Masters of The Roll Revisited III

This piece is one of the 12 seasons being performed by The Piano Cloud group of pianists.

Tchaikovsky - The Seasons, Op. 37, June (Barcarolle)

Nuit d'etoiles - Claude Debussy

Do you like Bach? I simply love this piece!

Bach Präludium Fis-moll WTKII

Franz Liszt - Liebestraum No. 3

The Masters of the Roll – Claude Achille Debussy

Arabesque No. 1 In E Major

Sergei Rachmaninoff plays in 1928 his Elegy Op.3 No.1, on Ampico 69253. 
Recorded in 2016, and the rec updated 4 Oct 4, 2017 and Feb 2, 2023 by VViljanen (by permission)from a digitally simulated reconstructed original reproducing piano roll, using on its playback a modelled concert grand, Bechstein 1896 grand morphed with Petrof Mistral 284,  revoiced, reconfigured and setup by VV.
COMMERCIAL USE PROHIBITED. 
Basic info* of the original piano roll:
ELEGIE (ELEGY) Op. 3, No. 1
Roll Number: 69253, 69253H
Composer/Creator: Rachmaninoff
Pianist: Rachmaninoff
Roll System: Ampico
Country: US
Date: October, 1928
Category: classical
Original Price: $2.00
*Info source: The Player Piano Group web page (by permission)

Rachmaninoff: Elegy Op. 3 No 1. Sergei Rachmaninoff 1928 on Ampico 69253

Sergei Rachmaninoff plays in 1925 Gluck-Sgambati: Melodie (Orfeo ed Euridice), Ampico 64921.
Recorded in 2016 (and the rec updated 25 Sep 2017) by VViljanen (by permission)from the optically digitized  copy of the original reproducing piano roll.
ANY KIND OF COMMERCIAL USE PROHIBITED. 
Photo: Sergei Rachmaninoff 1873-1943
Basic info* of the original piano roll:
MELODIE D minor
Roll Number: 64921, 64921H
Composer/Creator: Gluck, Sgambati - (Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (1714-1787))
Pianist: Rachmaninoff
Roll System: Ampico
Country: US
Date: September, 1925
Category: classical
Original Price: $2.00
*Info source: The Piano Player Group web page (by permission).

Gluck-Sgambati: Melodie from 'Orfeo ed Euridice'. Sergei Rachmaninoff  1925 on Ampico 64921

Wilhelm Backhaus plays Mozart-Backhaus: Serenade from Don Juan, 
Wilhelm BackhausOn DuoArt 68250.
Recorded in 2016 and the rec updated 28 Oct 2017 by VViljanen from digitally simulated reconstructed original reproducing piano roll, using on its playback a modeled Grand Bluethner Model One, tone/sound modified/designed by VV.
COMMERCIAL USE PROHIBITED. 
Photo: Wilhelm Backhaus 
Basic info of the original roll:
SERENADE from "Don Juan", act 2 (transcribed, by Bachaus)
Roll Number: 6825, 68250
Composer/Creator: Mozart
Pianist: Bachaus
Roll System: Duo-Art
Country: US
Date: December, 1924
Category: popular, salon
Original Price: $2.50

Mozart-Backhaus: Serenade from Don Juan. Wilhelm Backhaus 1924 on Duo-Art 68250

Danish flutist Lars Graugaard and Chilean harpist Sofia Asunción Claro perform classical works in arrangements for their particularly satisfying instrumental combination. Ms. Claro followed her studies at the Musikhochschule in Munich and at Conservatoire National Superieure in Paris with final studies at the Royal Danish Academy. She enjoys a distinguished career performing the core repertoire for harp, as well as several commissions and premiere performance of works for harp by internationally leading composers. Mr. Graugaard completed his studies at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen in 1983. He is highly considered as a soloist and chamber musician, but he has also had an extensive career as composer and improviser of audacious music.

Luigi Boccherini: Sonata in C major - Largo

Verejný koncert, 6.6.2017, NKS Konzervatória Žilina
Simona Lengyelová - klavír 2. roč.
z triedy PaeDr. Márie Pohunkovej

Verejný koncert, 6. 6. 2017, NKS Konzervatória Žilina

Claude Debussy: Valse "La plus que lente"

Franz von Suppé: Light Cavalry Overture. Henri Bergman (pseudonym of Robert Armbruster)in 1923 on Duo-Art 66619.
Recorded 18 Oct 2017 by VViljanen (by permission)from the digitized copy of the original reproducing piano roll.
ANY KIND OF COMMERCIAL USE PROHIBITED.
Photo: Robert Armbruster (1894-1994) in 1937
Basic info* of the original piano roll:
"LIGHT CAVALRY" OVERTURE
Roll Number: 6661, 66619
Composer/Creator: Suppe
Pianist: Bergman
Roll System: Duo-Art
Country: US
Date: September, 1923
Category: popular, salon
Original Price: $2.25
*Info source: The Piano Player Group web page (by permission)

Franz von Suppé: Light Cavalry Overture. Henri Bergman 1923 on Duo-Art 66619

Moritz Moszkowski: Etincelles. Morceau Characteristique  Op. 36 No 6. Josef Hofmann 1923 On Duo-Art 6598.
Recorded Oct27, 2017, and Oct 23, 2023 by VViljanen (by permission) from playback a sigitally simulated  reconstructed original reproducing piano roll on a modeled Blüthner Model 1 grand, revoiced, reconfigurated and th rec.setup. made by VV.
ANY KIND OF COMMERCIAL USE PROHIBITED.
Photo:  Etincelles, sheet music cover page 
Basic info* of the original piano roll:
ETENCELLES (Sparks), Morceau Characteristique, Op. 36, No. 6
Roll Number: 6598, 6598-5
Composer/Creator: Moszkowski
Pianist: Hofmann
Roll System: Duo-Art
Country: US
Date: February, 1923
Category: classical
Original Price: $3.25
*Info source: The Piano Player Group web page (by permission)

Moszkowski: Etincelles. Morceau Characteristique Op. 36 No 6. Josef Hofmann 1923 on Duo-Art 6598

Mozart: Pastorale Variée. Nadia Reisenberg 1924 on Duo-Art 67640.
Recorded 3 Nov 2017, by VViljanen - (by permission)from the digitized copy of the original reproducing piano roll .
ANY KIND OF COMMERCIAL USE PROHIBITED.
Photo: Nadia Reisenberg 1904-1983
Basic info* of the original piano roll:
PASTORALE VARIEE
Roll Number: 6764, 67640
Composer/Creator: Mozart
Pianist: Reisenberg
Roll System: Duo-Art
Country: US
Date: June, 1924
Category: popular, salon
Original Price: $2.50
*Source: The Piano Player Group web page (by permission)

W.A. Mozart: Pastorale Variée. Nadia Reisenberg 1924 on Duo-Art 67640

Written in 1890, Debussy's Reverie was one of his first solo piano works to make an impact. Even at this early stage in his career, when he was still working out what kind of composer he wanted to be (he was apparently a fervent debater when it came to Wagnerism), it's clear to see traits of that signature Debussy sound.

However, the young Debussy had not quite developed the style and tricks that would earmark him as one of his generation's most notable talents. There are no fireworks here, no sudden explosions in texture that would come to characterise his later works - this is more of a meditation, the perfect precursor to exploring those later works.

The gently repetitive theme that opens the work feels like a descent into sleepy dream-world (as the title suggests), and as the textures become ever richer the dreams only become more lush and addictive. A fantastic early sign that this Debussy fellow was one to watch…

Source:

ClassicFM
http://www.classicfm.com/composers/debussy/music/debussy-reverie/

Retailers:

Debussy Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Claude-Debussy-Essential-Collection/dp/B00I6CEZQO/

Debussy Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/0Mmayh49XRWTXp53uf3jtF

Best of Debussy iTunes
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/claude-debussy-the-essential-collection/819582576

Debussy Compilation
https://listen.tidal.com/album/26275698

Claude Debussy
https://www.deezer.com/us/album/7429526

Best of Debussy Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXtAfPp-70I&t=76s

Napster
https://us.napster.com/artist/claude-debussy/album/claude-debussy-the-essential-collection

Tidal
https://listen.tidal.com/album/26275698

Also check out the very best in R&B & Pop Music 2020 from IndyPop Records!
www.youtube.com/c/indypoprecords

Claude Debussy - The Essential Collection

Rêverie, L.68

Tidal

Debussy-Ravel (arr.): Afternoon of A Faun. George Copeland ca 1915 on Ampico 56027.
Recorded 21 Feb, 2018 by VViljanen (by permission)from the digitized copy of the original reproducing piano roll.
ANY KIND OF COMMERCIAL USE PROHIBITED.
Photo: George Copeland (1882-1971)in 1918. was an American classical pianist known primarily for his relationship with the French composer Claude Debussy in the early 20th century and his interpretations of modern Spanish piano works.
The basic info* of the original piano roll:
L'APRES MIDI D'UN FAUNE (AFTERNOON OF A FAUN)
Roll Number: 56027, 56027H
Composer/Creator: Debussy
Pianist: Copeland
Roll System: Ampico
Country: US
Date: n/a
Category: classical, popular
Original Price: $2.00
*source: from The Piano Player Group web page (by permission)
Arrangement of Maurice Ravel..?? (comment by VV)

Debussy-Ravel: Afternoon of A Faun. George Copeland ca 1915 on Ampico 56027

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 73 'Emperor'

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major Op. 73 'Emperor' - Glenn Gould & Leopold Stokowski

My warmest thanks to everyone stopping by for listening to my  'REVIEW   OF THE PAST TIME PIANISTS' INTERPRETATIONS ON THE HISTORICAL PIANO ROLLS, and also to a minor LIST of MY MY OWN RENDITIONS, all of the latter representing a variety of piano music & some pipe-organ classics, - and  TO THE Growing LISTS OF (just lately done and reproduced)  TRANSCRIPTIONS OF VARIOUS CHAMBER MUSIC CLASSICAL PEARLS FOR TWO PIANOS.
A HEADSET IS RECOMMENDED for optimal sound experience!
This kind of 'touching' on these old pre-sound-rec. era works by the great performers of the past, and giving my sound to these old 'punch rolls',  makes me feel  deep humbleness, .and I wish that this modest attempt to bring these  performances alive will satisfy you listening to them!
To introduce myself...
I am a Finnish M.D., PhD. and Hand Surgeon (now retired), previously when young with 10 years of professionally orientated piano studies at Turku Conservatory in 1965-1975, partly  along with medical University studies. 
The digital sound techniques have become very familiar to me already from 1980's along with my university research work  
and my musical activities.
As continuation to my musical and professional experience, I have, during the last few years of my retirement, adopted a music historical challenge
to bring the past time major and minor pianists, prior to sound-recording era, onto the same 'start line' with the present pianists, by making their presentations, played onto 'punch rolls' i.e. piano rolls, audible with modern digital techniques. This wouldn't be possible without the pioneering  efforts of Richard Stibbons, Wayne Stahnke, Terry Smythe, Warren Trachtman, Spencer Chase, and others, who developed the optical digitizing techniques of the piano rolls, and digitized them.

The main part of my recordings here in SC consists of selection recorded by me from optically digitized piano-rolls** (from 1910's on or earlier, classical and 'vintage era'). These recordings of mine are not and will not be commercially unavailable. - The rolls were first optically scanned and converted into a digital form by diverse operators** (see also to the info of each piece). The pieces here were partly (minor part) picked from various open net sources, publicly available, but mainly from the huge archive (n=ca.5000) of digitized copies copies of the original reproducing piano rolls, made available to me by one of the pioneers of roll digitizing tehchniques (willing to keep anonymous), and then recorded from this archive mainly with virtual grand piano (called by me 'Bluethner Model One') modified/re-designed by me, as well as the rec settings. 
Also a minor selection of my own renditions among my records can be found here, included on my playlist 'Bach Goes Virtual', the name of the list telling something about the techniques used for getting the end result... The list includes various organ works by J.S.Bach and others, and also a few piano renditions of mine. Then there are included also various pieces which have been in my repertoire, but here played mainly by the  'guest' great players of the past (before the sound recording era).
MY MOST HUMBLE THANKS TO THE NOBLE DONOR  OF THIS INVALUABLE PIANO ROLL MATERIAL FOR MY USE!!!
My Sincere Thanks also to The Player Piano Group, UK, for providing me their permission to use the information about the piano rolls collected and provided on their web page ( https://rolls.playerpianogroup.org.uk ),  and for simplifying my short historical presentations of these renditions on their re-publication here!
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, MY MOST HUMBLE THANKS TO EVERYONE  OF YOU FOR LISTENING, AND FOR YOUR 'LIKES' & COMMENTS !
YOUR LISTENING & FEEDBACK IS TRULY APPRECIATED..!!.
Use of good headphones or speakers will make your music experience more enjoyable!
Best wishes, all the best
Veikko
These recordings are not commercially available, and ANY KIND OF THEIR COMMERCIAL USE IS PROHIBITED.

Franz von Suppé: Light Cavalry Overture. Henri Bergman 1923 on Duo-Art 66619

Veikko Viljanen

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