Victor Borge - More of Hungarian Rhapsody (very funny)

Victor Borge was once called "the funniest pianist on Earth" by The Washington Post. He toured the world for decades with his popular one-man show, which mixed classical piano performance with quips, wordplay and pratfalls. Borge's dour Scandinavian face and formal dress set the stage for the sly hijinks to come: he would comically mangle classic tunes, make faces, or simply stop at the keyboard to tell jokes. Borge was a child prodigy who trained at the Danish Royal Academy of Music. He first performed as a serious classical pianist, but his talent for whimsy overtook the music. By the time he fled Denmark for the United States at the start of World War II, Borge was known best as a comedian. In America he learned English, took the name Victor Borge, and became a popular radio star. His own one-man Broadway show followed: Comedy in Music ran for 849 performances from 1953-56. During the 1960s and '70s he was a familiar face on TV talk and variety shows, including The Dean Martin Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Besides musical jokes, Borge also created read-aloud gags like phoenetic punctuation (with Borge reading each period aloud as "phwwt!") and the so-called "inflationary" language, in which "tomorrow" became "threemorrow" and "What for?" became "What five?" Borge never lost his classical chops, sometimes serving as a serious (or nearly serious) guest conductor for major orchestras, and he continued to tour the world until just before his death. He published the memoirs My Favorite Intermissions (1971) and My Favorite Comedies in Music (1980).

Borge became a U.S. citizen in 1948... He was knighted by Denmark and each of the other four Scandinavian countries; he quipped, "After I was knighted five times, I became a weekend"... Borge married American Elsie Chilton in 1933; that marriage ended in divorce and in 1953 he married his manager, Sanna Roach. They were married until her death, three months before Borge, in 2000.

Below he plays a funny piano duet...



Below is another of his performances

Franz Liszt

"What's up doc... Who?! Franz Liszt?... Never heard of him..." I always liked this cartoon very much. After I saw this, I tried to play the actual "Hungarian Rhapsody" by Franz Liszt, but it's not that easy as in the cartoon... Below you can see Maksim Mrvica playing the original rhapsody by Franz Liszt.

Legend of 1900

This is one of my favorite movies. It is about a man, named 1900, born on a ship, in the first day of the century, said to have never stepped on land. He had an outstanding talent playing the piano. Even the great piano player, the "inventor of jazz", Jelly Roll Morton wanted to see how this man can play the piano. The two of them engaged in a piano competition to see which one was the best and 1900 came out victorious.
It's a great movie, and I encourage you to watch it. Below you can see a scene from the movie: "Magic Waltz" on a stormy weather...






Ennio Morricone published the sheet music for all the piano songs from the movie. They are not very easy, so if you are able to learn them, then you can consider yourself a very good pianist.

Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was not only one of the greatest composers of the Classical period, but one of the greatest of all time. Surprisingly, he is not identified with radical formal or harmonic innovations, or with the profound kind of symbolism heard in some of Bach's works. Mozart's best music has a natural flow and irresistible charm, and can express humor, joy or sorrow with both conviction and mastery. His operas, especially his later efforts, are brilliant examples of high art, as are many of his piano concertos and later symphonies. Even his lesser compositions and juvenile works feature much attractive and often masterful music.

Mozart was the last of seven children, of whom five did not survive early childhood. By the age of three he was playing the clavichord, and at four he began writing short compositions. Young Wolfgang gave his first public performance at the age of five at Salzburg University, and in January, 1762, he performed on harpsichord for the Elector of Bavaria. There are many astonishing accounts of the young Mozart's precocity and genius. At the age of seven, for instance, he picked up a violin at a musical gathering and sight-read the second part of a work with complete accuracy, despite his never having had a violin lesson.

We all know the "Turkish March", the great sonatas and concerts he wrote. I heard a story about Mozart: he participated together with other composer in a contest. They all had to compose a sonata, and play it before the king. Mozart was so confident in his talent that he didn't bother composing his sonata at home. He composed it "on the spot" when he had to play his sonata, and still won the first prize.

Here's a variation on the Turkish March by Say Fazil...



Here's another "unaltered" composition of Mozart. I can play it, but this guy is really good at it.

Steinway & Sons

Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway, is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded in 1853 in New York City, by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a factory and employee village in what is now Astoria, Queens, followed by a second factory in Hamburg, Germany, in 1880. Its early successes have been credited both to the quality of its instruments as well as its effective marketing, including the company's introduction of Steinway Halls (German: Steinway-Häuser).
Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg's dedication was: "To build the best piano possible". He established at his company three basic principles: "Build to a standard, not a price", "Make no compromise in quality", and "Strive always to improve the instrument". Research and development by the company have earned them so far more than 125 registered patents, a greater number than any other piano company.
Steinway was the first piano company in the world to establish a concert piano bank, which is a collection of Steinway concert grand pianos chosen for their superior performance qualities. The idea is to provide a consistent pool of concert grand pianos of the highest quality for touring performers. Steinway takes responsibility for preparing, tuning and delivering the piano of the artist's choice to the designated hall or recording studio. Concert piano banks are established at several Steinway Halls and other Steinway-owned buildings in New York City, London, Los Angeles, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Lausanne, Vienna, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul and Beijing. The pianos for a concert piano bank are selected by Steinway experts and are kept in special rooms with controlled humidity and temperature. Performing artists choose a piano for use at a certain venue after trying each piano at the concert piano bank. This allows a range of pianos with various sound qualities to be available for artists to choose from. Steinway concert piano banks consist of more than 300 pianos valued collectively at more than $25 million.

Anthony Burger - My Favorite

Anthony Burger was one of the greatest contemporary pianist in the US. He was born in Cleveland, Tennessee. As a child, he had an accident, resulting in third degree burns on his hand. The doctor said to his parents that he may never be able to move his hands again... Looks like he was wrong. He miraculously healed, and at the age of three, as I heard him talking, he stunned his parents playing

a melody he heard in church on the piano. He was accepted at Conservatory at the age of five,

and studied classical music for many years.

Burger’s first recording, Anthony Burger At The Lowry Organ, was released in 1975 when he was 14 years old. He joined the Kingsmen Quartet while still a teen and remained with them until 1992. During that time, Burger recorded nineteen projects with the group and was voted the Favorite Pianist in the Singing News Fan Awards for an unprecedented ten years. The award was renamed the "Anthony Burger Award" for several years after that. During this period, Burger presented the award to the winner each year, but was ineligible to receive it. In 1992, Burger left the Kingsmen Quartet to pursue a career as a solo pianist. He joined the Gaither Homecoming. Tour the following year and was featured on more than 65 Homecoming videos. Burger continued to release piano solo recordings and headline concerts, but his solo schedule was balanced by about 80 Gaither Homecoming dates per year. Adding more variety to his schedule, Burger formed an impromptu sideline group with Ivan Parker and Kirk Talley around 1998 called “The Trio.” The group performed at several events each year. (Shane Dunlap later replaced Parker.) Burger was known through out his career to tell of how God healed his hands and playing the piano was his way of praising God. During the course of his career, Anthony teamed up with gospel Sax-Man Dan Traxler and the duo was well on their way to establishing yet another pinnacle in his already impressive career. With over 100 tracks to their credit, Dan and Anthony were two musicians who really understood each other. Over the course of his career, Mr. Burger released a number of piano folios, permitting fellow keyboard players to perform his arrangements.

I first saw him on a dvd playing the "Hallelujah Chorus" by Handel in the Sydney Opera House. (see this video) I said to myself: "Man, how I'd like to be able to play like him". That's how my passion for the piano began. I ended up buying all of his books and playing his arrangements over and over again. (see me on this video)

I was shocked to hear that he died on February 22nd 2006 during a concert; that day was my 18th birthday... His life was and is an example to many of us. He did what he knew best at the highest level all his life. Just like a warrior dies in battle or a captain dies sinking with his ship, Anthony ended his life playing the piano. A great ending of a great man.

I think his life inspired and still inspires many piano players, and not only piano players. He lived with all his being all the songs he played. That's the way we all should do what we are good at: at the highest level. If we all do so, the world will be a better place...

First Piano: The Reason of All this Talk

The year 1709 is the one most sources give for the appearance of an instrument which can truly be called a "Pianoforte." The writer Scipione Maffei wrote an article that year about the pianoforte created by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1732), who had probably produced four "gravicembali col piano e forte" or harpsichords with soft and loud. This instrument featured the first real escapement mechanism and is often called a "hammer harpsichord." The small hammers were leather covered. It had bichords throughout, and all the dampers were wedge-shaped. By 1726 he seems to have fitted a stop for the action to make the hammers strike only one of two strings. He had produced about twenty pianos by this time and then he is presumed to have gone back to making harpsichords, probably from the lack of interest in his pianos. Three of his pianos remain extant today: one with four octaves, dated 1720, is in New York; one with four and a half octaves, from 1726, is in Leipzig, Germany; and there is one in Rome from 1722. There are approximately ten plucked instruments surviving today with the name Cristofori on them.

Why This Blog?

Many people know to play a few notes no the piano, or have taken a few lessons when they were children, but the road to being a professional pianist is niether short, nor easy. I want to present to the readers some of the greatest piano players that ever lived, and some still live today. Since we are talking about pianists, we can't forget about their instruments... A good pianist knows the difference between different types of pianos, and the talent is best shown on a fine instrument.