Given the recent thread regarding the Nimbus CD's, it's time for me
to jump into the fray and comment briefly on the pile of various CD's
I picked up yesterday during the traditional "Boxing Day" shopping
frenzy.  Interestingly enough, I was able to find recordings of all
three best-known reproducing piano systems: Duo-Art, Ampico (B) and
Welte-Mignon.  So here's the run-down:

  1) Tresors de la Musique Mechanique (Music for Mechanical
  Instruments) Collection Anezo-Bouilhol. (Disques Pierre Verany
  PV.786092, originally released by Le Chant do Monde in 1977) 20
  instruments, 32 tracks with song title and composer where known,
  60 min, booklet in French and English.

This is a CD for those who practice the Mechanical Music equivalent of
'train spotting': "At last, a recording of an 1863 Debain Antiphonel!"

However, the producers of this recording, for the usual bad reasons,
saw no reason to send for a piano tuner (or heavens forbid, a
technician!) before making the recordings.  Interestingly enough, while
the piano instruments are in mediocre to terrible shape, with the
exception of a Pleyel Electric, all the music boxes are in reasonably
good order, and the organs are the best performers overall.  I infer
from this which instruments the owner "collected" and which ones were
enjoyed as musical instruments.  Fortunately the organ and music box
tracks are at the end of the CD, which almost makes the listener forget
about the torment of those rickety pianos!

However, if you *need* to find a recording of an 1863 Debain
Antiphonel, this is probably the only place to find it.

  2) L'Heritage Des Grands (The Heritage of the Greatest/Das erbe der
  Beruehmte). (Autographe AD384, 1988) 3 CD's, 1 instrument, 41 tracks.
  200 min. Booklet (56 pp.) in French, German, and English.

Nowhere does it state on the outside of the CD package that the
recordings were made of a reproducing piano.  I suspect this was to
overcome any prejudice against 'player piannas' by those paragons of
refined taste, the exalted Classical Music Buyers.  However, inside
the shrink-wrap is the booklet, which has a single page of introductory
bumpf mentioning that a 1914 Steinway-Welte piano was used for the
recordings.

Twenty-three pianists are represented.  Included are Lhevinne,
Paderewski, Degreef, D'Albert, Busoni, Debussy, Saint-Saens, Grieg,
Mahler, Strauss, Landowska, Hindemith...not surprisingly, a lot of
big names here.  As would be expected, the music is mainly "salon
classical": Mozart, Lizst, Chopin, Beethoven, Wagner, Schubert, are
the composers for the most part.  The Hindemith is quite prominently
different, sounding uncannily like a Nancarrow etude.  Did he _really_
play like this?

I am not at all an "expert" on the finer performance nuances of
reproducing pianos, nor am I all that familiar with most of the musical
material, so I cannot say whether this piano was reproducing at its
absolute best form or not.  I can vouch, wholeheartedly, for the end
effect: this is a delight to listen to, purely as music, and not just
a curiosity worth keeping because it captures the sounds made by some
rare old museum pieces.

  3) Frederic Lamond (series titles: "Great Pianists of the Golden Era:
  Lizst's Pupils" and "Instruments of the past: the Reproducing
  Piano").  (fone 90 F 06 CD, 1990, Italy) 1 instrument (Steinway
  Duo-Art), 8 tracks, 60 min. 24 page booklet in Italian and brief
  English summary.

Unlike the Welte set reviewed above, the producers of this CD were
unafraid to Reveal All about reproducing pianos.  The booklet contains
a 10-page description and history of player pianos and player pianos.
Unfortunately for me, I understand very little Italian, so I can't
comment on anything other than one notable fact -- judging from the
names that appear, there is a fairly comprehensive history presented,
except the name "Ampico" doesn't appear even once.  All other
manufacturers of reproducing pianos of any consequence are at least
mentioned.  Perhaps the people involved were a little TOO
Aeolian-inclined?

The piano is documented down to the serial number.  Roll numbers and
publication dates are given.  The performer biographies that were
published in the 1920's Duo-Art catalogues are reprinted.  Full details
of the compositions are provided.  Sensibly, credit is even given to
the piano's restorers: S.Civitani, L.Forti and F.Monaco, "conl'impiego
del materiale originale prodotto in America dalla Player Piano
Company"...!  This PROVES that the standard of documentation that I
expect from producers of Mechanical Music recordings is achievable.
Now if these individuals would go forth and record all the other
instruments out there, my CD collection would expand at an explosive
rate.

Now the music: here we have two movements of a Beethoven sonata,
two Liszt etudes, and pieces by Rossini, Strauss, von Weber and
Tchaikovsky.  It's all quite listenable to my modestly educated ears.
I'm certainly going to keep an eye out for more CDs from these series.

  4) S. Prokofieff, A. Casella, G. Enescu (series titles: "Great Com-
  posers at the Keyboard" and "Instruments of the Past: The Reproducing
  Piano"). (fone 90 F 15 CD, 1990, Italy) 1 instrument, 14 tracks,
  52 min. 28 page booklet in Italian and brief English summary.

Very similar to the Lamond CD.  Here Prokofieff plays six of his own
works plus four others; Casella is represented by two of his works, and
Enescu, by one of his own and one by Sarasate.  Another fine CD, with
great listening, and another opportunity for me to improve my Italian.

  5) The Performing Piano II: More Amazing "Live" Performances by
  Legendary Masters of the Keyboard Realized on the Knabe Ampico B
  Reproducing Piano. (Newport Classic NCD60030, 1987) 1 instrument,
  14 tracks, 70 min. 6 page booklet in English.

Well now we've progressed to the point where the piano gets billing on
the front of the sleeve.  The description of the Ampico system in the
notes is brief and in a few instances hilariously inaccurate, but has
more to say about how dynamics are controlled than I've seen in any
album notes elsewhere.

So how is the music then?  Performers are Rachmaninoff, Volavy,
Dohnanyi, Rosenthal, and Lhevinne.  Music is more of the Beethoven,
Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Grieg, Tchaikovsky sort.  It's all reasonably
enjoyable.


Now the chief problem with having all of these CDs to listen to is
that I now want to have my own reproducing piano more than ever.  It's
apparent from these recordings that it's unimportant which make I get,
as they all sound great when working well, and that any purchasing
system will by driven more by software (roll) availability and of course
how happy I'm with the specific instruments that I find for sale.

Colin Hinz * ASFi Music Works * asfi@interlog.com * (416) 516-8686 *