Scott Joplin Music

Okay, credit must be given to the artist for choosing less-performed Joplin works. Purchasing this album is an inexpensive way to hear what these ragtime rarities sound like. Then again, you could just go play through the scores.

I give this review 2 stars instead of one for the selection of pieces. The playing, however, is a tragedy! I understand that the piano in use is reminiscent of those in early 20th century parlors, so although the instrument sounds like a tinkery toy, I am willing to look past the tone.

Tone aside, the interpretations are horrid. Either this man truly has no natural sense of rhythm, or he is trying to exaggerate the "old piano sound" by inserting rhythmic stutters and sputters here and there. Please don't mistake this with rubato. The effect is that it sounds like an ancient piano roll, only with less flow. I don't care if this effect is intentional or unintentional, it still sounds like diarrhea to my ears.

Go with Joshua Rifkin or Robert Strickland.

As the other reviewer mentioned, this is just piano notes pumped out thru a midi, not from piano rolls or a player piano. While it does sound like a piano and not a video game, it is a very pedestrian interpretation of Joplin's greatest hits.

For those who think hitting the right key at the right time is all what music is about, this terrible item might be worth considering. For those who don't, it is not.

Again: this is NOT a recording of old piano rolls as suggested in the title of the CD!
This is just the result of some Frenchman's hacking the notes of the ragtimes into a MIDI sequencer
(for that reason - conveniently enough for the label - this CD is probably one of the cheapest CD productions ever).

In contrast to the old rolls (which were produced having a human being actually playing the music), this brainless sequencing endavour contains nothing of any musical or historical interest.

There are, though, at least some original rolls transformed into digital recordings available here (even some done by Joplin himself). Rather look for them if you like music!

And to those who are REALLY interested in a musical way of using early sequencing techniques (and this is, of course, what piano rolls were) might either already know or, if not, is strongly recommended to check out the breathtaking work of the American composer Conlon Nancarrow!

When Scott Joplin recorded in piano rolls he gave a "live quality" to his interpretation. It's the same live quality that you hear some (usually classical) MIDI files have, that means that someone actually played the tune in a keyboard, even though the output was only information about the time, pitch and volume of each note that had to be processed. As opposed to that, one can only program complete scores in music notation which many suited software will turn into interpretations. However, the computer gives the exact same duration to everynote, making this kind of MIDI dull. From what I read in the booklet, this is the way in which this CD was made, and at times it certainly gets pretty dull.
The piano sound is alright, I don't quite like it. I think it needs a little reverb to emulate an actual interpretation on a piano. Both the limpid results of straight MIDI to CD and the illusion of an actual piano coudl've been combined in order to achieve better results.
The songs are very good, I coudln't comment about the selection as I am not very famliar with Scott Joplin's ouvre. Another nice detail is the price.
Anyway, if you hear the samples online and you enjoy it like that chances are that you're gonna like this CD.