Nobody Knows

Me playing Keep On the Firing Line

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.