Artur Schnabel's 1905 Welte-Mignon recordings document the beginnings of his career and show an unmannered, objectively structured playing style, which was rare for the time.
Cultural Impact
By the outbreak of World War I, about 2500 titles, predominantly classical, had been recorded for the Welte-Mignon system, but production ceased in 1932 due to the Great Depression and new recording technologies.
Historical Context
Welte-Mignon player pianos, produced in limited numbers at exorbitant prices, were found in the music rooms of aristocracy, high society, grand hotels, and ocean liners.
Compositional Technique
Welte piano rolls, unlike pianola rolls, captured a pianist's live performance, including dynamic nuances and pedal activations, through perforations that were read pneumatically.
Recording & Production
This album is not a historical recording; instead, it uses modern recording techniques to reproduce original interpretations from Welte-Mignon piano rolls on a modern Steinway.
Instruments
The Welte-Mignon player piano, invented in 1904 by the German firm M. Welte & Söhne, could record and reproduce "all the subtleties of a pianist's performance" using perforated paper strips.
Composer Biography
Artur Schnabel (1882-1951) was a "Janus-headed" figure, a modernist composer who, as a pianist, focused almost exclusively on Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert.
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