On the face of it, it seems strange that a worldly-wise, successful composer like Stravinsky should lock himself away for hours in a small studio and arrange his own music for the pianola. Everyone believes that pianolas (a somewhat less than generic term for player pianos) sound like beat-up old honky-tonks, drowning any musical inspiration with the squeaking of their gears and the wheezing of their pedals - but it isn't true!

Over the past forty years there have been so many false descriptions and loud recordings of the pianola that public perception of the instrument is a travesty of what was originally intended. There were certainly cheap pianolas to be had, but the majority of instruments were installed in high-class pianos and often cost as much as luxury automobiles. Pianolas can and should sound as musically sensitive as any other instrument, and Stravinsky himself enjoyed playing them.

With this recording of Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, we hope to change your mind about a frequently and unjustly maligned musical instrument.

Rex Lawson is the only professional concert pianolist in the world. He has appeared in the reconstruction of the Ballet Mecanique in Carnegie Hall, at the Proms in London and in Paris with Pierre Boulez. Mr Lawson does not hesitate to inform us that, contrary to popular belief, the pianola does not play itself, nor is it easy to play if one seeks to produce anything more than a mechanical performance. Conductor Maurice Peress adds that Rex is the only one he knows who can read the perforations of the piano roll like a score, and who can coordinate with the conductor, controlling accents and balances, all the while pedaling the mechanism.