It was interesting to hear about US magazines not putting in bad reviews.
Here in the UK I collected or was sent most of the published reviews and
put them into the PPG magazine.  It was particularly noticeable how there
were two completely different types of review.

The populist magazines all seemed to have taken the publicity material at
face value, and were uniformly positive.  I got the impression they'd not
reviewed the music so much as the concept.

The more intellectual reviews clearly all disliked what they heard, but
were on the whole fairly guarded and most diplomatic about it!  Reading
between the lines you could tell every one of them thought the music was
too loud and the theme accenting completely missing.  Lionel Salter's
review in The Gramophone had clearly taken technical advice from a Duo-
Art expert.

Having spent some time on the phone with Gerald to make sure the PPG took
a balanced line, it was obvious he was hurt by the reception the CDs got,
and was convinced it was largely due to jealousy.  I also think he
expected this reception so kept the project to himself and didn't seek or
welcome any advice.  With that in mind, my impression of the Nimbus
project is that they concentrated on the wrong issues.  There are lessons
to be drawn from this rather unfortunate affair.

Nimbus's publicity dwelt on how they had originally not been convinced
of the _timing_ of the original paper-roll records, and had gone to great
lengths to obtain the artist's 78s where available to prove the note
placement was correct.  They even produced a special CD which faded from
78 to roll and back several times thorough the piece.  The logic seemed
to be that the rolls were accurate because the notes were correct; the
dynamics were not really discussed.

I am sure Gerald Stonehill simply told them that his pushup gave perfect
Duo-Art dynamic reproduction, and Nimbus never questioned him even if
they were aware of its limitations.  Gordon Iles, who built the pushup,
clearly gave Gerald the impression that the Ampico-B-type design can't go
out of regulation and doesn't need adjusting to suit the piano and
performance venue.

For complex reasons Gerald also maintains that Peter Davis's Duo-Art
pushup, a marriage of an original 88-note Themodist pushup and a Duo-Art
expression system, cannot play 'authentically' (as he puts it), so he
would have positively advised Nimbus against using it for comparisons --
so which 'expert' should they have believed on the dynamics?

Gerald played the comparison CD at the PPG's AGM and said how it
demonstrated the perfection of the timing.  I thought, "How well it
demonstrates the failings of the dynamics!"

Chopin's Berceuse on the 78 record had a delicate accompaniment in the
left hand with a singing melody line in the treble standing well above
it.  As the CD faded across to the roll, the accompaniment simply rose
to the same level as the theme.  To my mind, it's the swamped or non-
existent themeing that's ruins the early Nimbus CDs.  I gave up with them
at that point, and haven't heard the later ones, which may well be better
(let's hope so -- it would be so nice for the project to be a success).

The only way I can see for a recording project such as this to work is
to hold auditions of different instruments at the start, and choose the
best pianos and technicians objectively.  Sadly, we all know that's not
the way things happen.  How about a Duo-Art regulating competition, the
winner to be issued on a CD?

I heard my first programme of the Earwitness Duo-Art recordings last
night on BBC Radio 3.  Apart from being a bit bass-heavy they sounded a
great deal more convincing than the Nimbus recordings, with credible
themeing to be heard across the whole dynamic range.  I was concerned that
at one point a bass note at zero accompaniment with sustaining pedal on
played as loudly as I would expect my piano to reach at level 3.  Is that
the general concern about these recordings?

Julian Dyer

 [ Wayne Stahnke happily confirmed the *acceleration* of Ampico music
 [ rolls by comparing the rolls recorded by Rachmaninoff with the same
 [ songs played by the artist on 78-rpm records.  After Wayne adjusted
 [ the music roll "Tempo" and the acceleration constant, it was possible
 [ to play the piano and the phono record together, with the same overall
 [ elapsed time, and only random differences of less than one second
 [ average in the note-strike times.  Rachmaninoff's sense of time was
 [ amazing: some of his phono recordings were made 10 years after the
 [ Ampico rolls were recorded, yet he duplicated the same performance!
 [ -- Robbie