Mahler - HIMSELF - on BBC Radio 3

[Gerbish]

After the BBC's relay broadcast of Symphony No 7 on Monday 17 May, the 'filler' is a piano roll of Mahler, himself, playing the first movement of Symphony No 4.

Details of the programme:

Monday 17 May
7:00pm - 9:15pm (London time)
BBC Radio 3
Presented by Jonathan Swain. In a concert given at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda feature in David Matthews' Seventh Symphony, which is then contrasted with Mahler's Seventh, played as part of a complete symphony cycle.
David Matthews: Symphony No 7 (BBC commission).
Mahler: Symphony No 7.
BBC Philharmonic/Gianandrea Noseda.
Followed by a focus on composers as performers of their own pieces: featuring a piano roll recording of Mahler's own rendition of the first movement of his Fourth Symphony.


Listen lto the broadcastl live or 'Listen Again' for the next 7 days via
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/schedule

Gerald

[James Meckley]

...featuring a piano roll recording of Mahler's own rendition of the first movement of his Fourth Symphony.

Gerald

I wonder if this might be a mistake. The known piano rolls include the first movement of Symphony No. 5 and the last movement of Symphony No. 4. It would be wonderful if we now had a 4/i to compare with Mengelberg's and Walter's recordings, but I'm skeptical.

James

[john haueisen]

I believe James is correct; that this is a mistake.
The only piano roll "recording" that I know of which Mahler himself performed, is the Welte Mignon Piano rolls of 1905-1906.
They feature three short pieces "played" by Gustav Mahler himself.
They include the songs,
 Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grunen Wald,
 Ging heut' morgen uber's Feld,
and Das himmlische Leben from Symphony 4.

I know of no other piano roll recordings.  For those unfamiliar with the piano roll recordings, although Mahler himself struck the keys that produced the piano roll recording, they are not necessarily a representation of how Mahler thought they should sound.  Although an ingenious device (Mahler agreed that it was!), it required a determined effort to strike the keys very hard to punch holes in the strong piano roll paper.  Thus, the artist being recorded had to concentrate on striking the keys, which left little room for indicating nuances of volume or tempi.
All the same, it is interesting to hear something performed by the hands of Mahler.

--John Haueisen

[barry guerrero]

That may be true, but it's quite clear that the concluding section of M4/IV is often times performed waaaaay too slow; starting from "kein Musik is ja nicht auf Erde". Walter took this section at a tempo that's much closer to Mahler's piano roll tempo. Also, Mahler's piano roll timing for M5/I was very much in the ballpark of what was timed at concert performances. In terms of tempi, I think that the piano rolls are fairly reliable. Nuances are an entirely different matter.

Barry

[mahler09]

I have the piano roll recordings and even without the nuances perhaps, I still enjoy hearing Mahler play.