Sergei Rachmaninoff : A window in Time

Sergei Rachmaninoff: A window in Time

Sergey Racmaninoff  Performs :
Bach, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Paderewski, Schubert, Tchaikovsky and others



Reviews :  

Amazon.com:

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.

newburycomics.com:

The recordings on this disc are of Rachmaninov's reproducing piano rolls as electronically translated for the B"sendorfer 290SE by Wayne Stahnke. Sergei Rachmaninov was one of the piano superstars of his day. His technique--which was displayed best in his own works--was awesome, but even more important, his musicianship was of the highest caliber. Many historical accounts confirm this, but we also have Rachmaninov's legacy of recordings that corroborate the words which were written about him. Unfortunately, up until now these recordings were of an inferior quality. All too often, background noise and damaged tape prevented us from hearing the music as it was performed. That has now changed. Wayne Stahnke found a way to translate the old Rachmaninov piano rolls onto a computer. He then modified a B"sendorfer piano to "read" these rolls, thus re-creating Rachmaninov's performances with perfect clarity and a fullness of sound never achieved before. These piano rolls were not simply a chart of the notes, but were coded to re-create the precise shading, pedaling, and articulation of the performer. The result is fantastic. A WINDOW IN TIME is like staring into a once-clouded crystal ball and seeing Rachmaninov for the master that he was, and now always will be.

stereophile.com:

 In my January 2001 article on the making of Canadian pianist Robert Silverman's complete cycle of the Beethoven piano sonatas, I mentioned how I had been emotionally destroyed during a pause in the sessions when Robert fed a floppy disk containing the source code for Rachmaninoff's 1921 piano-roll performance of Mendelssohn's "Spinning Song" into the PC controlling the Bösendorfer 290SE Reproducing Piano. For a glorious 105 seconds, I had enjoyed this audiophile's ultimate fantasy: perhaps the finest pianist of all time playing for me alone. But anyone who is not one of the 32 owners of this most sophisticated player piano will have to make do with these two CDs. Wayne Stahnke both designed the Bösendorfer mechanism and spent years transcribing the original rolls of punched paper containing the performances, recorded by Rachmaninoff between 1919 and 1929. Ex-JPL scientist Stahnke used a special scanner and software of his own devising to re-create the information that must have existed on the long-gone master rolls before translating the data to Bösendorfer code. These two CDs featuring Rachmaninoff at the Bösendorfer 290SE were captured straight to hard disk, using a pair of Neumann TLM-170 mikes, by audiophile engineer Da-Hong Seeto, whose live recording of the Emerson Quartet's Shostakovich cycle at Aspen for DG was a highlight of the 2000 recorded year. The 20-bit masters were noiseshaped to the CD's 16 bits using Apogee's UV22 Nyquist dither. The naturally crisp Bösendorfer tone, with its deep, bell-like lows, has been captured to perfection, surrounded by the supportive glow of the recording venue, the Civic Center in Thousand Oaks. I would have appreciated perhaps a little more of the acoustic in absolute terms, but as an engineer who also endeavors to capture the ultimate piano sound, I must pay Seeto the supreme compliment: "I wish I'd made these recordings." And as for Rachmaninoff's performances, I give the final word to Bob Silverman, who, when I referred in e-conversation to Rachmaninoff as a "pianist," replied, "If you call Rachmaninoff a pianist, you have to find a different word for the rest of us!" (XXIII-2)

arkivmusic.com:

The recordings on this disc are of Rachmaninov's reproducing piano rolls as electronically translated for the Bösendorfer 290SE by Wayne Stahnke. One of the first lasting legends created by the 20th century, Sergei Rachmaninov the composer owed a great deal to his reputation as a concert pianist. Although he was prolific in both recording and making piano rolls, high-quality transfers of sound from early sources to contemporary media have long been elusive. A WINDOW IN TIME represents a historic record of Rachmaninov's prowess as a performer. It does not include any of his own technically complex compositions--those are collected on Telarc's first A WINDOW IN TIME disc. Here, the composer performs the works of other brilliant pianist-composers, giving perspective on his influences and interpretations of his predecessors. From a technical standpoint, this album is a miracle. That music rolls created in the 1920s would yield sound quality acceptable to contemporary listeners--let alone sound quality this good--is a wonder of engineering. These are recordings recovered from a lost time capsule. They capture a moment in history, adding a new dimension to a legend.

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