Alexander Siloti (1863-1945): Liszt - Bénédiction de Dieu

Alexander Siloti was an extremely fine pianist. He was taught first by Scriabin's piani teacher, Nikolai Zverev, followed by Rubinstein, Taneyev and Tchaikovsky at the Moscow Conservatoire. He moved on to become one of Liszt's pupils from 1883.

He moved towards conducting in preference to playing the piano, an early success being the world premiere of Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto in 1902. Had he made any proper recordings we would no doubt rate his importance as much higher. As one of the foremost musicians in Russia, he actively pursued the introduction of many new composers' music both as a pianist and conductor, and was the recipient of many dedications. He also produced a large amount of piano transcription and other works.

He left a handfull of piano rolls, but the only surviving acoustic recordings of his playing are some privately-made recordings by his family. Around 25 minutes' worth of music is guessed to have been made. Unfortunately most of this is either known to be destroyed, currently unknown of location or otherwise unavailable.

His piano rolls, when played back well, display a superb pianist of extreme sensitivity.

This recording is a piano roll he made for the Duo-Art system, of Liszt's work "Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude" (roll number 6636 in the Duo-Art catalogue) - number three from the 1847 set of "Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses". The performance shows almost all of the same qualities as the fragmentary bits of live playing recorded.

Some technical info: this roll was played back not on a real piano, but is a digitised playback on a sampled Steinway piano made from a digitally encoded transcription of the original roll (all the dynamics, articulation, pedalling, and so on is unchanged from the original roll, and there has been no "editing" of it). This is something I am experimenting with doing at the moment and I am quite pleased with this result, which is so close to the effect of a real piano that I hope listeners can enjoy it as if it were real. And I do hope that those who normally avoid piano rolls give this one a listen, as it is astoundingly beautiful playing.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• alexander
• siloti
• recording
• classical
• piano
• roll
• duo
• art
• liszt
• Bénédiction
• Dieu
• solitude
• Harmonies
• Poétiques
• Religieuses

[trent1280]

I notice mention made of the 26:00 tape recording that Siloti made, c. 1940, and that it is indicated this unique recording has been lost. Not so. We have it at Stanford.

FYI, a paperback version of 'Lost in the Stars: The Forgotten Musical Life of Alexander Siloti' will be released in the summer of 2010. The matter of the 'missing' acetates is discussed therein.  Thanks!

Dr Charles Barber

[d60944]

@trent1280 Indeed, I appear to have been overhasty in that assumption. A few more recordings from the acetates (via tape) have popped up on YouTube in recent weeks too.

[marcxopoco]

Siloti heard Liszt play this work and had lessons on it with Liszt.

[d60944]

If that's so, it's very interesting. Where did you get that report from??

[marcxopoco]

After lessons with Nicholas and Anton Rubinstein in Russia, Siloti came to Weimar to study with Liszt. Siloti's autobiography is filled with details on his study with Liszt. It is a basic source for information on Liszt. As is Artur Friedheim's Life and Liszt, Amy Fay's Music Study in Germany, and many others.

[d60944]

Yes, I know his background...! I don't recall reading that this specific piece was one that Siloti studied with Liszt though. If you can put the quote from the autobiog on here that would be relaly kind. Thanks!

[felix0911176727]

His playing is so touching... although it's not complete version. I love 5:13 to 5:38! So beautiful!

[RemovdSande11]

the beginning reminds me of Siloti's transcription of Bach's prelude BWV 855.

[Thephraste84]

Merci tout simplement. C'est un instant de pur bonheur que vous nous accordez!

[aardvaark069]

That's pretty crappy piano playing. SHEESH!

[gtimny]

Sorry to rain on the parade here, but this is not good. More to the point, it sounds almost nothing like Siloti's acoustic recordings (see fragments posted on YT for comparison). His golden tone is missing (which is really the voicing and proportion of sound distributed among the parts, not preserved here) and to my ear the "sampled" Steinway's notes don't decay naturally. Also it doesn't seem to account for the effect of pedal very well. This is dry and the melody often pokes ungracefully.

[TheVieuxchat]

@pianotonton

Tout à fait inexact : comparez les enregistrements sur rouleaux Ampico de Rachmaninoff et ses enregistrements électriques des années 1920-29 ,

[gerardbedecarter]

Thanks, Rob, for this wonderful historical recording!

[pianotonton]

Hélas ! Les rouleaux ne respectent pas le jeu des pianistes. Mieux vaut le bruit de fond des 78 tours ou des cylindres que ça.

[KawhackitaRag]

I agree, I am critical of piano rolls, but I love them.

Sometimes (with the popular rolls especially) there was lots of shenanigans and deception going on as to how the rolls were actually made and who made them... however the classical rolls are another story. Most of the big "reproducing" roll companies would have had their reputations destroyed had they seriously monkeyed around too much with someone's performance, so I believe that they generally did the best they could in these cases.