Josef Hofmann playing the Minute Waltz by Chopin

Josef Hofmann (1876-1957) was a prolific inventor and a superb virtuoso pianist. He invented some of the mechanism for reproducing player pianos, and also the pneumatic shock absorber for trucks and automobiles. Harold Schonberg, the music critic for the New York Times, once asked Sergei Rachmaninoff who is the greatest living classical pianist in his opinion. Rachmaninoff replied that it was Josef Hofmann. Schonberg then asked Josef Hofmann who was greatest living classical pianist in his opinion, and Hofmann answered Sergei Rachmaninoff. Both Hofmann and Rachmaninoff agreed that after they were no longer around, the greatest classical pianist would be a young Russian keyboard wizard named Vladimir Horowitz. Unfortunately, Josef Hofmann was a severe alcoholic, and in the last years of his life he was unable to perform on the piano because of his alcoholism. The Minute Waltz by Chopin has had many virtuoso arrangements over the years. It was first played in thirds by Moriz Rosenthal, a student of Franz Liszt. Other pianists have played it in octaves. Here is Josef Hoffman's arrangement from a reproducing piano roll that he recorded sometime around 1920. It is reproduced on my Steinway Spirio concert grand piano. The piano keyboard looks slightly tilted in this video because the camera was slightly off to the left of the piano and not directly in front of it.