Ancient performance with today's sonics...

What a great way to record an old master in his prime!
Thanks for sharing the information.

Telarc did this for some of Rachmaninoff's piano rolls. Some of his own music and transcriptions, on 2 different CD's. Maybe not quite the same as a live performance but you'd have to do some very critical listening to note it. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Rachmaninoff....and modern technology.

Newbee...Piano rolls do not duplicate all the subtleties that a pianist can impart to the performance, so, because of this I think that ragtime/honky tonk music is more suitable than classical music for this media. Current versions of the automated piano do capture the pianists "touch", as well as the keys he hit, and can therefore give better results.

Eldartford, I'm not sure whether you've heard (of) the Rachmaninoff recordings by Telarc called "A Window in Time" but they involve the use of a Bosendorfer reproducing piano. The producers were able to transcribe the rolls to digital form eliminating the mechanical aspects associated with piano rolls. As I mentioned above, it really is quite difficult to tell these were performances from rolls and mechanical playback. I'd bet if I played them without telling someone, most wouldn't be able to tell they were not recordings of a live performance. If you haven't heard them, and you're at all interested in the technology, give them a listen. Personally, I prefer the 1st volume of his own works.

Newbee...Thanks. I will look into these recordings. Perhaps when they transcribed the punched rolls to a digital file they were able to do a little editing to restore some aspects of the original performance.

I have heard the Bosendorfer reproducing piano, and it really is good.