Unlike Padrewski,
Artur Rubinstein, and
Vladimir Horowitz,
Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler's name is not one that immediately springs to mind when the subject of the great pianists of the early twentieth century is broached. Her name is most likely to be known to those who collect piano rolls, are well-versed in the histories of recital pianists, or have heard her piano roll performances reproduced from LP records older than this reviewer. In her own day, however,
Zeisler would have been one of the first pianists music fans would have thought of. Among her contemporaries were Ferruccio Busoni,
Sergey Rachmaninov, and Moriz Rosenthal, all still in their prime and touring widely. This generation of pianists regarded
Zeisler as an equal in terms of pianism, and after you experience Pierian Recording Society's two-disc survey Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler, Pianist, perhaps so shall you.
Zeisler only made piano rolls, never pursuing the alternate method of making phonograph recordings.
Zeisler's rolls were made for Welte-Mignon, the Welte system being the reproducing roll device of choice for concert pianists, as it recorded a maximum amount of the player's touch, pedaling, and degrees of volume.
Zeisler was a player equipped with a tremendous amount of strength in her arms. Her
Chopin is quite different from the norm established nowadays -- a lot of it is loud, played with energy and gusto, in the manner of Liszt.
Zeisler's turbulent and stormy Beethoven Piano Sonata, Op. 111, is a marvel -- you wont believe it's coming from a piano roll. The second disc is made up of encore pieces, some rather rare, all being delightful and interpreted with an ear toward variety of approach. The Welte reproducing piano used by Pierian Recording Society is in excellent shape, and the recording has the perspective of a parlor, rather than that of a concert hall, so that none of the piano's sound is compromised by reverberation. There is quite simply no other way on Earth to hear her work than through the medium of the reproducing roll, and Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler, Pianist is about as ideal a tribute to it as one could ever want.