Dal Segno’s trawl through
the nether land of the piano roll world
continues apace and no sooner have I
reviewed a brace of discs devoted to
women pianists than this latest entrant
arrives. The title is a little bit of
a swizz. If you were expecting a full
complement of the Fauré rolls
you will be disappointed because his
name, though emblazoned on the cover
next to Strauss’s alone, yields only
one roll, that of the Pavane. As for
Strauss, Tacet has just released the
entirety of his 1906 Welte rolls (reviewed
on this site) and Dal Segno give us
just three. Which is not to say that
Tacet makes the better bet, as I shall
discuss below.
The rolls are all performed
by the composer-pianists and were made
for the leading roll companies of the
day, Ampico, Duo-Art and Welte-Mignon.
Naturally they left behind fulsome encomiums,
since they had a vested interest in
the rewards such as might accrue. Let’s
cut to the chase and investigate the
rival claims of Tacet and Dal Segno
with regard to the Strauss items. One
notable feature of roll reproduction
can be the wildly different reproduction
speeds. While a 1906 G&T disc transfer
may err slightly one way or the other,
the mechanical and robotic nature of
the roll produces discrepancies that
could never happen with a lateral disc.
Take Strauss’s On the Silent Forest
Path from his Mood Pictures.
This takes 4.01 in the Tacet transfer
and 3.14 with Del Sagno; the Dance
of the Seven Veils from Salome
takes 8.54 with Tacet and 7.04 with
Dal Segno. And finally the two fragments
from Salome take 3.37 in the
Tacet, 2.41 with Dal Segno. As Tennyson
put it, Some one had blundered.
I’ve noted these absurdities repeatedly
with regard to Roll transfers. For what
it’s worth I am far more inclined to
believe Dal Segno’s work than Tacet’s,
which sounds more than usually ridiculous
in terms of rhythmic jerkiness.
Other rolls in this
collection may have been compiled on
LP but the majority will doubtless be
new to most people as indeed the majority
were new to me. The Fauré roll
most commonly reissued over the years
is the First Barcarolle so it makes
a pleasant surprise to find the Pavane
but though it’s popular it’s hardly
pianistically distinctive. The roll
call of composers is an impressive one,
generally second tier it’s true – which
is why the senior figures of Strauss
and Fauré are employed to entice
one – though to many that will actually
prove an advantage given the Strauss
rolls are well known.
Laparra has a number
of his Iberian genre pieces here and
they’re enjoyable enough; Grainger joins
with his mother, Rose, for his sole
contribution, a rudely vigorous one
that not even the technology can quite
diminish. Cyril Scott and John Ireland
both made solo recordings with which
these rolls can be profitably contrasted
but I wasn’t aware that Goossens was
much of a pianist – he was a highly
proficient violinist and spent some
years in the Philharmonic Quartet. Regarding
Ireland his two pieces are wrongly tracked.
Track 23 is track 22. His 1920 roll
of Amberley Wild Brooks (spelt
wrongly here as well) can be contrasted
with a much later 1948 BBC broadcast
that has survived. Imperfect though
that is it puts to shame the crude simulacrum
that is the inflexionless lump of a
roll. There are other single items by
such as Milhaud, Reger and Casella.
And whilst much of this must be taken
on trust it’s always instructive to
have at least some trace material of
a composer’s musicianship, however imperfect
and compromised by the technology.
These rolls were transferred
a while ago now, in 1992. There’s some
ambient noise and a slightly noisy piano
action and also what sounds like a degree
of tape hiss. Given the caveats this
has been reasonably well done but the
various company information should be
attached to the track details so we
can be sure which system of roll we’re
listening to; individual roll numbers
for the discographers and pedants among
us. And proof-reading needs to be stepped
up.
Jonathan Woolf
DAL SEGNO DSPRCD 010 [72.58] 
