Francis Planté (1839-1934) was a French pianist and was France’s most important
pianist in the nineteenth century, after Chopin. He started his concert life at the age of
seven in Paris when Chopin was also performing and would have heard Chopin play.
During the 1860s he played duets with Liszt and Saint-Saëns. He recorded some discs at
the age of eighty-nine. These included a number of the Chopin études and show his
playing to be crisp, accurate and lacking in romantic indulgences.
Lev Pouishnov (1891-1959) was a Russian pianist. He made a number of piano rolls of
Debussy’s piano works and a roll of the Naïla Waltz by Delibes/Dohnányi.
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) was a Russian composer and pianist and one of the major
composers of the twentieth century. His piano style exploited the percussive possibilities
of the piano. Prokofiev was the soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted
by Piero Coppola, in the first recording of his third piano concerto, recorded in London in
June 1932. He also recorded some of his solo piano music, including his Suggestion
Diabolique and some of his Visions Fugitives, in Paris in 1935.
Raoul Pugno (1852-1914) was a French pianist noted for his Chopin interpretations and
was also a composer. He cut his first discs in 1903 and thus was the second pianist, after
Alfred Grunfeld, to cut discs. He recorded twenty sides but they are said to be barely
listenable because they were cut on a defective turntable. He also made a piano roll of
the Chopin Nocturne in F sharp major opus 15 no. 2. Pugno thought this nocturne was
habitually played too fast. ‘The tradition was passed on by my teacher George Mathias
who himself studied it with Chopin and it seems to me that the metronome marking
would correspond better to a bar at 4/8 than the 2/4 time indicated. I played it at 52 to the
quaver.’
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was a Russian/American pianist and composer. He
was active as a concert and recording artist up until his death and was the first major
composer/performer to leave a large number of his compositions on record. He recorded
all four of his piano concertos and his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, after the
adoption of electrical recording. Prior to 1925 he recorded a number of his preludes,
etudes and transcriptions on disc and roll. His rhythmic incisiveness and control, his
accuracy, his prominent voicing of melody notes and within chords, are in evidence. He
also used rubato and mannerisms including arpeggiata, as in the eighteenth variation of
his Rhapsody.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was a Basque French composer and pianist of the
impressionist period, known especially for the subtlety, richness and poignancy of his
music. Although not a prolific composer, his piano, chamber and orchestral music have
become staples of the concert repertoire. Ravel made a number of rolls of his own
compositions including the Toccata from Le Tombeau de Couperin, Oiseaux Tristes from
Miroirs, Pavane pour une Enfante Défunte, Sonatine, Jeux d’eau, La Vallée des Cloches,
Ondine and Le Gibet from Gaspard de la Nuit, and Valses Noble et Sentimentales.