Phonola, Busoni, etc.
By John Wolff
A late contribution to the recent discussion re Hupfeld Phonola rolls, Busoni, etc. I had a look through my few remaining Phonola rolls (most of them went to Michael Waters a couple of years back), and found:
12352K Ungarischer Marsch, Schubert (arr Liszt), played by Ferruccio Busoni. The roll is watermarked "H&E Phonola 1913" and has a photo (or rather, a photo of a line drawing or woodcut) of Busoni.
12489R Bilder aus dem Osten, Op 66 Nr 1 u 2, Rob. Schumann, played by Josef Weiss and Emerich Stefaniai. This one is watermarked 1909, and has two actual photos of the artists.
There are a few other very interesting classical titles, but most of the pianists are unknown to me (except for a photo of a very young Wilhelm Backhaus on a roll dated 1907). The indecipherable signatures don't help either - can anyone identify Oscar Felling, Michael Zadora, ? Missen, Max Pauer, Josef Shiminolis, Ernesto Cousalof, Ludwig Wambold, Leo Fall, Otto Weinreich?
The roll boxes have labels from the Music Roll Library at Allans, who were/are a major Australian music retailer & publisher. So the Hupfeld rolls must have been popular here once, although I have never seen a machine to play them (perhaps showing my ignorance). Looks like I'll have to organise a 5-hour drive to Mildura one of these days to try these out on Michael's Claviola push-up!
John Wolff (Australia)
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