Pianola with Michael Broadway at Royal Albert Hall

Michael Broadway performs live in the Elgar Room.

In this afternoon performance, Michael will be playing his Orchestrelle Company ‘push-up’ Pianola of 1914, coupled to the Elgar Room’s resident piano. Many would think this no different from listening to a CD; simply switch it on and it plays. Reproducing pianos such as the Duo-Art or the Ampico certainly do this as they are operated by an electric motor, but the music rolls for those instruments have been recorded by a pianist, and therefore contain all dynamic and tempo changes encoded into the paper music roll.

Here we have something different. The rolls being played today were made as direct transcriptions of the musical score, note for note on to graph paper in a mathematical and mechanical way, and require the intervention of a player to coax a musical performance from the bare notes. If the roll were simply set going, all that would result would be an a tempo rendition played at the same volume throughout, and the use of the pedals and levers on the instrument assist the player in avoiding this. Thus, it is possible to explore the entire dynamic range of the piano being played, as well as subtle nuances of tempo rubato.

Today’s performance, as with all live music, will be unique; in the hands (and feet) of another player, the same music could sound completely different.