Rachmaninoff on a 100 year old player piano!

This roll was played by the composer! Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C Sharp Minor on an AMPICO player piano.

[@angellohector]

2023: learn coding with Python 1923: learn piano coding with Rachmaninoff

[@evifnoskcaj]

Now this actually sounds like how Rachmaninoff plays! The rubato, dynamics, and sensibility is all how Rachmaninoff actually played. Incredible technology!

[@toronado455]

It's very sensitive playing.

[@frazzledude]

What is truly amazing is that it was done without any electronics. The only electric component was an electric motor that ran the vacuum pump. The system that recorded and reproduced the pedaling was invented and patented by Josef Hofmann.

[@elias7748]

Dynamics on player pianos are not accurate, but the rubato is.

[@bobdagranny7431]

@@frazzledude hofmann himself played what i consider to be the best recording of the piece lol

[@evifnoskcaj]

@@frazzledude Wow! That is a fascinating bit of music history! Wow...I knew he was a brilliant pianist, but now I'm aware that he was quite the prolific inventor, as was his eldest son, Josef Anton Hofmann. Thank you for imparting your knowledge.

[@grandcarriage1]

I wish you could talk a bit more about the piano. It's not merely a player grande. It's a reproducing piano, with a lot of extras that allow it to authentically reproduce the actual performance, including but not limited to tempi, dynamics, etc. It's REALLY REALLY COOL.

[@marquamfurniture]

If I'm not mistaken, Gershwin made a made a piano roll on a recording piano. Are there others? Does anyone know?

[@thomasturrin8984]

@@marquamfurniture Gershwin definitely recorded reproducing piano rolls - exclusively for the Aeolian Duo-Art, the primary competitor to the Ampico system shown in this video. Pianists of that time period often had exclusive contracts to record rolls for either Ampico or Duo-Art just as had for making records (for Victor or Columbia or other label).

[@marquamfurniture]

@@thomasturrin8984 Oh yes! Who was the guy who made rolls under 5 or 6 different names? .... But it's really the recording piano rolls that are the most interesting. I think Ravel may have made one.

[@thomasturrin5509]

@@marquamfurniture That guy was Frank Milne. He used a number of pseudonyms. He was a very talented musician to have been able to create a vast output of intricately arranged of popular music rolls I agree the best rolls, in my opinion, were the hand played rolls that were recorded

[@marquamfurniture]

@@thomasturrin5509 Thanks, Thomas.

[@Hashbrownsandsausages]

It is almost terrifying in a way, that Rachmaninoff, a dead composer, can still be heard preforming his own pieces 80 years after his death. It is equally incredible and rare to have Rachmaninoff's own recording of himself playing his own piece. Amazing. Just amazing.

[@hedegaard8]

You mean like when we hear a CD?

[@charliewhiskey8440]

@@hedegaard8 more like an (analogue) midi recording

[@agamaz5650]

omg same thoughts oldschool midi, the piano roll is the midi and the piano is pianoteq xddd@@charliewhiskey8440

[@hauerhsieh]

heard of recordings? 😅

[@charliewhiskey8440]

​@@hauerhsieh A typical recording records the sound waves as it appears at the mic. This seems to be is a recording of the force and velocity (I may not be 100% correct here) the composer himself exerted on the piano keys. This would be quite different material not generally available.

[@finnianreilly1831]

Amazing performance. The technology was incredible for it's time. I wonder how they captured the dynamics.

[@MichaelAChang]

That's a unique interpretation for sure - I have never heard anything like it!

[@PiotrBarcz]

That's the composer's own recording, it's incredible!

[@AidenMartin]

It's incredible that is seems like Rachmaninoff could reach the low C# with out rolling the chord in bar 27 and so on. His hands must really have been huge.

[@solitarymusician]

Love listening to composers playing their own work. Thank you for sharing!

[@mvmarchiori]

I imagine Rachmaninov's ghost like playing invisibly in front of the piano, thinking he should do some poltergeist stuff to the prelude roll and be done with it forever haha

[@pjotrkolster]

Oh I just got this in my recommended. Such a neat player piano! Wow, hearing Rachmaninov play this is so interesting. Usually composers do play their own pieces a bit differently than they're notated, and this was really interesting to see/hear! :)

[@PiotrBarcz]

Fancy seeing my dutch doppleganger here xD

[@pjotrkolster]

@@PiotrBarcz hehe yes. ;)

[@darknightfawkes1028]

If you could get the piano in tune and set up some stereo large diaphragm microphones and get more rolls of recorded performances from Sergey rachmaninoff then my heart would melt.

[@ExSkyCyclePilot]

I think that has been done. Search for Rachmaninoff's Ampico recordings!

[@frazzledude]

@@ExSkyCyclePilot I believe they are available in the "Window in Time" series of audio recordings.

[@michaeltutty1540]

The piano needs both tuning and voicing. The modern hammers are a bit too hard. Ever so slightly softer would make a richer sound.

[@petermacleod5710]

Agreed. The tuning is DIRE, I could do better than that and i have only ever tuned my own Bechstein

[@jfulysse9629]

I love your smile !! You look so happy with your player piano. Thanks a lot fot sharing that !!!!

[@Ghju510]

It’s so creepy and amazing! imagine if you was sleeping and suddenly it just started playing I would run for my life .

[@lawriefoster5587]

At 71 years old I want one of these. Just imagine......!!

[@MootPoot]

crazy the technology we had 100 years ago, thanks for sharing!

[@VetsrisAuguste]

I enjoyed watching you enjoy the performance. Your body language says it all.

[@kalynnscompositions]

How wonderful! This is really cool! (:

[@Lone_Rocket]

Humans are incredible. No computers, nothing but gears and moving parts, zero software, its reading off a sheet of paper with holes in it for crying out loud. I haven't the foggiest of clues how you not only record on one of those but how that piano reads and translates it. Freaking 100 years ago. Simply incredible.

[@TheLifeisgood72]

Fun fact: we still don’t know how early piano rolls were recorded. The tech was lost in WW2.

[@PeterKharitonov]

Simply super great! Thank you for uploading and sharing!

[@KeyNotes-qu9zh]

This is so amazing. Thanks for sharing, you're wonderful! 🤗

[@homay9156]

Thank you very much for sharing.❤

[@jamesnicholson3313]

Lovely reproduction, I love this on the AMPICO, I used to restore these instruments in AUSTRALIA and enjoyed the result. Jim from AUSTRALIA.

[@simongross3122]

How wonderful

[@DidierGuillion]

Amazing ! Fantastique !

[@joeschu7794]

Very Interesting. Thanks for sharing

[@owl-on-a-skateboard]

Interesting! Thank you!

[@danypiano7822]

Wonderful 👍

[@ColtDee]

lovely.

[@BsktImp]

Raises that already well-trodden colloquy on whether or not the composer-performer is the best interpreter of their own work, and also of the evolution of interpretation. I would bet that piano competition juries would likey mark down Rachmaninov's performance if played today by a young competitor.

[@toronado455]

You're probably right! Nonetheless, it's a legit interpretation, no one can argue that! And at the very least it is an interesting time travel back to before the interpretation evolution on this particular work began.

[@BsktImp]

@@toronado455 Oh don't get me wrong; if it appeared that I was negatively critiquing Rachmaninov - far, far from it - then I apologise.

[@toronado455]

@@BsktImp Not at all. It didn't seem to me you personally were being judgemental about this performance. Rather, it seemed to me you were merely pointing out the fact that composers are not always regarded as the best performers of their own work. My comment was more a defensive response to anyone who might be critical of Rachmaninov's interpretation. And I was agreeing that a student performing in a similar manner might be subject to criticism, perhaps unjustly. So, no apology needed! 😊 🎹🎼🎵🎶

[@tooleyheadbang4239]

@@toronado455 Rachmaninov's "interpretation" wouldn't be an "interpretation". It would be the original. That said, other people might "interpret" it, with more or less acclaim. Just because you wrote it, doesn't necessarily mean that your performance is automatically the best. Look at Springsteen, for instance. Or Tom Waits...

[@TB-us7el]

@@tooleyheadbang4239 it's still an interpretation, because he has to take the written music and make it into sounds and, presumably, it would be at least marginally different every time.

[@giuseppecardarelli3666]

Bellissimo!

[@owwtdooradvenchurz4509]

Now this is a roll piano!!

[@claudiog.nogueiras2323]

better than DVD!

[@geiiger]

My favourite dayum. This appeared also in TV series Lost for those trivia buffs :p - Items to buy when I win the lottery....

[@golfer5990]

This is cool. Rach is one of my favourite composers.

[@monicabrondo4149]

Que hermoso legado!!!!....Es muy emocionante!!!!....❤

[@GilbertoAlbino]

This is real mechanical engineering with no computer AI to blame for!

[@miguelleiton3645]

Ese Rollo es una joya......!!!!!!

[@SonatasysInc]

Amazing time machine

[@thomasturrin8984]

Very nice - Knabe Ampico "A" grand - reproducing piano. ... Your piano sounds great and looks great. The Ampico reproducing system expresses very nicely. Knabe pianos of that time period (1920's) were very much top of the line.

[@PiotrBarcz]

Knabes, Chickerings, and Mason & Hamlins are the best known producers of Ampico grand pianos.

[@philbarone4603]

Awesome! Woo hoo!

[@RockyStonester1]

the sound of ghosts

[@LevTVision]

It sounds lively and very suitable, but the thought does not leave me, how would the jury of a modern competition evaluate this game if an unknown student was sitting at the piano? (I don't speak English, sorry)

[@MegaLajeunesse]

Travail de restauration magnifique

[@kenji1968x]

Big like ❤🎹🎵😊💕

[@patrickshanahan7505]

I studied this piece using a manuscript notated by the composer. My piano teacher was a colleague of Rach, a student of Leschitizky. He told me the story that Rach said was the inspiration for the piece, which I visualize when I play it.

[@captaindestruction9332]

Used to have a upright piano that would also play music from the scrolls, you loaded it up top above the keys(had a closeable cabinet areas). Was a fun item to show off to friends or family. Bit weird to have live acoustic Piano music playing in a house full of people who had no idea how to play even the most basic Piano music.

[@IvanRevi]

this was wonderful, I only wish we could see the keys better as they go

[@tooleyheadbang4239]

It's an American thing. British player actions don't move the keys, but you can feel them if you rest your fingers gently on the keyboard.

[@DanaClarkDana]

wow - early MIDI

[@nikitaw1982]

i want one.

[@pianoplayingfishkeeper2094]

This is so cool! But it's kind of creepy at the same time and ghostly too

[@tooleyheadbang4239]

Rachmaninoff can sound a bit 'creepy', along with other Russian composers. It's probably a cultural thing.

[@RPRsChannel]

*_I've always wanted one of those. Not sure if I should bother to look up what the price would be._*

[@underzog]

I think Rachmaninoff had a gas with these player pianos. I read where he was happily pumping out one of his songs on a player piano. The Ampico are real high quality and expensive to maintain. That is why they fell out of favor during the great depression.

[@ioannamarkopoulou-3364]

ΑΠΙΣΤΕΥΤΟ……..

[@vinimagus]

Thanks so much for the video. I'm happy to see how happy you are. What is the name of the song, please? Kind regards, V

[@yorusaka3554]

This is Rachmaninoff’s prelude in C-Sharp minor, Opus 3 no 2

[@zaolodyckm2296]

Thats amazing. How does this technology works?

[@DrQuizzler]

Well hey!! I've always said, nobody plays Rachmaninoff like Rachmaninoff!! This kind of felt like watching a scene from the Disney movie "Fantasia". How does the young lady operating the player piano fit into all this? Does she also play?

[@alainspiteri502]

Rachmaninov plays with many rubatos , it's necessary for all melodies ( said Samson François )

[@delawarepilot]

Is there velocity in the notes? seems like they are played with the same force. Still amazing to hear Rachmaninov play that. Very cool.

[@yasuoyone6246]

There is

[@PiotrBarcz]

I'm curious, is this your piano? Because if it is, I don't think you know just how lucky you are to own one of these, they're rare and hard to get as heck! I've been after a grand reproducing piano for years, these are the pinnacle of mechanical music. I've heard that Gershwin, Fats Waller and a few other pianists learned how to play some of the pieces they made famous from using the dropping keys as a guide!

[@LittleSailboat]

The piano has been in the family for 50 years!

[@PiotrBarcz]

@@LittleSailboat That is so cool!

[@IvarsBezdechi]

That piano needs a tune.....bad! Thank you for posting this video....

[@orangejraffe]

Your face needs a tune…bad

[@RCanning78]

What did that cost to restore? Can see it's rebuilt beautifully. Needs a tune though.

[@JoeLinux2000]

Super. Maybe some people can say why the piano sounds old other than it is old. What could be changed to make it sound like a new piano?

[@PiotrBarcz]

It sounds like a new piano to me

[@toronado455]

Tune it! The piano is very out of tune. It probably is difficult to keep the old piano in tune, so it's understandable.

[@darknightfawkes1028]

@@toronado455 may have to replace the pins on older pianos, but that should be the only reason they go out of tune faster because of slipping in the peg board.

[@PiotrBarcz]

@@toronado455 it's not that out of tune, the noise reduction is what you're hearing

[@michaeltutty1540]

It is definitely in need of both tuning and voicing. Some of the hammers are harder than others, and all are a bit too hard for a piano of that vintage. I own a 1903 Gerard Heinzman and great care was taken to make new hammers the same hardness as the originals.

[@kelvinbrown8136]

100 year old midi on that paper

[@CarrosEmMovimento]

nah the piano plays better than me, oh ofc he is a piano :|

[@marccollins1966]

This piece is commonly referred to as The Bells of Moscow…..

[@audi4444player]

it makes me wonder if there are any impossible to play rolls, much like midis that people create today.

[@alexrostovsky]

This is amazing! Thank you for sharing. Does 'played by the composer' mean that Rachmaninov actually recorded this prelude in the same tempo and intonation as we hear it on the video?

[@LittleSailboat]

Yes!

[@PiotrBarcz]

Yup, this is a perfect reproduction of the composer's own playing, carefully coded dynamic punches are responsible for the accurate reproduction

[@konczel2465]

Man who was creating a script for it actually never played the piano

[@i20010]

What sorcery is this?

[@cannedmusic]

true digital/analog tape deck...(or does this count as a punch card?)

[@cvmslvt420]

Ye olde Synthesia

[@dagreenslime9895]

How much does that player worth, prob a lot

[@ednaldosilva4413]

😅😅😅😅 . .😅😅... M 2:12

[@gtwfan52]

That's not a player piano. It's a reproducing piano, a totally different creature. It uses perforated paper rolls like a player piano, but they're not interchangeable with player piano rolls. Reproducing piano rolls don't just record the tone and length of the notes, they also record the volume each note is played at and the pianist's use of the pedals. To this day, they're considered the most accurate way to record piano performances, as electronic recording techniques can't accurately cover the piano's wide dynamic range.

[@user-fe2zx7zp8x]

Stimme bitte einer das Klavier………

[@sharky_spike]

its too bad that rachmaninov grew to detest this piece from his very young period meant to imitate the church bells...he was constantly asked to play it as an encore

[@flylooper]

That old Knabe needed a tune up badly. If that is really Rachmaninoff playing I have to say that its just terrible! I know he hated that piece (Mostly because it was always requested when he was on tour.) and it sounds like he's in a horse race to get to the end. Hard to believe it's really the master. I played this piece in my first recital, maybe 70 years ago.😀

[@toneyam3643]

To dark for me .

[@LarsCarlsen-or6ky]

He had giant hands. Look at the keys !!!