Most of us, when we think of the pianola at all, imagine a piano that plays itself without outside assistance. There is one virtuoso, however, whose creative life is devoted to the art of maximizing the playback of the piano roll through careful and judicious use of pedaling and adjusting tempi by hand: Englishman
Rex Lawson.
Lawson's work is the central focus of Other Minds' The Virtuoso Pianolist, which includes
Igor Stravinsky's Les Noces as scored by the composer for piano roll and five other works especially transcribed for the pianola by
Lawson.