Customer Reviews

Ragtime Piano Roll

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

There was no reason to produce this CD except to exploit the name of Scott Joplin. The starting point may have been the piano rolls, but beyond that they were surely automated. The result? Absolutely perfect rhythm with not one ounce of interpretation. Joplin sounded nothing like this.

The CD implies in its liner notes that these piano rolls were recorded by Scott Joplin. The notes state, "Scott Joplin produced a great number of perforated rolls..." In 1916, Joplin recorded seven piano rolls: "Something Doing," "Magnetic Rag," "Ole Miss Rag," "Weeping Willow Rag" and "Pleasant Moments - Ragtime Waltz" for the Connorized Company; and "Maple Leaf Rag" for both the Connorized and Aeolian companies.

The CD contains Joplin's compositions, but most, if not all, of the piano rolls were NOT recorded by Joplin.

The music on this CD does not have the high quality that can be achieved by a pianist such as Joshua Rifkin.

When Scott Joplin recorded in piano rolls he gave a "live quality" to his interpretation. It's the same live quality that you hear some (usually classical) MIDI files have, that means that someone actually played the tune in a keyboard, even though the output was only information about the time, pitch and volume of each note that had to be processed. As opposed to that, one can only program complete scores in music notation which many suited software will turn into interpretations. However, the computer gives the exact same duration to everynote, making this kind of MIDI dull. From what I read in the booklet, this is the way in which this CD was made, and at times it certainly gets pretty dull.
The piano sound is alright, I don't quite like it. I think it needs a little reverb to emulate an actual interpretation on a piano. Both the limpid results of straight MIDI to CD and the illusion of an actual piano coudl've been combined in order to achieve better results.
The songs are very good, I coudln't comment about the selection as I am not very famliar with Scott Joplin's ouvre. Another nice detail is the price.
Anyway, if you hear the samples online and you enjoy it like that chances are that you're gonna like this CD.

don't waste your money on that. If you want Joplin played the right way, find Max Morath's inspiring Best of Scott Joplin. that is the polar opposite of this. This sounds like a MIDI recorded file with no life, my guess is that these are MIDI recordings. Morath's is vivid and imaginative, while he does add several embellishments here and there, they only add to the nature of the piece.
Joplin only made 7 piano rolls anyway.

I disagree somewhat with previous reviewers in that these recordings are pure, clean, precise, and admittedly clinical. You can complain about the sterility of the sound and mechanical quality of the performance (so to speak), but this disc is completely lacking in the interpretive qualities that many performers lend Joplin's work. That sort of interpretation irks picky listeners just as much.

So, this is a good place to learn how Joplin wrote these pieces - and I mean EXACTLY how... Let's call it a starting point.

Finally - and this is kind of moot in the age of MP3 downloads - but for what it's worth... This CD has the best-yet single-disc selection of rags on the market, though "Elite Syncopations" is sorely missed.