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Ferrucio Busoni – Piano Rolls
Johann Sebastian BACH
(1685-1750) - Ferrucio
BUSONI (1866-1924)
Chaconne in D minor
Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
Feux Follets
La Chasse
Polonaise No.2 in E major
Fryderyk CHOPIN
(1810-1849)
Twenty-Four Preludes Op.28
 Ferrucio Busoni -
reproduced via a Steinway Duo Art Player Piano in the Concert Artist Studios
Cambridge
CONCERT ARTIST/FIDELIO
RECORDINGS CACH 4060-2 [74.36] |
Piano Rolls are once again a hot topic.
International Piano Quarterly ran a long article with an interview with the
late Ronald Smith in which the system was evaluated hereby leading to a spin
off CD, offering aural "supportive evidence". Naxos is up to volume 3 in its
Welte-Mignon Piano Roll series; the Ampico Rolls are now being extensively
released elsewhere and smaller companies such as Pierian have also issued
fine sets – in their case collating the roll legacy of an important pianist
who otherwise left behind no disc evidence of her playing, Fannie
Bloomfield-Zeisler.
Busoni of course did record, sparsely, in London for Columbia. His discs
have been available on Music and Arts for some time and Naxos has also
recently brought out its transfers. So we do know to an extent the nature –
partial though it may be, a number of discs were never issued – of his
pianism as captured at that time on acoustic disc.
Since the question of the authenticity of the piano roll – as an artefact
that accurately represents playing – is one that has occupied almost every
reviewer (including me) who cares to cast his fourpence, it would be better
to direct you in passing to some of my comments relating to the Welte-Mignon
system in another review;
http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2004/Jan04/Welte-Mignon1.htm
These are in fact some of the issues that John Hollis addresses in his notes
to Concert Artist’s release, which cite Serge Krisch, a Busoni pupil, Mark
Hambourg, Alfred Cortot, Joyce Hatto and others, very entertainingly as
well. Obviously the problems remain, even though the Duo Art rolls,
reproduced here on a Steinway Duo Art Player Piano are rendered very
sympathetically. Unlike other releases one could mention, the action is
noiseless and the piano is in tune. The acoustic is good. One can listen to
the rolls with pleasure. The performances of course clearly embrace both the
panoply of Busoni’s eccentricity and grandiose intemperance (especially,
unfortunately, toward Chopin about whom he remained imperturbably
antagonistic) and also the vagaries of the system itself. The absurdly jerky
C major Prelude and the same dynamics that inform the G major, the risibly
choppy left hand and legato right et al (no correlation between them) are
all astonishing documents – but of what, well that would be harder to say.
The non natural rubato in the F sharp major is hardly an isolated feature of
course but the incredibly stormy dénouement must say at least something
concrete about Busoni’s volcanic pictorial and colouristic imagination.
In fact it’s the Liszt, more so than the Bach-Busoni, that may open up a
more reasonable channel to Busoni’s playing. La Chasse sounds considerably
more vibrant even though the Chaconne (asynchronous chording as ever) does
manage to sound almost dainty and wry in places – something I’d never
imagined possible. And in its way remarkable to hear.
Busoni’s rolls should certainly be heard and absorbed; the discs provide the
corrective evidence necessary to put the rolls into a more lucid
perspective. These thoughtful and expert restorations are particularly
effective and are recommended.
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