Gershiwin Plays Gershwin". Browsing
[ the Web, I found these two descriptions in a web page at St. Joseph
[ University (Not an "OFFICIAL" University Web page...)
[
[ ***** Gershwin, George, piano. Gershwin Plays Gershwin. RCA Victrola
[ AVM1-1740. Gershwin with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.
[ Includes Rhapsody in Blue (the frequently anthologized 1927
[ version, which is fabulous), An American in Paris, The Three
[ Preludes, and songs from Oh, Kay! and Tip-Toes. The best
[ anthology by far of Gershwin's own recordings.
[
[ *** Gershwin, George, piano. Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano
[ Rolls. Elektra Nonesuch. Electronically-produced recordings
[ of Gershwin's piano rolls; there's a certain lack of the human
[ (not to say the Gershwin) touch, but certainly worth a
[ listen.
[
[ The comments are those of the student. The point is, though, that there
[ are a number of albums of Gershwin "playing" Gershwin. I don't know
[ if the LaserLight brand CD is a copy of the RCA (Victor?!!) album, or
[ something else. Does anyone else know ?
[
[ Jody |
(Message sent Wed 16 Oct 1996, 15:20:25 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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