Busoni plays Liszt ~ Paganini Variation No.6 ~ Piano roll recording C.1908 (Reconstruction)

The legendary pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni made many piano roll recordings in the 1900's but this work, Liszt's Paganini Variations demonstrates above all his fabulous technique. He recorded several pieces from this set, most notably No. 3 La Campanella for both Hupfeld and Aeolian. The Aeolian Duo Art version of this is very well known, whilst the other numbers he played for other roll manufacturers such as Hupfeld and Philipps are virtually unknown and unheard including this one No. 6 which is entitled 'Theme and Variations'.
This is a very strange roll as most of the variations seem to have been recorded at different tempi, which may possibly mean that Busoni originally made several different 'takes' on the master roll which remained uncorrected. Or it could be bad production methods.
I have tried to determine the correct tempi for each variation and joined them together to try and get near to something like the original sound.
If you are expecting to hear a performance which is faithful to the published score then you don't understand Busoni's performance ethos which was to rearrange and or recompose according to his ideas and possibly his mood at the time, most of his piano roll recordings demonstrate this.
His changes and alterations usually consisted of changes either to the score or its structure (or both) in order to achieve a satisfactorily balanced performance 'event'. Even In his day some regarded this 'tinkering' with the original as quite shocking, many more these days of course but then he lived in a world not of recorded pianism but of of immediacy.
Busoni produced his own edition of these Paganini Etudes which all had changes to Liszt's original score - an edition which is rarely heard these days as it is considered 'unauthentic'. Nonetheless it is of interest here as it was published in 1912, and after this roll was recorded. The Variations heard in the video are similar to those found in the Busoni edition where in places, his aim was to simplify Liszt's original texture in order to bring it back to something like Paganini's original intentions.
Such 'retro scoring' can be heard in the closing bars of this roll recording.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Liszt
• Busoni
• Paganini
• Variations
• Theme
• classical
• piano
• roll
• recording

[wesmusic56]

The piano roll could not capture adequately the genius of Busoni's playing. It must have been mesmerizing to hear him play live in those golden days of classical music... Thank you for preserving the historical documents!

[RollaArtis]

@wesmusic56 You are right - but don't forget that in 1905 the piano roll was the only way of recording piano works easily and effectively in one take. And we can SEE the pedalling and fingering ...... and it's digital BTW.

[BoeingB17FF]

The dots are disappearing into white...

[lifeingod7]

@RollaArtis Thank you for your comments, RollaArtis. Thank you so much for sharing these precious documents! BTW, I love Busoni's transcriptions of Bach's pieces! He is a genius...

[d60944]

This is all rather super! A treat.

[RollaArtis]

@WelteMax Yes - the pneumatic would need to be huge to operate the una corda, but actually I do this by means of a lever. Unlike the sustaining pedal there is no coding for this on the roll, which is is unfortunate as one has to guess where to soft pedal. Sometimes however, this results in some interesting musical effects.

[WelteMax]

@RollaArtis oke cool! well i keep noticing more things;) you can use the soft pedal "un acorda' style? is it a pneumatic? if so how is it so strong?=)

[RollaArtis]

@WelteMax Oh you noticed - it's my handkerchief.

[WelteMax]

@WelteMax what i the red thingy in the right upper corner that disappears and apeas again?

[WelteMax]

BRAVO!!!

=D