Ed Zubrow wrote:

>>As for the Rite of Spring.  I really enjoy the disc I have by Benjamin
>>Zander and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. [snip] The disc has the
>>added advantage of bonus tracks presenting
>>the piano roll version of the piece.

Bill Karzas then incorrectly says:

>The piano version [*not* a piano roll version] was the original composed by
>Mussorgsky. The piece has been orchestrated by many other composers; the
>most common transcription is that by Ravel.

I quote from the liner notes:

   It is little known that in 1920 Igor Stravinsky began supervising
   programming of piano rolls for the major works he had so far composed,
   'in order,' as he said, 'to create a lasting document which should
   be of service to those executants who would rather know and follow
   my intentions than stray to irresponsible interpretations of my
   musical text.' [long snip which contains a discussion about the tempo
   of the Danse Sacrale on the rolls.]

   Paradoxically, part of the attraction for Stravinsky of these metronomic
   rolls was his belief that they helped him limit excessive freedom on
   the part of concert artists, and to that intent he was keen to specify
   roll speeds and general dynamic changes.  By the early 1920's his
   acquaintance with the pianola had grown into a deep involvement with
   the instrument and in particular with the Playela, manufactured by
   the French firm of Pleyel, Lyon et Cie.  In his memoirs Stravinsky
   recalls the fascination he had for the attangement of his works
   directly for music roll, where the limitations of ten fingers and
   two hands are simply irrelevant.

   Working in an apartment which he rented in the Pleyel building in
   Paris, he was able to maintain direct control over the translation
   of his works onto a roll, a task which he delegated in detail to
   Jacques Larmanjat, the head of Pleyel's music department.  In this
   way over a period of about six years, Stravinsky arranged most of
   his major ballets especially for Pleyela; Petruska, Firebird, Les
   Noces, Pulcinella, Song of the Nightingale, and of course, nine rolls
   of the Rite of Spring.

Ed