- Josef Hofmann plays Valse Caprice by Anton Rubinstein 5:27
- Moriz Rosenthal plays Valse Caprice by Anton Rubinstein 5:51
- Sergei Rachmaninoff plays Lilacs by Rachmaninoff 3:26
- Camille Saint-Saëns plays Rhapsody on Themes of the Auvergne by Saint-Saëns
8:28 - Camille Saint-Saëns plays Reverie of Blidah by Saint-Saëns 4:52
- Camille Saint-Saëns plays Finale from Act 1 of Samson et Delilah by Saint-Saëns
6:28 - Camille Saint-Saëns plays Valse Langoureuse by Saint-Saëns 4:26
- Vera Timanoff plays Romance by Anton Rubinstein 3:33
Denis Condon
Gerard Carter
All rights reserved 2008
Wensleydale Press
OBSOLETE PIANOS
Today’s pianos attained their present forms by the end of the nineteenth century but some
early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use. The square piano had
horizontal strings arranged diagonally across the rectangular case above the hammers and
with the keyboard set in the long side. The tall, vertically strung, upright grand was
arranged with the soundboard and bridges perpendicular to the keys, and above them, so
that the strings did not extend to the floor. The diagonally strung ‘giraffe’, pyramid and
lyre pianos employed this principle in more evocatively shaped cases. The very tall
cabinet piano, which was introduced by Southwell in 1806 and built through into the
1840s, had strings arranged vertically on a continuous frame with bridges extended
nearly to the floor behind the keyboard, and also had a very large sticker action.
The short cottage upright piano, or pianino, with vertical stringing, credited to Robert
Wornum about 1815, was built through into the twentieth century. They were informally
called ‘damper pianos’ because of their prominent damper mechanism. Pianinos were
distinguished from the oblique or diagonally strung uprights made popular in France by
Roller & Blanchet during the late 1820s. The tiny spinet upright was manufactured from
the mid 1930s onwards. The low position of the hammers required the use of a drop
action to preserve a reasonable keyboard height.
OCTAVES