The Welte Mignon Mystery Vol. XX
Our new issue of this month expands the series "Welte-Mignon Mystery" by another gem. Until now, the series was primarily orientated on the Welte catalogue, and thus on the pianist who, on a certain date, recorded a kind of "recital" in the Freiburg recording studio. There were pianists, however, who only recorded a few pieces and, on the other hand, there were several composers who were especially well represented during the "Welte" era. Sergei Rachmaninoff was doubtless amongst the latter. Alexander Borovsky, Anatol von Roessel, Leff Pouishnoff, Vera Maurina, Paul Strecker, Konstantin Igumnov, Józef Hofmann, Jacques Pintel and Vladimir Horowitz - they all recorded their selections of pieces sometime between 1905 and 1927 for the "Seventh World Wonder" Welte, and Rachmaninoff was included each time. A kaleidoscope.
www.klassik.com (09/23/2013):
(…) Der Kauf dieser mit einem umfangreichen Beihefttext ausgestatteten Edition lohnte sich allein schon, um mit Horowitz‘ frühesten Aufnahmen Bekanntschaft zu machen.Pizzicato 09/2013 (09/01/2013):
Aus dem Fundus der Welte-Mignon Rollen stellt TACET diesmal ein ganzes Rachmaninov-Programm zusammen, das von neun verschiedenen Pianisten gspielt wird. Das führt zu einer phantasievollen Mischung der "Morceaux de fantaisie" und der "Préludes", und wer sich die CD anhört, wähnt sich in eine Vergleichstudie der Stile versetzt. more...Audiophile Audition (06/16/2013):
A number of different labels have released CDs of stereo recordings of Welte Mignon piano rolls as reproduced today with a restored “vorsetzer” or complete piano with the mechanism built in. more...