
This is a playlist for Liszt obsessives! There are now four Youtube versions of Arthur Friedheim's piano roll recording of the Liszt B minor Sonata, plus three more on Soundcloud, but I can't turn those into items on a Youtube playlist, so II'll include links at the end of this introduction. No comments on the faithfulness or otherwise of the individual recorded versions (anyone taking the trouble to use this playlist can make up their own minds), but genuine thanks and congratulations to those who have contributed to recreating this important performance. The Youtube videos are listed in their order of posting. The first, uploaded on 15 April 2012, is played on a Blüthner Solophonola grand piano, by a gentleman who calls himself Rolla Artis, without so far (December 2021) having revealed his identity. Whether he used the foot pedals to create the dynamics of the performance, or alternatively used an electric suction pump, modified by.the subduing levers, is not clear, but at any rate he deserves congratulations for being the first on the scene. The second recording, uploaded on 13 February 2013, comes from Julian Dyer, who is easier to pin down, since he is very well known by his real name in the player piano world. Julian was for many years an extremely successful and conscientious editor of the Player Piano Group Bulletin, and, as it happens, he has just produced a complete catalogue of the British Aeolian Company's "Meloto" rolls, which is well worth a detailed read. I'm pleased to say that I was given a copy for Christmas 2021, and I suggest that anyone reading this text would also enjoy the book. Julian recorded his version of the Sonata on a German Steck grand Pianola Piano, manufactured in Gotha, about the same size as a Steinway 'B', though that includes the roll mechanism at the front. The third recording, for the sake of completeness, is the one I uploaded on 30 September 2021 to our Pianola Institute channel. This was also played on a Gotha Steck grand, of similar size to Julian's, but belonging to Denis Hall, Chairman of our Institute. Since I like to include quite detailed programme notes, you can read more about this recording as you listen to it. The fourth recording is in two parts, uploaded on 19 October 2021 and 11 November 2021 by Marc Widuch, a German restorer of player pianos who also goes under the business name of Faszinationklaviere. The unusual nature of Marc's recording is that both rolls are Triphonola rolls, meaning that they have automatic dynamic coding down the edges of the roll which cause various mechanisms inside the piano to set and modify dynamic levels automatically. The piano is a Rönisch Triphonola upright piano, and, since the covers of both the piano and roll cabinet have been opened, you can see the various mechanisms moving about as the piano plays. The three Soundcloud recordings are from Ian Williamson in Australia, a member of the Australian Collectors of Mechanical Musical Instruments, and Velkko Viljanen from Finland. The first was posted by Ian on 26 January 2020, using (I assume) a MIDI version of two optical scans made by Julian Dyer, joining the two rolls together, and creating dynamics by some computerised means, resulting in a recording using a sound font based on a late 19th century Pleyel grand. Ian's second recording, posted on 17 February 2020, is of the same MIDI scan (plus his dynamics) recorded "live" from his own Yamaha Disklavier. Finally, there is yet another verision taken from the same MIDI file, and reproduced via a different sound font, based on a historic Blüthner Model 1 grand. This was posted by Velkko Viljanen on 31 January 2020, but the associated text does not make it clear whether Mr Viljanen created his own dynamics from scratch, or whether he used and/or modified those of Ian Williamson. The three web addresses are: "https://soundcloud.com/ian-williamson...", "https://soundcloud.com/ian-williamson..." and "https://soundcloud.com/veikko-viljane...". Happy listening! Rex Lawson