pianists to omit the repeat. In the transition in Schubert’s Sonata in B flat major there are
several bars which seem out of place and this circumstance also encourage pianists to
omit the repeat. A similar problem does not arise in Chopin’s Sonata in B minor opus 58.
In the Minuet and Trio of classical compostions the repeats are usually observed although
the repeats in the Minuet the last time around are usually omitted.
In the final movement of Beethoven’s Sonata in F minor opus 57 ‘Appassionata’ the
repeat is almost invariably played. This was recommended by Tovey and it seems
essential for the dramatic structure of the movement and to highlight the final coda. The
same comment might apply to the final movement of Beethoven’s Sonata in C sharp
minor opus 27 no. 2 ‘Moonlight’.
Brahms seems to have accepted the practice of omitting repeats in his compositions when
the particular composition had become well known.
REPRODUCING PIANOS
Reproducing piano roll recordings represent actual performing styles from 1905 up to
about 1930. They do this more accurately than discs because of the restrictions on
performing styles which were necessarily imposed for satisfactory recording on the old
acoustic 78rpm discs. In optimum conditions a reproducing piano roll recording gives a
musical result that cannot easily be distinguished from a live concert hall performance.
Reproducing piano roll recordings give us a solid link with nineteenth century performing
practice and a fascinating aural record of how the celebrated pianists of the time in fact
played. Reproducing pianos and their rolls were able to reproduce accurately not only
the notes and tempi but also the precise dynamics and pedalling employed by the
recording artist. The roll companies, such as Welte, obtained written testimonials at the
time from the recording artists stating this.
‘Fashions in piano playing, as in clothes, continually change, but great piano playing
remains such irrespective of style and period, and is worth preserving wherever possible.
[The Welte-Mignon recordings present] on the whole a more leisurely, personal, intimate
and freer style than that common to our day.’ (Rafael Kammerer, The American Record
Guide, February 1961)
‘There can be no question that the Welte-Mignon library is an indispensable adjunct to
the study of the history of musical performance. In the overall view it records the
continuous change in styles of musical interpretation and performance. It gives us the
playing of individual pianists, and serves to place and group them in their particular
historical eras. In some cases it provides the only clue as to what the playing of certain
pianists of the past was like, and it permits evaluations and comparisons that would
otherwise be impossible. It affords a revealing glimpse of the manner in which
composers performed their own works. In short, the Welte-Mignon opens a window on
the past. ... It is a documentation that no historian can afford to neglect. Nor is the value