Rachmaninoff Plays Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff made quite a few recordings, starting with Edison’s Diamond Discs and, in 1920, signing a contract with The Victor Talking Machine Company, later to become RCA Victor.  He also made numerous piano rolls, thus allowing anyone who could pump a player piano to “hear” Rachmaninoff.

Now comes Zenph Sound Innovations, a software company based in North Carolina.  They specialize in “the algorithms and processes for understanding – and re-creating – precisely how musicians perform.”  Zenph creates “re-performances” by capturing not only the notes that were played, but attacks, key speeds, durations, and pedaling just as the performer played them. 

This re-performance of Rachmaninoff was recorded on a 1909 Steinway concert grand, similar to that which the composer played, that was adapted to translate the software instructions into the movements of the piano keys and pedals.  So the limitations of the original recording media are eliminated, and we can hear a modern piano, recorded with special techniques, playing exactly as Rachmaninoff played.

Among the special techniques for this recording is a binaural stereo surround version; as they say, the “ultimate headphone experience.”  In this technique, a “dummy head” is fitted with two small omnidirectional microphones in the ear canals, and the head is placed where the pianist’s head would be if one were playing.  The result, says John Q. Walker of Zenph Studios, is that we “hear what [Rachmaninoff] might have heard as he sat at the piano.”

There are two complete versions of the thirteen selections on this recording; one for listening on speakers and one for listening on headphones.  It may come as a surprise, based on hearing the old 78s from which these piano miniatures were taken, that in fact Rachmaninoff had rather sparse pedaling and transparent textures in his playing.  Some of his own compositions, including the famous Prelude in C-sharp Minor, are here, along with many of his arrangements:  Kreisler, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Bach and more.

In his latest album, At Home With Friends, violinist Joshua Bell included a Zenph re-performance, resulting in Bell and Rachmaninoff playing Grieg.  This new technology has already had notable success.  Where it takes us next is yet to be imagined.  Happy Birthday, Sergei.