complin
1000+ Head-Fier
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Well you can hear the master himself play now Rach play Rach (Well almost)
http://www.zenph.com/shop/rachmaninoff-plays-rachmaninoff
Take a trip back in time and listen as Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of history's great composers plays his own compositions with power and tenderness.
Performers: Sergei Rachmaninoff (Piano)
Recorded: 2009, Kenan Recital Hall, Peace College, Raleigh, North Carolina
Released: 2009, RCA Records
Zenph CEO John Q. Walker has a personal connection to Rachmaninoff in that his piano teacher, Ruth Slenczynska, was one of only two students Rachmaninoff ever took on in America. In a sense, Zenph owes its existence to Rachmaninoff. Dr. Walker explains, "Taking lessons from Ms. Slenczynska, I understood right away the long journey it would take to ever achieve the impossible goal of playing like Rachmaninoff, so I wanted a short cut. I wanted to hear Rachmaninoff play live in the room with me even though he had long since passed away. That germ of an idea, became my passion for creating Zenph."
This Zenph re-performance® was recorded in April 2009 using a 1909 Steinway D SE Concert Grand. Thanks to a world-class recording team, the sound of that wonderful instrument comes through beautifully as does the artistry of Rachmaninoff. Every touch of every note from 13 of Rachmaninoff's original 78 rpm records is lovingly re-discovered and re-performed thanks to revolutionary new software which perfectly recreates Rachmaninoff’s playing dynamics. His signature attacks, velocity, pitch, duration, and interpretive pedaling nuances are all on display here allowing the listener to fully enjoy the color and dynamic range of Rachmaninoff’s exquisite playing.
Too often we hear performances of Rachmaninoff’s concert stage “war horses” – be they Études-tableaux, the Préludes, or the Moments musicaux – played with a heavy use of pedal, unbearable rubato and other Romantic excesses (in the worst sense of the word). Listening to these recordings, it does not take long to realize that Rachmaninoff’s performances display none of these characteristics.
His pedaling is sparse rather than heavy and his texture remarkably transparent (something that can sometimes be hard to hear through the noise artifacts of the original recordings). The timing of the melodic phrasing and harmonic rhythm reveals structured concepts devoid of cheap effects and meandering sentimentalism.
This disc presents each piece from two perspectives: an exceptional stereo version places you near the front of the audience while Rachmaninoff plays, and an intimate binaural stereo version seats you on the bench next to him.
And there is never any bashing.
Comparing the loudness numbers in these re-performance files with performances of some of the same works made on the same piano by modern-day pianists shows the difference clearly: today’s performances are generally “heavier.” As an added challenge to our efforts, we had to consider the difference between the original piano and the acoustics of his recording studios. In each case, a balance was struck between maintaining a natural touch and attaining the dynamics that we hear on the old originals, since, given a large piano and a live room, little force is needed to produce a loud tone.
The thirteen binaural tracks – the second half of this recording – are tailored for a headphone listening experience, as if heard from the perspective of the pianist. Binaural recordings are made with two small omnidirectional microphones placed in the entrance to the ear canals of an artificial head. We positioned the dummy head at the piano bench, so that a headphone listener would be able to get inside Rachmaninoff's head, to hear what he might have heard as he sat at the piano.
Overall, our goal has been one of extracting this master’s inimitable musicianship from the confines of his dated original recordings, and thus, whether through new recordings or live re-performances, to let more audiences become intimately familiar with the sound produced by those unique fingers.
http://www.zenph.com/shop/rachmaninoff-plays-rachmaninoff
Take a trip back in time and listen as Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of history's great composers plays his own compositions with power and tenderness.
Performers: Sergei Rachmaninoff (Piano)
Recorded: 2009, Kenan Recital Hall, Peace College, Raleigh, North Carolina
Released: 2009, RCA Records
Overview
Zenph CEO John Q. Walker has a personal connection to Rachmaninoff in that his piano teacher, Ruth Slenczynska, was one of only two students Rachmaninoff ever took on in America. In a sense, Zenph owes its existence to Rachmaninoff. Dr. Walker explains, "Taking lessons from Ms. Slenczynska, I understood right away the long journey it would take to ever achieve the impossible goal of playing like Rachmaninoff, so I wanted a short cut. I wanted to hear Rachmaninoff play live in the room with me even though he had long since passed away. That germ of an idea, became my passion for creating Zenph."
This Zenph re-performance® was recorded in April 2009 using a 1909 Steinway D SE Concert Grand. Thanks to a world-class recording team, the sound of that wonderful instrument comes through beautifully as does the artistry of Rachmaninoff. Every touch of every note from 13 of Rachmaninoff's original 78 rpm records is lovingly re-discovered and re-performed thanks to revolutionary new software which perfectly recreates Rachmaninoff’s playing dynamics. His signature attacks, velocity, pitch, duration, and interpretive pedaling nuances are all on display here allowing the listener to fully enjoy the color and dynamic range of Rachmaninoff’s exquisite playing.
Production Notes
Having completed our scientific analysis of these thirteen original Rachmaninoff performances, the 29,900 notes and associated pedal motions are now ready for a musical analysis. For the first time it is possible to look at the best of “raw” Rachmaninoff, not altered by anyone (as was the case with his piano roll recordings, where he and Edgar Fairchild of Ampico would remove all the “wrong holes”). Although they reflect only a small part of Rachmaninoff’s 150 recordings for Edison and Victor, these tracks provide an excellent overview of his musical and pianistic breadth. More importantly, listening to these re-performances of the originals in modern sound will, perhaps, remind today’s pianists of a musical aesthetic that has seemingly been forgotten –especially Rachmaninoff’s aesthetic, as it applies to his own works.Too often we hear performances of Rachmaninoff’s concert stage “war horses” – be they Études-tableaux, the Préludes, or the Moments musicaux – played with a heavy use of pedal, unbearable rubato and other Romantic excesses (in the worst sense of the word). Listening to these recordings, it does not take long to realize that Rachmaninoff’s performances display none of these characteristics.
His pedaling is sparse rather than heavy and his texture remarkably transparent (something that can sometimes be hard to hear through the noise artifacts of the original recordings). The timing of the melodic phrasing and harmonic rhythm reveals structured concepts devoid of cheap effects and meandering sentimentalism.
This disc presents each piece from two perspectives: an exceptional stereo version places you near the front of the audience while Rachmaninoff plays, and an intimate binaural stereo version seats you on the bench next to him.
And there is never any bashing.
Comparing the loudness numbers in these re-performance files with performances of some of the same works made on the same piano by modern-day pianists shows the difference clearly: today’s performances are generally “heavier.” As an added challenge to our efforts, we had to consider the difference between the original piano and the acoustics of his recording studios. In each case, a balance was struck between maintaining a natural touch and attaining the dynamics that we hear on the old originals, since, given a large piano and a live room, little force is needed to produce a loud tone.
The thirteen binaural tracks – the second half of this recording – are tailored for a headphone listening experience, as if heard from the perspective of the pianist. Binaural recordings are made with two small omnidirectional microphones placed in the entrance to the ear canals of an artificial head. We positioned the dummy head at the piano bench, so that a headphone listener would be able to get inside Rachmaninoff's head, to hear what he might have heard as he sat at the piano.
Overall, our goal has been one of extracting this master’s inimitable musicianship from the confines of his dated original recordings, and thus, whether through new recordings or live re-performances, to let more audiences become intimately familiar with the sound produced by those unique fingers.
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