The reissue series of which this disc is a part touts the "audiophile quality" of the original recordings, many of which date from the 1970s (although not a whit of information is given in the present case). The recordings of the two
Mozart pieces heard here are anything but audiophilic -- the remastering is a hissy, hollow mess, giving the so-called Siena Pianoforte all the sonic charm of jackhammers at a construction site. The disc's primary value is as an intriguing historical footnote. The Siena Pianoforte is one of the historical-instrument movement's little hoaxes. As the Italians say, if it's not true, it's a good story. Allegedly built in 1800, from wood taken from the pillars of Solomon's temple (no less), the piano was said to have made the rounds of European royalty and then somehow ended up in North Africa during World War II, under threat of destruction as junk from German armies. It was "rescued" by an Israeli named Carmi who was serving as a minesweeper with the British army, who then lost track of it until his children ran across it again in a Tel Aviv junk shop -- whereupon he painstakingly restored it, altering the hammer action to produce a bizarre, tinny sound. It was Carmi who cooked up the entire tale, and a glance at a photo of the thing would show its falsity -- the piano is an ordinary modern upright. No photo is included with the present disc, of course, although there is a sneaky hint that "it is possible that this entire history is false -- created in the imagination of a publicity-seeking salesman." Even the young
Charles Rosen, back in the day, was taken in. The other piano heard on the disc, a 1795 Broadwood, is apparently legitimate enough; pianist Vladimir Pleshakov plays works by the little-known Bonifazio Asioli, who is accurately described in the sparse booklet as "minor but prolific." His music is something like that of Clementi without the concision and harmonic ingenuity, but it does showcase the colors of the fortepiano (not pianoforte) well. For the 1970s this was quite an unusual early piano recording, and it's worth having provided you realize you're not getting what you are led to believe you're getting.