mills:

Sergei Rachmaninoff playing his Prélude in C Sharp Minor, Op. 3, No. 2.

Rachmaninoff recorded many of his compositions on piano rolls -then the most accurate way to capture and reproduce piano performance- during the first decades of the 20th century. This piece, which he wrote when just 19 years old, was committed to roll between 1919 and 1929.

Many composers thusly established authoritative versions of their work before audio recording and reproduction technology obsolesced the player piano. Just over two years ago, Topherchris posted George Gershwin’s piano-roll-recorded performance of his famous Rhapsody in Blue, used so memorably in Woody Allen’s Manhattan.