[Mike Dias]

While this may appear to be a review of a recording released 13 years ago, I promise that the story is much bigger than that. And like Steve Schwartz of Classical Net said, "Given the importance of Debussy's piano music, as well as its popularity, I would consider this release one of the ten most important in the history of recording... You get an equivalent of having Bach play the 'Goldbergs' for you."

 

The first thing that you need to know about Claude Debussy: The composer as Pianist is that this is a compilation of all his known recordings. And when I say his, I mean Debussy himself. This is Debussy playing his own works. And they are markedly different than many of the most famous interpretations that you've heard before. Listen to Danseuses de Delphes below to hear for yourself.
 

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Now I'm not going to talk about the merits of this album for that is self evident. Nor am I going to waste your time telling you you what I think of his style. But I will say that I find his Préludes to be surprisingly lilting; almost like a precursor of Monk's iconic syncopations. And his dynamic range is drastic and captivating.

 

I'll also say that I believe that this is a must-have collectors item. In fact, Caswell's entire "The composer as Pianist" collection should be owned by any true audiophile. For who wouldn't want to hear Granados, Ravel, Scriabin, or Casella & Respighi play their own pieces?

 

The only thing more amazing than hearing the masters perform their own works is actually being able to hear them at all.

 

And here's where this story really begins. See, we have instant access to everything ever recorded nowadays but for the entire evolution of global culture, music was a phenomenon only experienced live. You had to either make it yourself or know someone who could play. We take this for granted now but recorded music is still a new cultural idea. Music has always been a part of every society. The creation of music is an absolute; it is one of the defining human characteristics. But we're not talking about music creation—we're never talking about music creation when we talk about the business-end of music. We're talking about distribution—about capturing a slice of time and letting people who were not there experience it. And when I say people, I mean as many people as possible as long as it's still profitable.

 

Interestingly enough, the changes in music distribution that we've seen over the last 10 years in a strange way sort of parallel the music distribution changes that began some 135 years ago. Mass market distribution has always has always been a fight between fidelity and convenience. And while the current argument is about compression rates and streaming platforms, the initial music distribution argument was significantly more exciting. For while all modern music is now played back through one type of speaker configuration or another regardless of the input device, early distribution methods —before loudspeakers were ubiquitous — were much broader in scope and imagination.

 

Acoustical Recordings:

Phonographs and gramophones came into existence in the late 1800's. And even though cylinders provided more accurate sonic playback, they peaked in popularity around 1905 because manufacturing discs was easier. Edison, Columbia Records and the other manufacturers were fighting for market share by making minor technological advancements in both the recording processes and in the playback systems but it wasn't until the advent of electrical recording in 1925 that significant changes in fidelity began in earnest for disc records.

 

Vocal recordings and violins could tolerate the limited range of these early acoustical recording methods but this left very few options for pianists. So instead of trying to recreate the sound of a piano over a home play back system, innovators were cleverly coming up with wildly alternate solutions.

 

Instruments that played themselves:

The first player piano was first invented in 1895. The technology was far from perfect but it did allow for a completely different form of recorded music. Instead of relying on a record to playback simulated music, the player pianos and their associated piano rolls brought full sounding "live" music into the home. Pre-recorded pieces from world renown musicians could finally be heard without the constraints of space and time. But whereas the original acoustic recordings lacked in fidelity, the initial rolls and players lacked in authenticity. The music didn't feel real. It felt mechanical.

 

That is, until the invention of the Welte Mignon. In 1905, Edwin Welte and Karl Bockisch showcased the first fully reproducing piano. This was drastically different than its predecessors. The Welte Mignon was capable of replaying the tempo, phrasing, dynamics and pedaling of a particular performance —  not just the notes of the music. To quote from the Debussy album liner notes: "The Welte Mignon recording machine captured every detail of the playing of a pianist by marking on two synchronized master rolls each note as fingered by the pianist, the duration of each note, the exact tempos, the dynamic level of each note, as well as the pedaling, even a satisfactory illusion of half-pedaling."

 

Of course, the Welte Mignon piano rolls needed to be paired with a Welte playback mechanism built into the piano. But when everything was properly tuned and aligned, the results were magnificent. After Debussy sat for this particular "recording" session, he was thrilled with the playback. Here's an excerpt from a letter he wrote to Edwin Welte himself: "Dear Sir, It is impossible to attain a greater perfection of reproduction than that of the Welte apparatus. I am happy to assure you in these lines of my astonishment and admiration of what I heard."

 

It's no wonder that composers such as Debussy and Ravel sat for Welte recording sessions rather than for the typical acoustical recordings of the day. As for direct comparisons of the techniques, this album includes 14 tracks derived from the Welte master rolls along with 4 acoustical recordings from 1904 in which Debussy accompanied famed soprano Mary Garden. Her voice is outstanding but you can barely hear the piano work.

 

Down the Rabbit Hole:

And as if all of this embedded history isn't enough to buy the CD right now, the story is far from over. I'm a huge history buff plus I have a soft spot for technical expertise and for passion projects so I'll try to restrain my excitement on this next part and I'll try to keep this brief. But I would love for this part of the story to be the main focus of the discussion posts.

 

By the 1930's, the Welte Mignon days were over. Advances in electrical recordings had shifted the marketplace. Records had won. Automatons had lost. The ease of record distribution outweighed the fidelity of reproducing pianos. And then came war. Devastation. And more war.

 

The venerable Welte factory was left in shambles and the Welte rolls were nearly lost to obscurity. Then on an off chance, in the mid '40's, Richard Simonton — founder of the American Theatre Organ Society, reached out to Edwin Welte. He was trying to locate pipe organ rolls. Welte answered that he had managed to save about sixteen organ rolls from the war, which he would exchange for food. He also added that he had hidden some of the original Welte piano rolls in a barn in the Black Forest... If he were interested...

 

So Simonton and his wife flew to the Welte factory in Freiburg Germany and while there, Richard insisted that they record the remaining piano rolls for posterity. Te results of this "field recording" were released on Columbia as the Welte-Mignon Piano Rolls, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. in 1950. You have to read the LA Times album review here. (And I'd love to hear from anyone who has those original Columbia records.)  While recording, Richard watched as Welte and Bockisch made critical adjustments to their playback mechanisms.

 

Which is how The Caswell Collection series came to be. To quote directly from the Debussy liner notes, "During the 1960's, Dick passed on these valuable technical tips to me, and I have used them to fine-tune and adjust my Feurich Welte piano to accurately reproduce the pianist's playing for this CD series." And so with 2 vintage Neumann KM 83's and a lifetime of expertise and passion, Ken Caswell traveled through time.

 

From Debussy to Edwin Welte. From Welte to Richard Simonton. From Simonton to Ken Caswell. And from Caswell to each of us. An unbroken chain of  past, present, and future.

 

 

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Mike Dias is a huge fan of music, of telling stories, and of laughing. And lucky for him, he’s somehow managed to make somewhat of living from this. He designs funny and creative apps for the iPhone. He is the music supervisor for Ultimate Ears and he writes about music and the music industry. He’s always happy to talk about artists, apps, and in-ears so feel free to reach out about any of those topics. Email him directly.

 

 

 

[tvolpe1600]

Fantastic history and writing! You could turn this into a great book.

 

[zsolt]

Great story, great music! More please!!

 

[sidrpm]

Fabulous read buddy

 

[bigshot]

My favorite story about recording and reproducing pianos involves Artur Schnabel...
 
Schnabel refused to record prior to 1929, expressing a distrust of the medium. He wrote in his autobiography, "One of the chief reasons for my refusal was that I did not like the idea of having no conrol over the behaviour of the people who listened to music which I performed- not knowing how they would be dressed, what else they would be doing at the same time, how much they would listen..." In private he was more blunt, saying that he didn't want to be playing a Beethoven Sonata on record while the listener sat in a bathrobe eating a ham sandwich. He was equally distrustful of the technology of reproducing pianos. When a representative of the Duo-Art piano company proudly told him that their player piano was able to reproduce 16 distinct levels of dynamics, Schnabel dryly replied, "That's unfortunate, because I play with 17."

 

[iSennheiser]

I love Debussy, listen to his music "La Mer" its stunning like non others !

 

[Peculier]

Am I the only one who thinks he looks like Leonardo DiCaprio??

 

[Mike Dias]

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif
My favorite story about recording and reproducing pianos involves Artur Schnabel...
 
Schnabel refused to record prior to 1929, expressing a distrust of the medium. He wrote in his autobiography, "One of the chief reasons for my refusal was that I did not like the idea of having no control over the behaviour of the people who listened to music which I performed- not knowing how they would be dressed, what else they would be doing at the same time, how much they would listen..." In private he was more blunt, saying that he didn't want to be playing a Beethoven Sonata on record while the listener sat in a bathrobe eating a ham sandwich. He was equally distrustful of the technology of reproducing pianos. When a representative of the Duo-Art piano company proudly told him that their player piano was able to reproduce 16 distinct levels of dynamics, Schnabel dryly replied, "That's unfortunate, because I play with 17."

Now that's a great story! And so true. I guess I shouldn't eat sanwhiches in my bathrobe when listening or writing anymore...
 
On that same note, anyone who is interested in reading more about reproducing pianos should check out The Pianola Institute They have a mind-boggling treasure trove of info on the Welte Mignons, Ducas, Ampicos, and Duo-Arts. Plus they have great recording samples. And actually, when I ran a search on Schnabel through the institute, it turns out that that the above mentioned quote may have been a bit of marketing propaganda. Impossible to say at this point but take a look:

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Artur Schnabel about to record for the Philipps Duca, 15 February 1912, Frankfurt -
it must have had at least 17 degrees of touch!​

 
It is good to have a photograph of Artur Schnabel at a recording piano, since there has been a widely circulated rumour for many years that he did not like the reproducing piano at all. In fact, his reported quip, that he had seventeen degrees of touch, whereas one particular piano only had sixteen, was most likely a sharp piece of black propaganda put out by Ampico, for whom he recorded in the 1920s, to give the impression that Aeolian's Duo-Art worked in steps, whereas the Ampico had smooth dynamic changes. This technical distinction is not borne out in practice, since the Duo-Art's notional steps function like miniature crescendos and diminuendos, and their effect is modified by the number of notes being played at any one time. At any rate, Schnabel recorded at least 56 rolls, for four different companies.
 
Read more here

 

[Delirious Lab]

  Am I the only one who thinks he looks like Leonardo DiCaprio??

In Django Unchained, no less.  Cue mental image of Monsieur Candie showing off his Deb-YOU-zee piano rolls to his guests...

 

[perhapss]

One of my first memories in life was at about 3 years old my father placed headphones on my head and played Le Mer.
I don't remember my reaction now in detail(I'm 42) but I do remember it was like being transported into another world.
 
My father still tells the story of my reaction today. Apparently I went completely silent for a while and then screamed.

 

[MarcoGV]

Thank you for the very interesting and informative post.  I wonder whether even more could be recovered from the rolls with the techniques used to process piano rolls in the Rachmaninoff's "A Window in Time" CD.

 

[Arcamera]

Nice. When in that impressionist mood, Debussy is a marvel.

 

[magiccabbage]

One of the best write ups on headfi, well done.

 

[Behemothmanface]

Thanks for the heads up. Ordered CD from amazon last night. Well written and informative.

 

[zsolt]

Ordered too.. Thanks for review again!!!