In the digest for March 10th, Steve Harder enquired about the musical
qualities of a list of Recordo rolls.  I have some of them, Steve, and I
played them this morning before going to work.  Here's what I think about them:
#187 En Automne, Moszkowsi  Great stuff, passionate playing by Ivan Kerouak

#355 Waltz for Left Hand,  Ilgenfritz  An OK piece, quite cleverly arranged
with arpeggios so that a single hand produces a reasonably full sound.  I
think Ilgenfritz, who recorded a huge quantity of salon music for QRS, was
responding to the interest in music for one hand that occurred in the
Twenties.  Didn't Ravel start it by writing a concerto for a concert pianist
friend, who lost a hand due to frostbite in a Russian prisoner of war camp
during WW1 ?

#368 Ballet Sentimentale, Zamecnik  and  #700 Valse Elise, Friml  Both of
these can be described as not world beaters but pleasant enough waltzes.

#471 Poet & Peasant Overture, Suppe  Great roll: will test your player's
repetition rate.  If you have near neighbours, don't play it in the middle
of the night.

#1204 Pagliacci Prologue, Leoncavallo  OK if you know the opera; a bit
puzzling otherwise.

#404 Jeu des Ondes, Leschetizky.  I have it but couldn't find it, but you
can hardly go wrong with Leschetizky and Mary Angell.

#239 Waltz Op. 7 No. 3 and #279 Sparks, both by Moszkowski.  I don't have
the Recordo version of these but I do have the 88n rolls. They are both very
enjoyable, as is almost everything by Moszkowski.  He didn't write really
highbrow stuff and is almost forgotten today, but he really knew his job and
turned out witty and tuneful music.

#1409 Scherzo, Chopin  QRS obviously forgot to state which of his four
Scherzos was being played by Beryl Rubinstein on this roll.  It doesn't
matter, really, they are all musts, so grab it if you can.  Beryl R. (who
was a bloke by the way) also recorded a 2-roll set of Gershwin's Rhapsody in
Blue for QRS Recordo.  It reappeared briefly in their catalog during the
late 70's and early 80's but sadly they don't recut any Recordos now.

#836 Ricordati, Gottschalk  I don't know this piece at all.  Some Gottschalk
is really good and some is quite banal, so keep asking about this one.

#988 La Capricieuse, Milde  My recollection of the 88n version of this is
quite favorable.

#309 Toccata Op. 18 No. 4, Sgambati  Out of curiousity I looked him up in
Grove's Dictionary of Music.  He was a late 19th and early 20th Century
Italian composer and his entry takes up just over a page, so he must have
amounted to something.  Basically it boils down to: not brilliant but mostly
pretty good.

About the others I know nothing.  My only other comment is that I've got
about 30 or so duplicate Recordo rolls that I'd be glad to sell.  I'll post
a list of them in the digest soon.  John Phillips.