A new CD of early Welte-Mignon piano rolls, played by Teresa Carreno
and realized by Kenneth Caswell, will be released in September 2004
by Pierian Recording Society, catalog no. 0022.
In his book, "The Great Pianists", Harold C. Schonberg wrote about
Carreno: "They called her 'The Walkuere of the Piano' -- A Genius -
Temperamental, Tempestuous and Beautiful."
The performances by Carreno, first listed in Welte-Mignon catalogs
beginning in April 1905, are believed to have been recorded in 1904 and
so are among the earliest recordings by a world-class concert pianist.
The CD includes:
WM 370 Am Seegestade (Smetena)
WM 368 Annees de Pelerinage, 2eme Annee, No. 4:
Sonetto 104 del Petrarca (Liszt)
WM 365 Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 (Liszt)
WM 360 Soirees de Vienne, No. 6, A minor (Schubert/Liszt)
WM 367 Ballad No. 1, Op. 23, G minor (Chopin)
WM 364 Nocturne, Op. 37, No. 2, G minor (Chopin)
WM 369 Ballade No. 3, Op. 47, A-flat (Chopin)
WM 366 Nocturne, Op. 48, No. 1, C minor (Chopin)
WM 371 Little Waltz (Carreno)
WM 372-373 Piano Sonata No. 21, Op. 53 "Waldstein" (Beethoven)
Caswell told me the Carreno rolls were the most difficult Welte rolls
to reproduce correctly that he has encountered, which he believes is
because the expression was coded for a short-lived prototype reproducing
system (the first "Mignon") with different crescendo characteristics
than the systems produced in 1905 and thereafter.
The performances didn't sound realistic until he altered and regulated
his Feurich Welte-Mignon reproducing piano to match the characteristics
of the presumed 1904 editing piano. Success came when he obtained
weaker expression regulator springs from a presumed 1904 system and a
corresponding original "Mignon" test roll of "4 sFz steps to mezzo-forte"
instead of 6 sFz steps as in all later test rolls.
Pierian CDs are distributed by Albany/Troy Distributors and are available
from uncommonlyclassical.com and Amazon.com and other retailers, or from
the publisher:
Pierian Recording Society
P.O. Box 90476
Austin, TX 78709 USA
fax: 1-512-264-9696
Reviews of Pierian CDs are at http://classicalcdreview.com/pierian.html
MMDigest articles about Pierian CDs of piano rolls are indexed at
http://mmd.foxtail.com/archives/KWIC/P/pierian.html
Robbie Rhodes
Etiwanda, Calif.
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