The Genesis Recordings of Legendary Pianists

In the beginning there were pianist but no way to record them. Now there are.......

The Genesis Recordings^®
of Legendary Pianists

The first-ever recordings of:

These are historical recordings made at
the dawn of the 20th century before the invention
of the CD, tape player, phonograph record
or microphone!

• Debussy
• Ravel
• Grieg
• Paderewski
• Granados
• Hoffman
• Saint-Saëns
• Strauss
• Leschetizky
• Busoni
• Carreño
• De Pachmann
• Glazounow
• Egon Petri
• Reger
• Scriabine
and more

You'll be hearing the composer playing their own compositions, plus many other great romantic pianists of that period in history. These recordings captured not only the notes played, but also the dynamics and expression of the individual artist.

The piano used to reproduce these recordings is tuned in the Victorian or Romantic style as would have been popular during the time, allowing you to hear the music exactly as the composer intended.

The breathtaking results of this unprecedented event coupled with today’s digital technology makes it possible for these remarkable recordings to be heard today exactly as they were captured so long ago.

These recordings were made possible by the development of a manual recording device created in Germany by Michael Welte (1807-1880) and his nephew Edwin Welte. The performances were recorded with amazing accuracy of expression and reproduced mechanically onto paper rolls, similar to those of a player piano but with more nuance and sophistication. Many of the most prestigious composers and pianists of the day journeyed to Welte’s studio to be immortalized.

Today’s finest digital technology has been used to recapture and authentically reproduce (with no noise) these remarkable performances on CD.

This is Musical Archaeology at its best!

About Genesis Recordings How They Were Made
Recorded Excerpts Order Information
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