Memories about Julius Jacobsen (1915 Copenhagen - 1990 Stockholm),
   a professional pianist, trombonist, arranger, composer and collector
   of Welte-Mignon rolls, assembled by Douglas Heffer in Paris.

The first time I had the occasion to see Mr. Julius Jacobsen was in
a movie theatre in Stockholm, certainly in 1962.  I was there to see
the famous 1924 silent film, "Gösta Berlings saga", with Greta Garbo
and Lars Hansson, a film of about three hours length, and accompanied
by Julius Jacobsen at the piano.

The film with the piano music became a fantastic souvenir for me,
and when it was finished I stepped towards the pianist, told him about
my enthusiasm for the show, and opened the discussion with the fact
I already knew he had a Welte-Mignon.  At first he was surprised about
my knowledge about these instruments and then he told me that his
instrument was without keys -- the cabinet model with a Feurich piano
inside -- a model I never had seen before which made me curious to know
more about this one.

He was quite surprised and we started to talk about his instrument
and rolls and he suggested that I visit his home and listen to the
instrument, which I did.  This was the beginning of our friendship
which lasted until close to the end of his life in 1990.  During that
period I visited him rather often to listen to his instrument and to
discuss piano music and pianists.

At this time Mr. Jacobsen had about 400 Welte rolls, only piano music
mainly played by the most famous pianists who ever recorded for the
brand.  His instrument was in rather good condition but still the piano
itself needed some work and so did the Welte-Mignon action.  In his
collection he had an original test roll to maintain the regulation --
a test roll with pencil-marked comments, certainly made by someone in
the Welte factory.  Together we studied the test roll and tried to
regulate what we could understand from the comments.  After a certain
amount of work the instrument played fairly well, which gave us many
hours of enjoyable listening

Meanwhile I bought an upright Steinway Welte, a later model with
keys which I started to study enthusiastically, and later on Julius
lent a part of his collection to my disposition.  He also gave me some
original catalogues and a perfect copy of the Welte-Mignon reference
book.

The years passed by and in 1976 I moved to Paris for a new situation
and Julius and I continued with some correspondence.  In December,
1984, Julius wrote a long letter to me with memories of his life with
Welte-Mignon; he wanted me to archive his history in this field.  He
was glad to see that I had started a workshop and it worked out well.

Julius Jacobsen's souvenirs started in Copenhagen 1928 while he studied
music.  On his way to the conservatory he passed daily in front of a
piano shop where some player pianos were presented, especially Kästner
of Leipzig [1].

Julius writes:

"The [pianola] instrument sounded very well under the condition that
the operator was a musical person, and in this case a man named Otto
Ahlin treated the instrument to perfection -- one could think that
someone really played the piano, which fascinated me.  But at that
time I was young and my experience was not like I have today.

"In this piano store was a Welte-Mignon too, which interested me.
Some days later I was with my uncle and we stepped into the store to
listen to the Welte-Mignon instrument; the first piece we heard was
"Des Mädchens Wunsch", by Chopin-Liszt, recorded by Alfred Reisenauer.

"Here, in the Welte-Mignon, I found all that the pianola didn't have
-- expression and pedaling -- and it gave me a real musical feeling.
I became very enthusiastic and sometime later I convinced my uncle
to buy one for me.  In those days there lived in Copenhagen a German
organ builder, Richard Schiberle, with whom I created a good relationship
and through him my uncle succeeded to buy a Welte-Mignon for 800
Danish crowns.

"During the years 1928 to 1935 I listened to the instrument daily,
which enthused me.  At the same time I learned much about the
classical piano music and interpretation from the great pianists in
this period, like Busoni, Carreño, d'Albert and so on.  The collection
of Welte-Mignon rolls my uncle had became a real gold mine for me with
more than 400 rolls -- a collection which became the main part of what
I still have today.

"With the passing years I have heard several reproducing pianos but my
first impression is still in my mind and I think that the Welte-Mignon
is the best in a realistic way to reproduce the human touch with a
mechanical devise.

"This, my judgement, is only valuable under the conditions that the
instrument is in perfect condition and the rolls are moving perfectly
over the trackerbar.  The perforations must correspond to the holes
in the trackerbar, and if it is not the case the performance will be
spoiled; this is the weakness with Welte-Mignon.  Another problem with
the Welte piano is the repetition and complicated rhythmic parts like
in a fugue in J. S. Bach music.

"I would like to say that no reproducing piano could replace the human
playing, which I feel to be evident.  Nevertheless the Welte-Mignon
instrument holds much interest for me.  I have been listening to
several gramophone recordings of Welte rolls but very few of these were
really satisfying.

"I have had two Welte-Mignon instruments, a grand piano and the cabinet
model without keys, which I found to be the best one.  The expressive,
sensitive play that the old cabinet model has or had, I have never
found in the grand piano model.  Why?

"I have, of course, listened to other reproducing pianos like Duo-Art
and Ampico, particularly the later ones; the Ampico can play more
precisely but it was later construction, too.  Still there is no doubt
that Welte has the most interesting repertoire seen from the historical
point.  All the rolls are not perfect -- sometimes they are not
comprehensible.  If this is a part of the Welte-Mignon recording
systems weaknesses, I can't say.

"In the 1950s I had a discussion with Walter Gieseking about his
impressions of the Welte-Mignon.  Gieseking recorded some Welte rolls
in his youth and his impression was "Welte is an illusion, a good one,
but still an illusion."  Later this became my opinion, too.

"1n 1942 I had the possibility to visit the Welte factory in Freiburg
and here I had several interesting discussions with Karl Bockisch,
the inventor of the Welte-Mignon system.  He became very impressed that
I knew the main part of the catalogue by heart.

"Some years ago the Swedish radio made some recordings with a
Welte-Mignon Vorsetzer which I found to be rather mediocre.

"The graceful play and expressiveness which I found in my Welte is now
gone forever.  Today no one can make a Welte to play like I remember it
from early days.  Of course what I heard 40-50 years ago is now going
to be a romantic memory -- the same rolls today will perhaps disappoint
me.

"I remember very well what my old friend Richard Schiberle said to me:
'You are demanding too much from the instrument!'  I would like again
to be able to listen to my Welte like it was when I was young.

"I was in USA this summer and had the occasion to listen to some
records with Welte: Rudolph Ganz recordings and I found them to be the
best recordings of this instrument I ever have heard.

"In the nineteen-fifties I had some correspondence with Hans Hass,
who was attached to the Welte recording department, and I asked him
how he did the recordings.  He simply answered, 'That was a part of my
'Jugendsünde'' -- sins of my youth -- whatever he wanted to say with
that..."


Here stops the letter of memories of June 12th, 1984, that Julius
Jacobsen wrote to me, but he told me many stories about his life with
the instrument.

How come he could travel to Freiburg in 1942?

 [ Julius Jacobsen, 1964 photograph
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/17/04/06/170406_190541_Julius%20Jacobsen.jpg 

References:

[1] Kästner Autopiano AG
  https://mfm.uni-leipzig.de/hsm/produkt_detail.php?id=46 

 [ To be continued in Part 2.  -- Robbie