A Window in Time: Rachmaninoff Performs His Solo Piano Works

A Window in Time: Rachmaninoff Performs His Solo Piano Works | Sergei Rachmaninoff, Wayne Stahnke | Rachmaninoff is in the house!

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	A Window in Time: Rachmaninoff Performs His Solo Piano Works Sergei Rachmaninoff, Wayne Stahnke Telarc, 1998 average customer review:based on 46 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This collection of Rachmaninoff's solo piano performances relies on a mix of old and new technologies. Between 1919 and 1929, Rachmaninoff cut these 19 performances to piano rolls, which would then be played back through reproducing pianos capable of accurately re-creating the original performances through pneumatic devices that animated the rolls with living nuances and shades--a facet that differentiated the classier reproduction keyboards from the more common "player pianos." This set updates the technology with electronic devices--transparently, though expertly, replacing the pneumatics. Played back on a Bösendorfer Reproducing Piano, this collection sounds astounding, full of Rachmaninoff's lickety-quick motion and his punching intensity when striking the keys. There are 18 Rachmaninoff selections--some of them collaborations--and one gem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," taken to new places in this 1919 reading. --Andrew Bartlett

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Rachmaninov performing his own piano pieces

Not only was Rachmaninov a wonderful composer he was also an amazing pianist. His album A Window in Time: Rachmaninov Performs His Solo Piano Works demonstrates his extraordinary combination of both technical skill and his intensely personal artistry. Rachmaniov is legendary in the piano world for his incredible reach on the piano. His fingers were long enough to span to the thirteenth key, making his compositions some of the most challenging in the piano repertoire. This album brings together nineteen pieces, including both Rachmaninov's original piano solo works as well as arrangements of fellow Russians such Rimsky Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee and Moussorgsky's Hopak. The chance to hear a composer perform his own work doesn't come often in the classical music world. This is a wonderful cd and I listen to all the time.

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Rachmaninoff is in the house!

Superb sound quality! This is not a remastered recording made back in the '50's. This is actually Rachmaninoff performing via a special, pressure-sensitive type player piano. It truly sounds like he was recorded live with our current technology. The accompanying booklet explains everything very clearly.

Rachmaninoff was not only an exceptional composer, he was also an exceptional (if that is a strong enough term) performer. This CD allows you to experience his performing abilities as though you were sitting with him today. Great CD for every collection, even if you only casually listen to classical music on a rare occasion.

Rachmaninoff Rocks!

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Beautiful!

I love this disk, and would recomend it to anyone. For someone, particularly a young person with a short attention span, the first second and fourth tracks would be a great quick intro to Rachmaninoff and the his musical style and moods. The C sharp minor Prelude has been recorded by many great pianists, but this is the only recording of "Lilacs" I have, and I love it. I'm not that well versed on the nuances of Rachmaninoff's piano technique and style, but these recordings sound very much in the same style as the records of his playing I've heard. I do have a preference for this CD over the other because it's his compositions and arrangements. To me, hearing Rachmaninoff playing others' music is a matter of interest - hearing him playing his own, a matter of reverence.

As an aside, there is a DVD, "The Art of Piano", about the greatest pianists of the 20th century, and there is heavy emphasis on Rachmaninoff's music, along with a couple short film clips of him with his playing in the background. Of course, there will always be arguments about great pianists who were left out of the documentary, but I doubt many would say that Rachmaninoff, Hofman, Horowitz, Arrau, Gould and the others don't belong. The most interesting clip is Georgy Czifra (spelling?) playing Liszt's "Grand Galop Chromatique" (or something close.) Remarkable keyboard athleticism. Seeing the styles of each great pianist in a group like this helps the musically slow-witted (like myself) catch on to some of the stylistic differences between very great musicians. I've been playing (barely) for about ten years, and watching these guys, I figure, I'm about at the level they were approximately 12 minutes after they sat at a piano at the age of four or five.

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I really like this

I heard this on a pair of Magneplanars at an audio shop, and then we listened to it on some other high end gear. That did it for me, had to have it. Very good recording, excellent sound and performance. Intriguing approach to recording.

Interesting, but not Rachmaninoff

The piano roll technology is so limited that any experienced pianist will tell you it cannot possibly sound like the original performance. Even modern sequencing technology falls short in some aspects. First, even the advanced Ampico machine of the time is only a record of the original timings of the notes and pedal work. Even that is only relative, and there is no guarantee that even those timings were not made "more perfect" by an editor. The artistry comes in all the subtleties beyond the mere timings. This equipment simply could not record the infinite variety of touches used by a great virtuoso. I'm not just talking about volume, which Ampico could pick up to some degree, but the approach. Nor can it record the subtle use of the pedals, half-pedaling, partial pedaling, etc. Also, remember that the piano not only responds to the player, but the pianist responds to the instrument. The virtuoso is making thousands of judgements based on what he/she hears back from the piano and the acoustics of the room. And even the most minute variances in the adjustment of the action and pedals changes how the pedals will work and the hammers will respond to the keys. The one thing the Ampico does capture fairly well is the rubato as used by an artist like Rachmaninoff. Because the roll moves at a constant speed during recording and playback, it will capture hesitations, tempo changes, fermatas, etc as executed by the player. As long as the engineer is able to play it back at the same speed and does not succumb to the temptation to bump it up a notch to make it more exciting or sell more recordings, at least that aspect should be pretty close to the original. No, even with the hiss and scratches, the primitive old sound recordings are a much better record of the artistry of those great pianists of the first half of the 20th century. Eventually, it may be possible with digital sound editing to bring those recordings closer to the original sound quality experienced by witnesses to those great performances. The piano rolls can only give you the sound of a particular piano recorded well with approximately the same timings of an earlier performances. The rest of the data is simply not there, and no technology can replace what was never recorded in the first place.

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