THE ART OF PIANO ROLLS

HELLO AND WELCOME TO MY BLOG! MY NAME IS ASHOT ARAKELYAN, AND I AM A RECORD COLLECTOR. HERE, YOU CAN ORDER UNIQUE CDRS FEATURING PIANO ROLLS OF FORGOTTEN PIANISTS—EXCLUSIVE RECORDINGS THAT ARE UNAVAILABLE ANYWHERE ELSE ON THE WEB. THESE RECORDINGS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FOR ONLINE DOWNLOAD. IF YOU ARE ALREADY A CUSTOMER, I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT IF YOU COULD RECOMMEND MY WEBSITE TO YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND FELLOW MUSIC LOVERS. THANK YOU FOR VISITING, AND ENJOY EXPLORING THE BLOG!

Tuesday, July 7, 2026

ARTHUR DE GREEF WELTE-MIGNON, DUO-ART AND PHONOLA PIANO ROLLS CDR

ARTHUR DE GREEF (LOUVAIN, BELGIUM 10 OCTOBER 1862 – BRUSSELS, BELGIUM 29 AUGUST 1940)

Born in Louvain, he won first prize in a local music competition at the age of 11 and subsequently enrolled at the Brussels Conservatoire. His main teacher there was Louis Brassin, a former pupil of Ignaz Moscheles, although he also took lessons from other staffers at the institution, including Joseph Dupont, François-Auguste Gevaert and Fernand Kufferath. After graduating with high distinction from the Conservatoire at the age of 17, De Greef went to Weimar to complete his studies under Franz Liszt. He was a pupil of Liszt for two years. Following the Weimar sojourn, De Greef embarked on a career as a concert pianist, travelling widely. He was a friend of Edvard Grieg, whose Piano Concerto he had played publicly in 1898, and who called him “the best performer of my music I have met with”. In addition, he enjoyed the endorsement of Camille Saint-Saëns. British critic Jonathan Woolf has written: “De Greef was, in all respects, an intensely musical, non-sensationalist, eloquent and impressive musician and whilst not being averse to some of the interventionist tactics of his contemporaries (retouching of the score) remained sympathetically self-effacing”. De Greef composed a sizeable quantity of music, virtually all of which is now unknown. Among his works are two piano concertos. He was a devoted teacher, and taught piano at the Brussels Conservatoire for many years.

TRACKLIST

1168 WELTE-MIGNON SCHUMANN – Papillons, Op. 2

1180 WELTE-MIGNON WAGNER-BRASSIN – Siegmund’s Love Song from Opera “Die Walküre”

1181 WELTE-MIGNON WAGNER-BRASSIN – Entrance into Valhalla from Opera “Das Rheingold”

02 DUO-ART – AEOLIAN CO., LTD (ENGLAND) GRIEG – Puck, Op. 71, No. 3 “Lyric Pieces”

04 DUO-ART – AEOLIAN CO., LTD (ENGLAND) GRIEG – Album Leaf, Op. 28, No. 3 (4 Album Leaves)

0221 DUO-ART MOSZKOWSKI – Etude, Op. 18, No. 3

7222 DUO-ART GRIEG – Puck, Op. 71, No. 3 “Lyric Pieces”

PHONOLA GRIEG – Album Leaf, Op. 28 No. 1

PHONOLA GRIEG – Album Leaf, Op. 28 No. 2

PHONOLA GRIEG – Berceuse, Op. 38 No. 1

PHONOLA GRIEG – Papillon, Op. 43 No. 1

ALEXANDER SILOTI DUO-ART PIANO ROLLS CDR

ALEXANDER ILYICH SILOTI (NEAR KHARKOV, RUSSIA/UKRAINE, OCTOBER 9, 1863 – NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA, DECEMBER 8, 1945)

Alexander Siloti was born on his father’s estate near Kharkiv, Ukraine (then part of Imperial Russia). He studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory with Nikolai Zverev from 1871, then from 1875 under Nikolai Rubinstein, brother of the more famous Anton Rubinstein; from that year he also studied counterpoint under Sergei Taneyev, harmony under Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and theory under Nikolai Hubert. He graduated with the Gold Medal in Piano in 1881. He received some lessons from Anton Rubinstein after the death of Rubinstein’s brother, Nikolai. After Siloti’s graduation it was decided that he would be sent to Weimar, Germany on scholarship to further his studies with Franz Liszt, co-founding the Liszt-Verein in Leipzig, and making his professional debut on 19 November 1883. Returning to Russia in 1887, Siloti taught at the Moscow Conservatory, where his students included Alexander Goldenweiser, Konstantin Igumnov, Leonid Maximov, and his first cousin Sergei Rachmaninoff. During this period he also began work as editor for Tchaikovsky, particularly on the First and Second piano concertos. Siloti married Vera Tretyakova, herself a pianist and the daughter of the wealthy industrialist and art collector Pavel Tretyakov. He left his post at the Conservatory in May 1891, and from 1892-1900 lived and toured in Europe with his wife and young children. He also toured New York City, Boston, Cincinnati and Chicago in 1898. As a conductor Siloti gave the world premiere of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the composer as soloist in 1901. From 1901–1903, he led the Moscow Philharmonic; from 1903–1917, he organized, financed, and conducted the influential Siloti Concerts in St Petersburg, collaborating with the critic and musicologist Alexander Ossovsky. He presented Leopold Auer, Pablo Casals, Feodor Chaliapin, George Enescu, Josef Hofmann, Wanda Landowska, Willem Mengelberg, Felix Mottl, Arthur Nikisch, Arnold Schoenberg and Felix Weingartner, and local and world premieres by Debussy, Elgar, Glazunov, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin, Sibelius, Stravinsky and others. Ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev first heard Stravinsky’s music at one of the Siloti Concerts. In the generation prior to 1917, Siloti was one of Russia’s most important artists, with music by Arensky, Lyadov, Blumenfeld, Szymanowski, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Taneyev and Tchaikovsky dedicated to him. In 1918, Siloti was appointed Intendant of the Mariinsky Theatre, but late the following year fled what had become Soviet Russia for England, finally settling in New York City in December 1921. From 1925-1942 he taught at the Juilliard School, performing occasionally in recital, and in November 1930 gave a legendary all-Liszt concert with Arturo Toscanini. His many students included Ilmari Hannikainen, Bertha Melnik, Marc Blitzstein, Gladys Ewart, and Eugene Istomin. Siloti, who was one of the great practitioners of the art of transcription, wrote over 200 of these arrangements, as well as orchestral editions of the music of Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi. Possibly his most famous transcription is the Prelude in B minor, based on a keyboard prelude by J. S. Bach. His daughter, Kyriena Siloti, was a noted pianist and teacher in New York and Boston until her death in 1989, aged 94. Alexander Siloti is buried at the Russian Orthodox Convent Novo-Diveevo Cemetery, Nanuet, New York.

TRACKLIST

Alexander Siloti made 7 Duo-Art piano rolls

6600 BACH-SILOTI – Prelude to Cantata No. 29 “Wir danken Dir, Gott”

6636 LISZT – Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude (Abbrieviated by Siloti)

6657 RIABININ-SILOTI – Russian Folk Song

6875 LIADOV – Cradle Song

ALEXANDER RAAB DUO-ART PIANO ROLLS CDR

ALEXANDER RAAB (GYŐR, 14 MARCH, 1882 – ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA, 2 OCTOBER, 1958)

Alexander Raab was born in Győr (also known as Raab), Hungary. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory under Hans Schmitt (1835–1907), Robert Fuchs and Theodor Leschetizky and became acquainted with Johannes Brahms. He presented recitals with the violinist Jan Kubelík in England, Russia, Germany and France. He immigrated to the US in 1915, and became Head of the Piano Department at Chicago Musical College, before moving to Berkeley, California, where he became esteemed as one of the best piano teachers on the West Coast. He performed concertos with the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Vienna, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, and London Symphony Orchestra. Leopold Godowsky dedicated his 1931 transcription of Adolf von Henselt’s Etude in F-sharp major (Si oiseau j’etais), Op. 2, No. 6, to Raab. Alexander Raab’s piano students included Ernst Bacon, Vera Bradford, George J. Buelow, Muriel Kerr, Wanda Krasoff (who had been referred to Raab by Josef Hofmann), Mortimer Markoff, Sumner Marshall, Robert Owens, and Allan Willman. His pupils also studied under teachers such as Alfred Cortot, Nadia Boulanger, Rudolph Ganz, Percy Grainger, Ernest Hutcheson, and Paul Wells. He made a small number of early Duo-Art and Welte Mignon piano roll recordings, with music of Chopin (Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor Funeral March), Liszt (Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5 in E minor), Mozart, Brahms, and some salon pieces by minor composers.

TRACKLIST

1. 12 Sonata In B Flat Minor Op. 35 3Rd Movement – Lento; Marche Funebre & 4Th Movement – Presto (Chopin) Duo-Art 5710

2. Fantasia In D Minor K. 397 (Mozart) Duo-Art 5677

3. Harlequin’s Serenade Op. 48 No. 2 (Schubert) Duo-Art 6127

4. Hungarian Rhapsodie No. 5 In E Minor Heroic Elegy (Liszt) Duo-Art 5640

5. Piano Sonata In B Flat Minor Op. 35 1St Movement – Grave Doppio Movimento (Chopin) Duo-Art 5692

6. Piano Sonata In B Flat Minor Op. 35 2Nd Movement – Scherzo (Chopin) Duo-Art 5702

7. Pierrot’s Dream Op. 48 No. 5 (Schuett) Duo-Art 5714

8. Reverie Op. 34 No. 5 (Schuett) Duo-Art 5672

9. Romance (Frommel) Duo-Art 5739

10. Serenade (Frommel) Duo-Art 5772

11. Soirees De Vienne No. 6 In A Major (Schubert-Liszt) Duo-Art 5651

12. Tender Aveu (Promise Op. 59 No. 2) (Schuett) Duo-Art 5631

13. Waltz In A Flat Major Op. 39 No. 15 (Brahms) Duo-Art 56428

IGNACY JAN PADEREWSKI WELTE-MIGNON PIANO ROLLS VOL. 2 CDR

IGNACY JAN PADEREWSKI (KURILIVKA, UKRAINE 6 NOVEMBER 1860 – NEW YORK CITY, U.S. 29 JUNE 1941)

Paderewski was the son of a steward of a Polish landowner. He studied music from 1872 at the Warsaw Conservatory and from 1878 taught piano there, and in 1880 he married one of his pupils, Antonina Korsak, who died in childbirth the following year. Encouraged and financed by the actress Helena Modrzejewska (Modjeska), he studied in Vienna from 1884 to 1887 under Theodor Leschetizky, who did much to improve a limited technique. During this period he also taught at the Strasbourg Conservatory. Between 1887 and 1891 he made his first public appearances as a pianist, in Vienna, Paris, London, and New York City. His success with the public was overwhelming; his personality on the concert platform, like that of Liszt, his predecessor among piano virtuosos, generated a mystical devotion. Among his colleagues, however, he was more envied than respected. Chopin (whose works he edited), Bach, Beethoven, and Schumann were the chief composers of his repertory. In 1898 he settled at Riond Bosson near Morges in Switzerland, and the following year he married Helena Gorska, Baroness von Rosen. In 1901 his opera Manru, dealing with life in the Tatra Mountains, was given at Dresden. In 1909 his Symphony in B Minor was given at Boston, and in that same year he became director of the Warsaw Conservatory. Throughout his life Paderewski was a staunch patriot. In 1910 he presented to the city of Kraków a monument commemorating the 500th anniversary of the victory of the Poles over the Teutonic Order. During World War I he became a member of the Polish National Committee and was appointed its representative to the United States, where he urged Pres. Woodrow Wilson to support the cause of Polish independence. Wilson included Poland’s cause as the 13th of his Fourteen Points of Jan. 8, 1918. After the war the provisional head of state, Józef Piłsudski, asked Paderewski to form in Warsaw a government of experts free from party tendencies. This was formed on Jan. 17, 1919. Paderewski reserved the portfolio of foreign affairs for himself, but his premiership was not a success. As a virtuoso, Paderewski was accustomed to flattery, and he resented sharp criticism. On Nov. 27, 1919, he resigned the premiership and returned to Riond Bosson; his ambitions to become the president of the revived Poland had been shattered. He never revisited the country. In 1921 he resumed his musical career, giving concerts in Europe and the United States, mainly for war victims. At the beginning of World War II, in October 1939, a Polish government-in-exile, formed in Paris with Gen. Władysław Sikorski as prime minister, offered Paderewski the chairmanship of the Polish National Council. After the French capitulation in 1940, he went to the United States. He died soon after and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

TRACKLIST

1255 WELTE-MIGNON CHOPIN – Nocturne, Op. 37, No. 2, G

1256 WELTE-MIGNON CHOPIN – Polonaise, Op. 53, Ab “Heroic”

1257 WELTE-MIGNON CHOPIN – Waltz, Op. 64, No. 2, c#

1259 WELTE-MIGNON LISZT – Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10, E “Preludio”

1260 WELTE-MIGNON SCHUBERT-LISZT – Die Erlkönig (The Erl-King) Op. 1

1261 WELTE-MIGNON SCHUBERT-LISZT – Hark, Hark! the Lark!

1262 PADEREWSKI – Nocturne, Op. 16, No. 4, Bb

1263 PADEREWSKI – Menuet, Op. 14, No. 1, G

IGNACY JAN PADEREWSKI WELTE-MIGNON PIANO ROLLS VOL. 1 CDR

IGNACY JAN PADEREWSKI (KURILIVKA, UKRAINE 6 NOVEMBER 1860 – NEW YORK CITY, U.S. 29 JUNE 1941)

TRACKLIST

1. 1246 WELTE-MIGNON BEETHOVEN – Piano Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2, c#”Moonlight” 1 mvt.

2. 1246 WELTE-MIGNON BEETHOVEN – Piano Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2, c#”Moonlight” 2 mvt.

3. 1247 WELTE-MIGNON BEETHOVEN – Piano Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2, c# “Moonlight” 3rd mvt.

4. 1248 WELTE-MIGNON SCHUBERT – Impromptu, Op. 142, No. 3, Bb “Rosamunde”

5. 1249 WELTE-MIGNON CHOPIN – Ballade No. 3, Ab, Op. 47

6. 1251 WELTE-MIGNON CHOPIN – Mazurka, Op. 24, No. 4, b-b

7. 1253 WELTE-MIGNON CHOPIN – Etude, Op. 25, No. 9, Gb “Butterfly”

8. 1254 WELTE-MIGNON CHOPIN – Etude, Op. 10, No. 3, E “Tristesse”

JOSÉ VIANNA DA MOTTA WELTE-MIGNON PIANO ROLLS CDR

JOSÉ VIANNA DA MOTTA (SÃO TOMÉ ISLAND, 22 APRIL, 1868 – LISBON, 1 JUNE, 1948)

José Vianna da Motta was born on São Tomé Island, a Portuguese territory at the time where his father, also a great amateur musician, had opened a pharmacy. Moving with his family to Continental Portugal, he settled in Colares, near Sintra, where he soon showed his unusual skills in music, and in playing and composing works for the piano. In Berlin he had lessons from Xaver Scharwenka and Philipp Scharwenka before studying with Franz Liszt at Weimar in 1885 and with Hans von Bülow two years later. In the following years he undertook many concert tours all round the world. Although he was renowned for his virtuosity he was also dedicated to the music of J. S. Bach and Beethoven – playing all of the latter’s 32 piano sonatas in a series of concerts in Lisbon in 1927. He also included lesser known composers in his recitals, playing, for example, works by Charles-Valentin Alkan at the Wigmore Hall in London in 1903. He also made a number of transcriptions of Alkan’s pedalier pieces into two hand versions. Vianna da Motta was also close to his fellow virtuoso Ferruccio Busoni, and wrote the programme notes for Busoni’s major series of piano concerto concerts in Berlin. Vianna da Motta was also a composer in his own right, including orchestral works (one of them a symphony) as well as piano pieces. On 25 October 1906, Motta recorded ten piano rolls for Welte-Mignon including three of his own compositions. He was Director of the Lisbon Conservatory from 1919 to 1938. Amongst his pupils there was the pianist Sequeira Costa. He died in Lisbon in 1948, aged 80.

TRACKLIST

715 WELTE-MIGNON SCHUBERT-LISZT – March, b

716 WELTE-MIGNON SCHUBERT-LISZT – Hark, Hark! the Lark!

717 WELTE-MIGNON WEBER – Polacca Brillante, Op. 72, E

718 WELTE-MIGNON CHOPIN – Tarantella, Op. 43, Ab

719 WELTE-MIGNON CHOPIN Scherzo E-Dur, op. 54 (Chopin)

721 WELTE-MIGNON St. Francis Legend Nr. 1

JOSEF PEMBAUR WELTE-MIGNON PIANO ROLLS CDR

JOSEF PEMBAUR (INNSBRUCK, 20 APRIL 1875 – MUNICH, 12 OCTOBER 1950)

Born in Innsbruck, Pembaur was the son of the composer and music director Josef Pembaur the Elder (1848–1923). He got his first musical education by his father. From 1893 until 1896, he studied piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Ludwig Thuille, conducting with Ludwig Abel and composition and organ with Josef Gabriel Rheinberger. He was awarded a gold medal at the final examination in 1896. From 1896 to 1901, he worked as a piano teacher at the same school. In 1901/02, he continued his studies with Alfred Reisenauer at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, where he was employed as a teacher for higher piano playing. In 1912, he was appointed professor of music in Saxony. In 1921, he was appointed professor in Bavaria, but he returned to the Academy of Music in Munich and taught a master class for piano. His students included Anna Renfer. Pembaur also completed numerous concert tours. In Berlin he was one of the judges in the competition for the Ibach Prize. In Spring 1919, Pembaur took eight piano pieces for the Reproduktionsklavier Welte-Mignon, including two compositions by his father, probably his earliest recordings. On 29 October 1918, Thomas Mann heard him in an event with Joachim von Delbrück, who was reading from his novel Der sterbende Chopin that evening. In 1906, he married the pianist Maria Elterich, and the two of them also performed together on two pianos. Pembaur’s brother Karl was a composer and choirmaster in Dresden. Pembaur died in Munich at the age of 75.

TRACKLIST

3264 WELTE-MIGNON BRAHMS – Ballade, Op. 10, No. 1, d

3265 WELTE-MIGNON BRAHMS – Ballade, Op. 10, No. 2, D

3266 WELTE-MIGNON BRAHMS – Ballade, Op. 10, No. 3, b

3267 WELTE-MIGNON BRAHMS – Ballade, Op. 10, No. 4, B

3272 WELTE-MIGNON PEMBAUR – Scherzo energico (Ade Bagage) Op. 37, 2.

OTTO NEITZEL WELTE-MIGNON PIANO ROLLS CDR

OTTO NEITZEL (FALKENBURG (POMERANIA), GERMANY, JULY 6, 1852 – COLOGNE, GERMANY, MARCH 10, 1920)

Otto Neitzel was the second son out of six musically talented children of the teacher Gottfried Neitzel and his wife Louise, née Messerschmidt. At the age of eight he caused a sensation as a “Wunderkind” playing piano in his hometown Falkenburg and nearby cities (Dramburg, Kallies and Rummelsburg) in the Pommersche Schweiz, Pommern. In Stettin he was promoted by Carl Loewe, in Berlin by Eduard Grell (1800-1886), the violinist Hubert Ries and the composer Wilhelm Taubert. Because his father was not able to finance his musical education his talented son was sponsored by patron Bernhard Loeser from the cigar manufacturers “Loeser&Wolff”. In 1865 the young boy left home to become a quartaner at the Joachimsthaler Gymnasium in Berlin. He got piano lessons at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst by Theodor Kullak, Richard Wüerst and Friedrich Kiel. From 1873 to 1875 he was a student of Franz List. 1875 he wrote his dissertation “Die ästhetische Grenze der Programmmusik”. He went on tour accompanying the soprano singer Pauline Lucca and the famous violinist Pablo de Sarasate on piano. In 1878 Neitzel became director of the Musikverein in Straßburg. From 1879 till 1881 he was music-director at the Straßburger Stadttheater and worked as a teacher at the Straßburger Konservatorium. Its Director Max Erdmannsdörfer recommended him as a representative for the German piano school at the Moscow Konservatory. He was offered a chair as “Imperatorial-Russian” professor. He married his student, the alto singer Sophie Romboi. In 1885 he became teacher at the Kölner Konservatorium. In 1887 he became chief of the musical section of the “Kölnische Zeitung”, where he published as a journalist. In the winter of 1906/07 he was invited to play and hold lecture recitals in the United States, where he played Beethoven’s G-major concert in Philadelphia and Boston, directed by Karl Muck. In 1909 Neitzel directed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and his Choral Fantasy. Because of its success Muck encouraged him to direct the orchestra, but Neitzel rejected the offer. He was acquainted with Richard Wagner and Richard Strauß, who he supported. In 1919 he became member of the Preußische Akademie der Künste in Berlin. He held a chair as a professor. He died on 10 March 1920 in Cologne, where he left behind four daughters.

TRACKLIST

681 WELTE-MIGNON BACH – Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, d S. 903

682 WELTE-MIGNON BEETHOVEN – Piano Sonata, Op. 31, No. 2, d “Tempest” lst mvt.

685 WELTE-MIGNON BEETHOVEN – Piano Sonata, Op. 81, Eb “Les adieux” 1st mvt.

686 WELTE-MIGNON BEETHOVEN – Piano Sonata, Op. 81, Eb “Les adieux” 2nd 3rd mvts.

688 WELTE-MIGNON NEITZEL – Les rocs de Clifton, aus Paysages anglais.

690 WELTE-MIGNON SCHUMANN – Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 7, 11 & 12

691 WELTE-MIGNON SCHUMANN – Davidsbündlertänze (David’s League Dances) Nos. 1-18

695 WELTE-MIGNON DEBUSSY – Estampes (Prints), No. 1 Pagodes (Pagodas)

ALEXANDER SCRIABIN THE COMPLETE WELTE-MIGNON PIANO ROLLS CDR

ALEXANDER NIKOLAYEVICH SCRIABIN (DEC. 25, 1871 [JAN. 6, 1872, NEW STYLE], MOSCOW, RUSSIA—APRIL 14 [APRIL 27], 1915, MOSCOW)

Scriabin was trained as a soldier at the Moscow Cadet School from 1882 to 1889 but studied music at the same time and took piano lessons. In 1888 he entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied the piano with V.I. Safonov and composition with Sergey Taneyev and Anton Arensky. By 1892, when he graduated from the conservatory, he had composed the piano pieces that constitute his opuses 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7. In 1897 he married the pianist Vera Isakovich and from 1898 until 1903 taught at the Moscow Conservatory. He then devoted himself entirely to composition and in 1904 settled in Switzerland. After 1900 he was much preoccupied with mystical philosophy, and his Symphony No. 1, composed in that year, has a choral finale, to his own words, glorifying art as a form of religion. In Switzerland he completed his Symphony No. 3, first performed under Arthur Nikisch in Paris in 1905. The literary “program” of this work, devised by Tatiana Schloezer, with whom he had formed a relationship after abandoning his wife, was said to represent “the evolution of the human spirit from pantheism to unity with the universe.” Theosophical ideas similarly provided the basis of the orchestral Poem of Ecstasy (1908) and Prometheus (1911), which called for the projection of colours onto a screen during the performance. From 1906 to 1907 Scriabin toured the United States, where he gave concerts with Safonov and the conductor Modest Altschuler, and in 1908 he frequented theosophical circles in Brussels. In 1909 he was encouraged by the conductor Serge Koussevitzky, who both performed and published his works, to return to Russia. By then he was no longer thinking in terms of music alone; he was looking forward to an all-embracing “Mystery.” This work was planned to open with a “liturgical act” in which music, poetry, dancing, colours, and scents were to unite to induce in the worshipers a “supreme, final ecstasy.” He wrote the poem of the “Preliminary Action” of the “Mystery” but left only sketches for the music. Scriabin’s reputation stems from his grandiose symphonies and his sensitive, exquisitely polished piano music. His piano works include 10 sonatas (1892–1913), an early concerto, and many preludes and other short pieces. Although Scriabin was an idolater of Frédéric Chopin in his youth, he early developed a personal style. As his thought became more and more mystical, egocentric, and ingrown, his harmonic style became ever less generally intelligible. Meaningful analysis of his work only began appearing in the 1960s, and yet his music had always attracted a devoted following among modernists.

TRACKLIST

2067 WELTE-MIGNON SCRIABIN – Preludes, Op. 11, No. 1, C; No. 2, a

2068 WELTE-MIGNON SCRIABIN – Poème, Op. 32, No. 1, F#

2069 WELTE-MIGNON SCRIABIN – Preludes, Op. 11, No. 13, Gb; No. 14, eb

2071 WELTE-MIGNON SCRIABIN – Désir (Desire) Op. 57, No. 1

2072 WELTE-MIGNON SCRIABIN – Prelude, Op. 22, No. 1; Mazurka, Op. 40, No. 2, f#

2073 WELTE-MIGNON SCRIABIN – Etude, Op. 8, No. 12, d# “Pathétique”

EMIL VON SAUER THE COMPLETE WELTE-MIGNON PIANO ROLLS CDR

EMIL VON SAUER (HAMBURG, GERMANY 8 OCTOBER 1862 – VIENNA, AUSTRIA 27 APRIL 1942)

He was born in Hamburg, Germany on 8 October 1862 as Emil Georg Conrad Sauer. He studied with Nikolai Rubinstein at the Moscow Conservatory between 1879 and 1881. On an 1884 visit to Italy he met the Countess von Sayn-Wittgenstein, who recommended him to her former paramour, Franz Liszt. He went on to study with Liszt for two years, but did not for some time consider himself a Liszt pupil. In an 1895 interview, he even denied it: “It is not correct to regard me as a pupil of Liszt, though I stayed with him for a few months. He was then very old, and could not teach me much. My chief teacher has been, undoubtedly, Nicholas Rubinstein.” In his later years, however, Sauer realized the influence of Liszt on himself and on music in general. From 1882 Sauer made frequent and successful tours as a virtuoso pianist; his performing career lasted until 1940. He premiered in London in 1894 and New York in 1899. In 1901 he was appointed head of the Meisterschule für Klavierspiel at the Vienna Academy. Sauer left this post in April 1907 but returned to it in 1915. Some of his pupils continued on to successful concert or other significant music careers. In 1917, Sauer was raised to the peerage by the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, which added the nobiliary particle “von” to his name. He was also awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society of London. Regardless of his own opinion initially, Sauer was considered as emphasizing the original Liszt approach to pianism as well as a strong Romantic approach to a musical technique that demanded a total command of the keyboard in what was known as the Liszt School of piano. Unlike his fellow pupil Moriz Rosenthal, who could overwhelm the keyboard with orchestral force, von Sauer was said to caress the piano in a suave, polished manner. His recordings show him to have been a smooth pianist who was inclined toward relaxed tempos and exactitude of detail over temperament. While his playing may have sometimes lacked in breadth, it was always elegant and beautifully finished. Emil von Sauer was married twice. Angelica Morales (Sauer), his second wife, carried on his legacy in teaching. Sauer had two sons with Morales — Julio and Franz. He died in Vienna, Austria on 27 April 1942, aged 79.

TRACKLIST

876 MOZART-LISZT – Fantasia on Themes from “Don Giovanni”

877 LISZT – Transcendental Etudes – No. 4, d Mazeppa

879 CHOPIN – Nocturne, Op. 27, No. 2, Db

880 CHOPIN – Bolero, Op. 19, C

881 CHOPIN – Etude, Op. 25, No. 9, Gb “Butterfly”

882 MENDELSSOHN-LISZT – On Wings of Song (Auf Flügeln des Gesänges)

883 SAUER – Echo de Vienne – Valse de concert, D

885 SAUER – Concert Etude No. 6, b The Aspen Leaf

886 SAUER – Concert Etude No. 7, E Flammes de mer (Glitter of the Sea)