Disklavier

Good afternoon, everyone.

On Feb 6, 2006, at 4:18 PM, David wrote:

> Would like to find out which of the several Piano Soft Solo MIDI  
> files you perfer. Is it,
>
> "David Buechner Plays Gershwin"
>
> Or
>
> "Gershwin Plays Gershwin"
>
> Comments are welcome.
>

The big difference is that Sarah (formerly David) Buechner is a  
living pianist who has recorded a terrific album on the Disklavier  
itself, and George Gershwin recorded on a pneumatic player piano.

Gershwin's own album is a conversion of his piano roll recordings  
done by Gershwin scholar Artist Wodehouse. Some of the pieces were  
recorded for the Duo-Art reproducing piano and therefore have encoded  
dynamics. Other pieces on the disk are "realizations" of "88-note"  
rolls done by Artis. These rolls had no encoded dynamics for  
automatic playback. Instead, there were intended to be interpreted by  
someone who pumps the pedals of the player piano and uses hand levers  
to manipulate tempo and dynamics.

When realizing the 88-note roles, Artis used a period Aeolian  
"vorzetzer," which is a player mechanism that you role up to the  
piano. It has 88 felt-covered fingers that press the keys and a lever  
that manipulates the sustain pedal. Thus, she used the vorzetzer and  
rolls to play a Disklavier, imparting her interpretation during the  
recording process.

Both disks are worthwhile for different reasons.

Regards,
PianoBench