Over the past 20 years or so I have followed the release of piano-roll material on disc with great interest. Whereas the treasures of the Hupfeld catalogue have yet to surface, there has been a considerable number of Welte, Duo-Art and Ampico performances made available, featuring pianists from Saint-Saens to Horowitz. In my experience it is the Ampico rolls that are the most impressive. They sound the most like a real pianist playing. Other systems, especially when badly adjusted, can make the performer seem like an unmusical machine.
This Decca CD presents the best transfers of piano rolls that I have yet heard. The bass of the instrument has a sonority that is usually lacking and one can feel the individual style of the pianist throughout, even though this may be somewhat diluted. It is advisable to use a fairly low volume level in playback, so as to render the slight clicks and so on of the mechanism inaudible.
The only items in which the process is a little intrusive are the ''Gopak'', the ''Barcarolle'' (unnecessarily dry) and the infamous Prelude in C sharp minor, in which the interlocking chords of the middle section are split in a very unnatural-sounding manner. Otherwise, one can sit back, oblivious of the recording medium, and listen to one of the very greatest pianists work his way through a variety of characteristic pieces.
The subtlety of phrasing in the simple tunes of the ''Elegie'' and ''Melodie'' from the Cinq morceaux comes through particularly well. Even if the playing is unconvincingly dull in the G minor Prelude, the Etude-tableau in A minor, Op. 39 No. 6 has a striking amount of sparkle and caprice. The reading of the Polka de VR, one of the earliest recordings presented here, is much more restrained than one usually hears, and this accords with the pianist's Victor recording (RCA (CD) GD87766, 5/90). Although the finest points of pedalling may have been lost, the pianism is still scintillating. An over-elaborately written accompaniment for the ''Wohin?'' transciption is perhaps unnecessarily accentuated by the clarity of the mechanism. The CD ends with the two Kreisler transcriptions. In Liebesleid the pianist sounds curiously uninvolved, but in Liebesfreud the virtuoso writing is extremely energetic, whilst always subtle. For some reason the volume falls away for the final chord. The basic piano sound throughout is very natural and has considerable tone-colour, although perhaps not quite as much as with a normal sound recording.'