Gershwin Plays Gershwin (The Piano Rolls)

Reconstruction of George Gershwin's own piano playing, using piano rolls that he arranged himself between 1916 and 1933. Produced and engineered between November 1992 and June 1993 at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City. Original piano rolls courtesy of Keystone Music Roll Company. Booklet notes contain biographical data about Gershwin as well as information about the reconstruction process. Arrangement of track 12 is originally credited to "Milne and Leith", which is in reality only one person. The complexity of the arrangement would have required a four-handed piano performance, which Milne faked by also giving credits to his own pseudonym "Leith". <b>Brief summary of the reconstruction process:</b> Some piano rolls were played back by a 1911 Pianola vorsetzer (operated by Wodehouse), which in turn operated a 9-foot Yamaha Disklavier grand piano. Other rolls were converted to MIDI files (by Tonnesen and Brandle), which could be fed directly to the Disklavier. The Disklavier's performance is what is recorded on this release.