Igor Stravinsky Pianola Works

Igor Stravinsky Pianola Works as performed by Rex Lawson

Other Minds offers for sale through our webstore this CD featuring pianola
virtuoso Rex Lawson performing three works by Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky Pianola Works MUSICMASTERS CLASSIC 01612-67138-2					On the face of it, it seems strange that a worldly-wise, successful composer like Stravinsky should lock himself away for hours in a small studio and arrange his own music for a whizz-bang of an instrument called the pianola. Everyone knows, don't they, that pianolas (a somewhat less than generic term for player pianos) sound like beat-up old honky-tonks, drowning any musical inspiration with the squeaking of their gears and the wheezing of their pedals! Well, have we got news for you! Pianolas don't always play with an inexorable tempo and at triple forte; they can and should sound as musically sensitive as any other instrument, and Stravinsky himself enjoyed playing them... For the present selection, recording sessions were held at SUNY Purchase, NY, close to the border with Connecticut, in April 1991. A Baldwin concert grand was used with my Aeolian 88-note Pianola, dating from 1911 or 1912, fitted in front of it. It would be nice to think that the pianola had returned home for the recording, in that it was quite possibly manufactured at Meriden, Connecticut or Garwood, New Jersey. Either way it enjoyed the trip... —from the album notes by Rex Lawson, August 1993
*I'll buy it!*
Click on track 2 to hear it in RealAudio. If you need it, you can download RealAudio here.
Track list
PETRUSHKA 1 First Tableau (9:22) Roll 1 - Fète Populaire de la Semaine Grasse Roll 2 - Le Tour de passe-passe Danse Russe 2 Second Tableau (4:05) Roll 3 - Chez Petrouchka 3 Third Tableau (7:11) Roll 4 - Chez le Maure Danse de la Ballerine Valse 4 Fourth Tableau (14:10) Roll 5 - Soir de Fête Populaire Danse de Nounous et Entrée du Monsieur d'Ours Danse des Tziganes Roll 6 - Danse des Cochers Roll 7 - Les Déguises Mort de Petrouchka ETUDE FOR PIANOLA (2:36)					THE RITE OF SPRING 6 Part One - L'Adoration de la Terre (15:10) Roll 1 - Introduction Roll 2 - Danse des Adolescentes Roll 3 - Jeu du Rapt Rondes Printanières Roll 4 - Jeux des Cites Rivales Cortège du Sage Roll 5 - Adoration de la Terre (Le Sage) Danse de la Terre 6 Part Two - Le Sacrafice (19:29) Roll 6 - Introduction Cercles Mystérieux des Adolescentes Roll 7 - Glorification de L'Elue Roll 8 - Evocation des Ancêtres Action Rituelle des Ancêtres Roll 9 - Danse Sacrale (L'Elue)