My Christmas wish is to find this roll, the "Blue Danube Arabesques"
(Strauss/Schultz-Evler); this is one of the best masterpieces I have
heard. A couple of times many years ago I heard it on a untuned old
piano with a push-up player in front of it.
Arrangements were made with our local technical museum so I could play
some old piano rolls that I got from an elderly man whose father owned
a player piano in the twenties. (That's the way I got interested in
player pianos, by the way.) The museum had a restored push-up player
that they placed in front of an old untuned piano(!), so I could hear
the rolls. Later I got in contact with a local collector who traded
some of the rolls with me, of course he took advantage of me, since
I was only 17, and didn't fully interpret the complexity of the music
on these rolls. (Now I'm approaching 29).
That collector also played the piece for me as a 78 rpm record; I guess
it was played by Josef Lhevinne.
I have heard this piece many times again, unfortunately only as a
MIDI-file (the one that could be downloaded at the MMD archives.
Do I deserve to get another chance on this roll? :-) Does anyone have
a copy or recut to sell?
regards
Thomas Henden,
Oslo, Norway
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