Listen!
These two files were made in 1926 and 2005: "before" and "after" recordings
by legendary pianist
Alfred Cortot.
He's playing Chopin's third prelude,
lasting 55 seconds. The recordings offer a glimpse into what is possible
when a performance can be separated from its original acoustical setting.
Alfred Cortot's original mono 78 rpm recording for HMV in 1926, playing
Chopin's prelude #3 in G major. Posted with permission of Music & Arts
Programs of America, Inc. CORTOT PLAYS CHOPIN: THE RARE 1925-1929
RECORDINGS, CD-4871(1).
Download the "before" recording
Zenph® Studios’
re-performance®
of Alfred Cortot playing Chopin's prelude
#3 in G major. Recorded in stereo by
Peter McGrath
in April 2005.
Download
the "after" recording
We deliberately made our "after" recording acoustically
different from the 1926 monaural original, so it would be clear that
they were not remasterings. We used a superbly voiced nine-foot concert
grand piano, set in a small, resonant recital hall. We invited Peter
McGrath, a renowned recording engineer, to make new six-channel high-resolution
DSD recordings, although you're only hearing two stereo channels here.
He intentionally set his microphones well back from the piano, so you
hear a lot of room ambience. The sound has been neither equalized nor
filtered. However, to speed download times, we have reduced them to
320 kbps MP3 files.
There are many variables affecting a listener's sense of touch
and sound color: different instrument, different acoustics, different tuning,
different recording equipment, different microphone placement,
different playback equipment, and so on. Because this is a
multi-dimensional set of issues, we consider them from various viewpoints,
and this is also why our work naturally involves different
specialists - computer scientists, musicians, piano technicians, and
recording engineers.
This is just a sample of what is possible, and isn't the final word
on how these re-performances might sound. Delightfully, our new
high-resolution MIDI file
can be re-performed identically by a comparably-outfitted piano,
and can be re-recorded in a myriad of venues.
Click
here
for a comprehensive article about the process used to create these re-performances.
Celebrated concert pianist
Ruth Slenczynska
studied with
Alfred Cortot
in the 1930s. Upon hearing our new recording in August 2005 she wrote, “I’ve
listened to your CD and certainly recognized his touch on the rendition
of Opus 28 No. 3. French pianos 70+ years ago weren’t great and
Mr. Cortot’s fingers were perhaps ‘creaky,’ but that
was his sound and I loved it!”
Original Performance, New Recording!
