Cyril Scott : Lotus Land played by Percy Grainger : Pianola Institute

[tsysib]

Love it !!!!!!!

[bigcity233]

This is an amazing roll! - Grainger did a great job recording this piece. This is one i will search for as an avid collector of Duo-Art rolls. The photo of Grainger with W. Creary Woods is a like a little window into the Aeolian Hall Building on W. 42nd St. I would have loved to have toured their headquarters when Aeolian Duo-Art was in its prime. It seems that very few photos and documents of Aeolian Duo-Art in its prime survived the decades.

[pianolainstitute]

@bigcity233 I agree! You might be interested to know that every now and then we re-perforate rolls for the Friends of the Pianola Institute. I think that YouTube prevents me from putting website details in these comments, but you ought to be able to find us easily enough. Our copies are exact replicas of the originals, every individual dot exactly reproduced. There is one Grainger roll in the latest list (Feb 2011): his arrangement of the Hornpipe from Handel's Water Music, no. 6754.

[4gregorysf]

I've never heard this performed before. I studied it in high school. I think this is the piece I played at a recital from memory and I FORGOT THE FIRST CHORD! I think my piano teacher had the music so I played it from the score. It's an interesting mix of exoticism which was popular at the time plus Impressionism. Is this a popular piece in the repertoire these days? My teacher would have grown up when the piece was new and popular for the first time.

[pianolainstitute]

@4gregorysf In 1988 I helped Grainger (who had been dead for 27 years) to play the Grieg Piano Concerto at the Last NIght of the Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall, and I brought him in late on the first chord! There was a technical reason why, and he played the rest of the concerto impeccably, but boy, was I fed up. Lotus Land is perhaps not so often played nowadays, but I'm so glad it revived the memory for you - just the sort of thing music should do!

[dhihabiwa]

sweet and painfully sad, yet somewhat strong!...

[Apollyon80]

Wonderful interpretation. Given that Cyril and Percy were such good friends, I think this demonstrates how Cyril would have liked the piece to be played. Thanks for the video :)

[konzolmester]

Is this the right tempo? I never seen the sheet. A The piano sounds so good! What brand is it?

[pianolainstitute]

Thank you!

The speed of the roll is printed at the start, and it would have been set correctly before the piano played. The piano is a 1926 Hamburg Steinway Duo-Art grand. The reason it sounds so good is that the owner is a first-class musician, and he does all his own restoration.

If you enjoyed this, why not try Grainger's rolls of the Grieg Piano Concerto, which we recorded with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra last year? YouTube doesn't allow links, but you'll find it easily via Google.

[germangirlheidi]

@konzolmester - I think this is an incredibly artistic performance. My score's metronome marking is between quarter note = 50 and 58 and "rubato." This seems faster, and Grainger plays the LH chords very freely, i.e., not the way one could allow one's students to play. However, it's a very convincing reading. I like the ostinato quarter notes to be more hypnotic and steady.

[AAErikCO]

God, this is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G sounding. Beats a modern solenoid player by a hundred miles! You can easily get lost in this "fog" of a piece, 5 stars sir!

[pianolainstitute]

Thank you, squadron leader!

You might like to know that the Aeolian Company, which manufactured the Duo-Art, as heard here, also made parts of First World War aeroplanes, at least in its factories in Hayes, England, and Gotha, Germany. The English factory made the wings and propellers for De Haviland 9s. By manufacturing in both countries, it effectively fought against itself in the skies over Europe.

[amusiathread]

what an amazing piece of music

[markduca]

Am I the first? Another great vid!!

This now encourages me to take my player even further apart. I had it in pieces already.

[pianolainstitute]

Make sure you remember how to stikk it back together again!