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Maurice Levy: We were. We were talking about something that your father
had done.
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Lucretia Russell Marracino: Uh, my father went to New York and recorded
for the Duo Art. You made me think of it about the piano player. Um. He
recorded. Piano solos. He also recorded song accompaniments, and my mother
used to go out with the salesmen of these things and sing to those recorded
accompaniments. And the most remarkable thing that he did was to make what
they call alternating roles. He would play a certain length of time, then
he would stop and there would be this space, and then he would start again.
And when he went out to demonstrate this, he would have to fill that space
and come out right at the end. He would the role would play up to a certain
point. Then he would play.
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Levy: This piano roll. Yeah.
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Marracino: And then he would play until it started again with.
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Levy: So he played the phrases that joined the the two pieces.
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Marracino: Well, the. Phrases. It was quite a long thing really. Yeah. Oh
yeah, I don't know. I think that was phenomenal. You know, to be able to
make it come out right.
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Levy: Because he had to have the tempo. Exactly right.
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Marracino: Yeah. Well and and the distance, the time involved not only
when he made them, he would have to leave the right amount of time for this
space that he was going to fill. And then when he went to play it, he had
to do it in the same tempo so that it would come out right.
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Levy: When he played the last note with his hand. To play a piano picked
up the next note off the roll. Marracino: That's right. That's right.
That's right. Levy: Did he. Did he record things for player piano?
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Marracino: Yes he did. And in recent years, more recent years, there's a
man. There was a man who had a lot of player pianos and was interested in
that. And he was also a piano tuner. So my husband was there one night and
they were having a meeting, and Larry had these books of the artists who
did piano rolls. And my husband was looking through one. He said, oh,
there's my father-in-law. And Larry says, what? What? So then he wanted
Larry wanted to get the rolls. And and I said to my father, do you have
those, uh, player piano rolls that you made easy? Oh, no, he says I threw
those out. Nobody wants them.
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Levy: One of them today.
Marracino: And then we called a friend that we knew who had a Steinway
with a player mechanism in it and who had his rolls, and she said, oh, she
was sorry that she had gotten rid of them too. So I suppose.
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Levy: Whether have been. There are records at LPs, I guess maybe CDs are
so where they they have recorded piano roll. Marracino: Really? Levy: Oh
yes. Yes. To give examples of it, I think I listened to some at the library
example of a famous pianist, of course, me so you could listen in your home
to Rachmaninoff, I guess probably one of his prodigies or whatever.
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Marracino: Well. You know what killed it? It was going to be quite a good
thing, I think, and also a rather lucrative for him. Um, radio. This was
right before radio became known, and once radio was known. Who wanted a
piano? Who wanted a player piano?
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Levy: I guess that that hurt pianos generally.
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Marracino: It killed. Yeah, for the time being. Like television hurt music
teachers for a while. Not now, I don't think, but.
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Levy: Yeah. After the novelty wore off, I guess people went back to
something more satisfying when they could participate.
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Marracino: So that was the end of his recording and it was too bad.
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Levy: That was. Did he did he get to play on the radio at all? Did he
call?
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Marracino: Uh, he played on the radio here, I think. WWSW used to have a
program. I think the Institute had a program that we saw. I don't know, it
was every week or every day or probably every week. And. He played on that
often, and he and I played two pianos on it. We played two pianos a great
deal.
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Levy: You play mostly, um, uh, music written for two pianists or were
transcribed?
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Marracino: Well, both. We did as many. There isn't too much good music
written for two pianos. There are. Um. Haydn. Brahms variations have been.
Well, Brahms.
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Levy: How about piano? Four hands.
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Marracino: We didn't do that much. That's not true. It is. And also, I
find when I hear I've heard programs that people doing nothing but that,
and it seems as though the range is always exactly the same. There's no.
Variety in the range. But we found a lot of good two piano music and also a
lot of good arrangements and original two piano music and transcriptions.
Which. And we had a big repertoir.
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Levy: There must have been some some non-piano music arranged for two
pianos, that is. Marracino: Oh, yes. Levy: Orchestral Music.
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Marracino: Oh, yes.
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Levy: Like the transcriptions that were made by Liszt things like that?
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Marracino: Yes. What? A number of Bach. Some of those big organ fantasy
and fugues were arranged for two pianos. Um. I'm trying to think of other
things of that nature that we did. Of course, the Haydn - Brahms
Variations. Brahms himself wrote for two pianos and also for orchestra. But
I think his original one was for the two pianos.
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Levy: Well, that's not a common thing. You don't hear very much. Two piano
playing today.
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Marracino: Well, I don't agree Levy: Really? Marracino: I think there's
quite a lot of it. Maybe not.
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Levy: No, I mean, in, uh, in recital.
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Marracino: There are a lot of concert people, concert artists doing it.
There are two brothers, two Italian brothers.
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Levy: I know, the two sisters. The the.
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Marracino: French.
Levy: Yes. They were at the Y. Labeque. Yeah, yeah, the Labeque sisters.
And, uh, but it isn't it. Well, maybe it might. I guess my experience is
limited, but I was I remember it was Lubrasov and Neminov. Yeah. And uh,
and the.
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Marracino: Brodsky and Bobbin.
Levy: And and uh, Gold and Fizdale. Marracino: Yes. Levy: They just wrote
a book. I have.
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Marracino: I think I read about that.
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Levy: You see, I read it. I read the review of it. I don't think I forget
what the topic was, but I thought to myself gee whiz, I know them, I've
heard them on record. Marracino: Yes. Levy: There were a number of them. I
remember they used to play in the movies, you know, with the like which
ones they were. Look at that classical touch where we have two white keys.
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Marracino: Oh, yes. Yes. Um, when the concert. When the Art Society
closed. Uh, their last concert was a two piano concert. My father and I
played 2 or 3 groups, and then another, uh, two piano team here played on
it. Also Alice Stemple and Matilda McKinney. They're not here anymore. But
that was a sort of a festival of two piano playing. And I have that program
somewhere. But probably you might have that. The library might have that.
Levy: Possibly. Marracino: It was at Carnegie Hall.
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Levy: That's another thing we don't we don't we try to get I know this is
on tape and I'll mention it whenever it's listening, but we we try to keep
a file of programs of things that are played in Pittsburgh, but we can't
get them if people don't give them to us, but we can't attend them all.
Marracino: Yeah. That's true. Levy: And this is the kind of thing that
maybe somebody would like to sit down, and I wonder what. What he played
when he killed what? What did Perlman play when he came to Pittsburgh?
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Marracino: Do you have the Y program?
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Levy: Yes. The Y programs that we keep those those are the obvious ones.
We have the the Symphony. We have been bound. We have Symphony programs.
And they're the cross-references. They're not only in chronological order,
but they're by composer for the year. You can see all the, all the songs.
And its also by performer, that's fine. And of course the Symphony does
that because it's a. Well, I guess one of our. It's our largest musical
institution.
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Marracino: Oh, yeah. I've given the library a number of compositions that
I happen to have of people who were Pittsburghers. Not myself because I
don't compose, but. Kathie said she would like to have all those. There was
a well-known musician here many years ago, T. Carl Whitmer, who wrote a lot
of music. And I had. And Sonata for Flute and Piano. Or I guess it was a
sonata which was dedicated to me and a flutist here. And, uh, we had to
play it. T. Carl was pretty wild at that time. His his music sounded really
far out. But that's one of the things that I was able to give to the
library, which they were interested in.
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Levy: Yeah, we have a tendency to overlook things like that, where I think
sometimes we perseverate on the big names out of Pittsburgh, like Oscar
Levant and people who have achieved national and international, Loren
Maazel as far as Pittsburgh. But. Those other people made significant
contributions, but they're lost if we don't keep track of it.
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Marracino: Thats true. I probably have some programs I'll have to look
through. If I have some, I'll give them to you. Um, I don't remember. I
think I may have all the programs I heard when I was in New York, and I'm
not sure about any programs here, because usually you get rid of those
things, you know, you can't keep them all. So it's impossible. Well.
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Levy: I want to thank you very much for this fascinating interview.
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Marracino: Well, you're very. I think it was nice, I enjoyed it. I don't
know how much good it'll do you.
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Levy: Oh, I think we got a picture of of Pittsburgh from a viewpoint of a
piano teacher and a daughter of a well-known musician who made significant
contributions to the city and musical city.
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Marracino: And I want to offer you a cup of tea or coffee, and I never
even thought of it. Levy: This is fine. Marracino: We're so busy with
talking.
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Levy: That's what I think. What a hostess. No. That's fine. Thank you
again for the interview.
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Marracino: Oh, you're most welcome.
