Alexander Scriabin - The Composer As Pianist - His Recordings For M. Welte 
	& Soehne Moscow, 1910

Label: 		Pierian Recording Society - 0018
Format: 	CD, Album
Country: 	US
Released: 	Aug 2, 2010
Genre: 		Classical
Style: 		Romantic, Modern, Impressionist

1	Alexander Scriabin -	Prelude, Op. 11, No. 1	0:53
2	Alexander Scriabin -	Prelude, Op. 11, No. 2	1:47
3	Alexander Scriabin -	Poeme, Op. 32, No. 1	3:29
4	Alexander Scriabin -	Etude, Op. 8, No. 12	2:04
5	Alexander Scriabin -	Desir, Op. 57, No. 1	1:32
6	Alexander Scriabin -	Prelude, Op. 22, No. 1	1:16
7	Alexander Scriabin -	Mazurka, Op. 40, No. 2	0:49
8	Alexander Scriabin -	Prelude, Op. 11, No. 13	1:48
9	Alexander Scriabin -	Prelude, Op. 11, No. 14	0:47
10	Josef Lhevinne -	Nocturne for the Left Hand, Op. 9, No. 2	4:38
11	Constantine Igumnoff -	Sonate Fantasie, Op. 19, No. 2, 1st Mvnt.	6:35
12	Alexander Goldenweiser -	Mazurka, Op. 40, No. 2	1:02
13	Austin Conradi -	Prelude, Op. 11, No. 5	1:50
14	Austin Conradi -	Prelude, Op. 11, No. 3	1:17
15	Austin Conradi -	Prelude, Op. 11, No. 4	2:04
16	Austin Conradi -	Prelude, Op. 11, No. 6	0:51
17	Austin Conradi -	Album Leaf, Op. 45, No. 1	1:47
18	Austin Conradi -	Etude, Op. 2, No. 1	3:26
19	Leff Pouishnoff -	Desir, Op. 57, No. 1	1:30
20	Leff Pouishnoff -	Kresse Dansee, Op. 57, No. 2	1:01
21	Leff Pouishnoff -	Enigme, Op. 52, No. 2	1:17
22	Leff Pouishnoff -	Poeme, Op. 32, No. 1	3:33
23	Magdeleine Brard -	Nocturne for the Left Hand, Op. 9, No. 2	5:16

Let me address the sound first, as that is what most startled me. These
performances date from nearly a century ago, in the case of Scriabin's, and
from the 1920's in the case of several other distinguished performers, but
these are not "historic recordings, in the sense that they were made with old
recording equipment. Instead, they were made with modern equipment in true
stereo sound. For those not familiar with the Welte Mignon Piano Rolls (between
1904 and 1934), as I was not, these captured not only all the notes the
performer played, and the duration of each note, but the exact tempos and
especially the dynamic level of each note, as well as the pedaling, even a
"satisfactory illusion of half-pedaling. In other piano-roll technologies,
Ampico and Duo-Art, dynamics were added by engineers. The present recording was
made by Kenneth K. Caswell on a restored 1923 Feurich Welte piano. A blindfold
test would, I am certain, be able to fool very many listeners. At any rate I
find the sound on this disc more than satisfying. 

Alexander Scriabin - rec. 1910, Moscow
Josef Lhevinne - rec. 1906, Freiburg
Constantine Igumnoff - rec. 1910, Moscow
Alexander Goldenweiser - rec. 1910, Moscow
Austin Conradi - rec. 1921, 1922, New York
Leff Pouishnoff - rec. 1926, New York
Magdeleine Brard - rec. 1925, New York

Recording: Kenneth K. Caswell
Producer, Mastering, Layout, Design: Karl F. Miller

Barcode: 750532929729