Topic: Felix Mottl Plays Wagner on Erard (1922)

First, I want to thank forum member BM for his exceptional fxp that beautifully captures his own 1899 acoustic Erard. His fxp formed the basis of my fxp used for this recording. I made adjustments to the Tuning parameters and the mic setup for this recording and some other minor modifications.

The Stanford University Piano Roll Archive has a treasure of classical piano rolls that have been scanned and converted to MIDI. One of these is a recording by the great Austrian conductor Felix Mottl playing the Vorspiel to Wagner's Parsifal which he recorded in 1908.

From time to time I will be uploading more transfers to my HearThis page and of my own playing as well.

Hope you enjoy this rare recording.

[media]https://app.hearthis.at/embed/4565532/t...r&fs=1[/media]

Re: Felix Mottl Plays Wagner on Erard (1922)

Sounds lovely. Will you share your version of the fxp?

Re: Felix Mottl Plays Wagner on Erard (1922)

Jake Johnson wrote:

Sounds lovely. Will you share your version of the fxp?

Hi Jake,

Thank you and I have just posted the fxp with an MP3 of Scriabin playing his own work recorded in 1911. I agree, Mottl's playing of the Vorspiel is lovely and he makes the piano version sound orchestral and his pacing of the music is perfect. I posted the midi of the Scriabin piece in the Shared Files forum.

My fxp requires Ellis Equal Beating temperament (1885) at 438 Hz.

So pleased you liked this and my fxp and hope it sounds to your liking on your own setup. Our shared fxps sometimes don't work on another system.

Thanks again!

Robert
Panama City, Florida

Last edited by algorhythms (24-04-2020 01:11)

Re: Felix Mottl Plays Wagner on Erard (1922)

I agree with Jake - super job on this fxp, thank you! I've always considered the 1922 Erard one of the 'hidden treasures' of Pianoteq, I think this setting enhances its best qualities and I'll really enjoy playing it.

Re: Felix Mottl Plays Wagner on Erard (1922)

dazric wrote:

I agree with Jake - super job on this fxp, thank you! I've always considered the 1922 Erard one of the 'hidden treasures' of Pianoteq, I think this setting enhances its best qualities and I'll really enjoy playing it.

Thank you so much, Dazric, for your very kind words. The Erard is my favorite of all the instruments and it was the sole reason for my buying Pianoteq more than 10 years ago. To see how Modartt has allowed it to grow and blossom over the years has been a privileged journey. So I fully share your love for this "hidden treasure."

I must again thank forum member BM for all his hard work on his fxp, especially for his spectrum profile and string length, otherwise my fxp would be rubbish compared to his! His 3 close mic setting is wonderful and I like it for playing and the Erard Close Mic default mic setting works well, too. So do try those, if you haven't already. They give a more intimate sound than the 4 mic fxp I uploaded.

I never know if what I hear through my headphones sounds good on someone else's system, so your compliments mean even more to me.

Take care and thanks again!
Robert

Re: Felix Mottl Plays Wagner on Erard (1922)

You're very welcome. I know how you feel about presets, I'm always revising mine to try to get something pleasing which will 'translate' well to other systems. I think I'm getting there, and hope to upload something soon!

Re: Felix Mottl Plays Wagner on Erard (1922)

dazric wrote:

You're very welcome. I know how you feel about presets, I'm always revising mine to try to get something pleasing which will 'translate' well to other systems. I think I'm getting there, and hope to upload something soon!

Oh yes! I'm always doing the same thing. Just last night I tweaked the Erard fxp I uploaded with the Res Equ and Res Dur in the Equalizer panel. Just a small amount for each and it added some richness to the sound. I also in Note Edit raised the hammer hardnesses just a pinch. Here's what that sounds like on a piece written and performed by Theodor Leschetizky I just rendered from MIDI and uploaded to my HearThis.at Channel. Hope you like it and I'm looking forward to your fxp!

[media]https://app.hearthis.at/embed/4635215/t...r&fs=1[/media]

Re: Felix Mottl Plays Wagner on Erard (1922)

What a delightful little piece! And yes, the resonance eq feature is very useful for adding subtle depth. Did you use some of Qexl's suggested settings or devise your own?

Re: Felix Mottl Plays Wagner on Erard (1922)

dazric wrote:

What a delightful little piece! And yes, the resonance eq feature is very useful for adding subtle depth. Did you use some of Qexl's suggested settings or devise your own?

Dazric, glad you enjoyed it. Yes, the Res Eq and Res Dur do add depth to the sound. I didn't know about the settings suggested by Qexl and devised my own. I first tried values way above normal to see what the effects would be. Then settled on just slightly increasing each point in the graph and midway between the points by just a very small amount so that there is a slight upward curve from low end to high end for both parameters.

When making adjustments in Pianoteq I've found that if the value for most parameters is increased or decreased by a numerical value than can be evenly divided by 3, I get better results. Don't know if that's true so it might just be my weird mind!

Take care,
Robert

Re: Felix Mottl Plays Wagner on Erard (1922)

The Qexl res eq settings are in post 13 of this thread: https://forum.modartt.com/viewtopic.php?id=7248 . There's so much useful stuff on the forum, it's not difficult to miss things!

Re: Felix Mottl Plays Wagner on Erard (1922)

dazric wrote:

The Qexl res eq settings are in post 13 of this thread: https://forum.modartt.com/viewtopic.php?id=7248 . There's so much useful stuff on the forum, it's not difficult to miss things!

Dazric,

Thank you so much for taking the time to share Qexl's settings and what a difference they make. He has a much better understanding of how to use those parameters than I do. I posted an fxp of my Erard Close Mic using his Res Eq and Res Dur settings with an MP3 of Leschetizky playing another of his own compositions, his Barcarolle Op 39. If you want to download and listen in Flac, here's the link to my HearThis channel:

https://hearthis.at/robertrivard/

I hope you enjoy this one as well. It shows well the added depth and richness created by Qexl's perfect settings.

Take care,
Robert