Early piano recordings provide audible evidence of the performing practices of late-Romantic pianists, practices that often differ radically from the present. Comparing these practices with descriptions in contemporaneous written texts reveal that important features of recordings are not faithfully conveyed by the written texts. The style of the recordings could, therefore, seldom have been envisaged from the written texts alone. The recordings examined here include those of a generation of pianists who were trained, in some cases, 150 years ago. These include Carl Reinecke, Theodor Leschetizk ... More

Early piano recordings provide audible evidence of the performing practices of late-Romantic pianists, practices that often differ radically from the present. Comparing these practices with descriptions in contemporaneous written texts reveal that important features of recordings are not faithfully conveyed by the written texts. The style of the recordings could, therefore, seldom have been envisaged from the written texts alone. The recordings examined here include those of a generation of pianists who were trained, in some cases, 150 years ago. These include Carl Reinecke, Theodor Leschetizky, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Johannes Brahms, and those of a later generation have also been considered. Their recordings preserve vital information about general performing practices of the era, as well as the idiosyncrasies of their playing. The Introduction outlines the significance of early recordings for appreciating lost traditions. Chapter 1 explores the early recording processes and the value of the preserved evidence. Chapter 2 to 5 investigate dislocation (playing one hand after the other), unnotated chordal arpeggiation, metrical rubato and various types of rhythmic alteration, and tempo modification. Each chapter compares written references with numerous recorded examples provided on the companion website. This reveals, in many cases, striking inconsistencies between theory and practice and suggests that descriptive language and musical notation have hidden meanings for which the recordings provide an indispensable key. An important implication is that any attempt at historically informed performances must acknowledge the gulf between current aesthetics of performance and those of earlier eras.