Douglas Henderson had a lot of interest to say about roll
interpretation in MMDigest 990116. In particular:

> Would-be roll interpreters should _record their performances_ and
> listen to them closely. ... Spend a little time tape recording your
> roll interpreting efforts, and study the results.  Having a metronome
> handy is also a good tool, especially when learning the art of
> controlling the roll speed norm.

I would describe this as the single most important thing a pianolist
can do in developing his or her technique.

A small concert hall in Tunbridge Wells had a new Yamaha grand, was
short of bookings and was happy to have us come along and put a
65/88-note pushup player on it.  There didn't seem to be very much
wrong with the concert -- everyone seemed happy, and a pianist friend
of mine I dragged along (him being not at all keen on players) even
said that my rendering of Balakirev's "Islamey" was the best he'd ever
heard.  (He doesn't drink, either, and anyway he still says so 13 years
later.)

But someone up in the gods was making a cassette of the proceedings,
and I have simply never been so embarrassed as when I heard it.
It's just like being a famous performer with fifty years' experience
being exposed to a recording of their efforts as a student at music
college: you can tell that the will to produce something good is there,
but the execution -- Oh, dear !  And this wasn't fifty years ago but
an hour ago !

So when an Ampico nut in Melbourne, John Semmens, asked me to send
him a cassette of selected rolls played on an elderly Steinway concert
grand I had around then, there was rather naturally a lot of fine-
tuning of each performance.  Nevertheless, I still wince at the
recordings now and would like to recall them if I could !

Another thing you should always do is mark the roll up from the printed
music, and it isn't always possible.  (I was going to say "always do
for public performance" but that's wrong -- if you have the composer's
markings all there on the paper it moves the whole thing into a differ-
ent class of enjoyment, even when you're just playing for yourself.)

The major shortfall of pianolists in public concerts is not being able
to wind the piano up to concert hall power.  You're so used to intimate
surroundings that the power necessary sounds excessive.  One of the
best performers I know is Rex Lawson and his house doesn't have any big
rooms, so when he gets to a sizeable concert hall he can't help
starting off in domestic mode.

In 1997 we did a series of recitals in Aurora IL for Jim Edwards's
Pianola Centenary and Rex's major piece was the Mendelssohn 1st
Concerto with the Fox Valley Symphony.  He had to fill a pretty
sizeable restored movie theatre, the Paramount, with sound, and as
rehearsals commenced I dashed to the back to check the balance.
It sounded fine except Rex had been put in another room.  So I went
forward again and told him firmly to play up.

Somehow after that he became a concert pianist and could judge the
balance from the wrong end of the hall, and the rehearsal, at least,
went faultlessly.  Rex is a pretty good pianist anyway and didn't
need any more than this one change.  The relief of the conductor,
who'd never heard any kind of player before -- and we suspect was
rather dreading the occasion -- was obvious.  (The actual performance
went less well because someone tweaked the pushup when we weren't
looking, but that's another story.)

Interestingly, I'm told by teachers that most piano students need
this same pep talk as well.

Dan Wilson, London