Mozart/Busoni : Duettino Concertante : Pianola Institute

BUSONI: Duettino Concertante for 2 pianos, after Mozart, Piano Concerto no. 19 in F, K.459, arranged for music roll and played on the Pianola by Rex Lawson. Photos courtesy Rona Eastwood and others, from rehearsals at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Lucerne Festival, the pages of the Welte-Mignon testimonials book, and from idyllic walks in the Salzburg woods.

Audio recording copyright the Pianola Institute 2009, recorded in 2007, after sessions for Rex Lawson's CD of Aeolian Company Pianola Compositions, NMC D136 - see the NMC website for more details:

http://www.nmcrec.co.uk/?page=catalog...

Busoni was for a while quite keen on the Pianola, arranging Mozart's "Zauberflöte" Overture for 65-note music roll, and even writing a short compositional sketch, entitled "Für die Pianola", though he got the German gender wrong, since the instrument was known as "Das Pianola" (neuter), as opposed to Hupfeld's Phonola, which was for some reason feminine - "Die Phonola".

The Duettino Concertante adapts very well to music roll, and it has been in Rex Lawson's "Perforetur" catalogue since the late 1980s. Busoni's final cadenza is insidiously chromatic and great fun - would that modern pianists would soup up Mozart in such a tasteful way!

Player pianos can be very fine musical instruments. Visit the Pianola Institute website and discover the truth about these wonderful inventions!

http://www.pianola.org