I've been listening to some Welte-Mignon piano roll recordings of Granados playing his own music. It's wonderful - I love it so much!!

They are very interesting historically, but just how reliable actually are they as a means of reproduction? Dynamics don't seem to come across with any great subtlety - there are some passages in that particular recording which don't sound very natural to me. Obviously they can be edited copiously (so what's new?!) and there are question marks over manipulation of tempo (whether conscious or accidental). I think I'm correct in saying that Busoni detested them and said so in letters to his wife. Obviously I'd rather have them than nothing.

Hi Andrew,

Yes, I've heard that Liapunoff recording of the "Elegy to Liszt" many times. Not only was he a great composer, but also one of the finest pianists. Thanks for your comments on the piece. I didn't know you had performed it. Did you make a recording at the time? (And not on Welte-Mignon, but a digital one. )

David

Yes, I do have a recording, though it is handheld camcorder footage only, so the sound quality could be better. It's also from a lunchtime concert and there are extraneous noises like doors closing in the background! The performance suffers from a consistent fault i.e. I fell into the common trap of concentrating on other things and inadvertently tripletised some of the dotted rhythms. I can upload it later if you want to have a look at it.

Hi Andrew,

Yes, I'd love to hear your rendition of No. 12. Thanks!

David

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqvujtEdmho

I definitely fancy revisiting this piece (I think I would handle it better now, additionally I now have a lot more experience playing live - that was only my second formal public concert), though no. 9 of the set is more of a personal priority.

Hello Andrew,

Thank you for a very enjoyable performance. Your technique is absolutely amazing and you maintain a beautiful tone throughout.
Beautiful piece.

Congratulations.

Kaila Rochelle

Hi Andrew,

Bravo! You gave a splendid performance of this very difficult work. Very inspiring! It's a huge achievement, Andrew, and I congratulate you. Yes, we can all improve a thing or two in our recordings in later revisits as you mentioned here. Nonetheless, this is marvelous artistry. Thanks for sharing your video, and I hope that others who read this thread will enjoy it as well.

David

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's one of those pieces which just won't get played unless someone makes a point of it, and to me that is a real shame.

My technique's better now than it was then, so I think I'd handle a few of the untidinesses more cleanly, and hopefully wouldn't run out of steam a little towards the end as I feel I did there. That said, it was quite an exciting performance and better than I (looking back several years later) thought it might be. I can tell from watching that I'm quite involved in the piece, but nowadays I wouldn't open my programme with it; it's asking a lot!

Hi Andrew,
that´s an excellent performance! I had no score and cannot judge details so. But my whole impression is, that you play it very expressively and subtle. It´s the great virtuoso style of 19 th century and I like that a lot. (Have you ever listened to Horrowitz´ "Carmen-variations"? They are so great!) You seem to master that piece with high perfection without playing here too much for to reach sureness, you also seem to "risk" something, which is absolutely necessary in such pieces in my humble opinion. Also the end I find successfull and brilliant (like I said, without knowing the score, but I think, it would be insignificent, if there would be two or three wrong notes here, because the whole harmony is absolutely brilliant and clear. In fomer times pianists didn´t also care too much about such little mistakes, good examples are Edwin Fischer and Alfred Cortot and also Horrowitz)!
You also seem to have a very nice piano and recording equipment, since the sound-quality is also really good.

Hi Andreas, thanks for your comments!

In playing such pieces I always aim to keep the performance in an improvisational style, as I suspect that's how many of these pieces were originally conceived. I did take chances in this recording (as it's live and the piece is pretty difficult it's hard not to!). Not all of them worked - there are some inaccuracies which I would correct if I was recording it in a studio - but I think it's far better to take risks and enter into the spirit of the piece rather than concentrate on a dull but accurate projection of one note after another. (Horowitz Carmen Variations being a good example, he's certainly not technically perfect in it, but it doesn't matter).

It was recorded in concert on a Steinway Model D, as you say a very nice piano. I've played on that particular instrument a few times now and it is a pleasure to play. I recorded it with an Edirol R09-HR and with borrowed professional microphones; I can't remember which specific make though.

Andrew wrote:


I agree completely to all that you have written here! You have really well done!



Wow, that´s interesting, how nice even an Edirol can sound with professional microphones!

Hello Andrew, I've never heard of this composer either and can't comment on your playing because it's far beyond me, but I just wanted to say it sounds very impressive and I've enjoyed it.

That's actually very useful to me as the Edirol forms part of my intended set up for future recordings - I'll speak to the source I got the microphones from so that I can find out details. This will influence my choice of microphone purchase (I'm not convinced by the ones I bought with the Edirol). It probably also helped that the microphone placement was done by one of my teachers who has a keen interest in such things and a very good ear.