Piano's funniest moments - cartoons, parodies, and rhapsodies - Beethoven and Liszt!

Roll over Beethoven!
Rowan Atkinson (b1955) (also known for his character Mr. Bean) is miming the Beethoven Pathetique sonata - (1st movement) and Moonlight sonata (3rd movement) on Youtube. And what a phenomenon, over 2 million hits!



Dudley Moore's (1935-2002) Beethoven Parody. Read more about Dudley Moore on the piano street blog.
If you like Dudley Moore's playing see my previous Blog link Piano Legends: Dudley Moore - a tribute


I found this duo from watching them on the Pianomania movie scene on Youtube. After finding out the castlist I tracked them down, they are known as the IGUDESMAN & JOO duo. And they name Dudley Moore and Victor Borge as their inspiration! They are both classically trained and met at the prestigious Yehudi Menuin school in Surrey, UK.


Rhapsody - Raspberries

Victor Borge (1909-2000) performs the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody #2. I was reading from his biography on wikipedia that Mr. Borge started learning the piano at the age of 2, and that later his teachers included a student of Liszt as well as Busoni's student (Egon Petri). 

Tom and Jerry playing the Hungarian Rhapsody #2 piano. This video, which won an Oscar in 1946 inspired Lang Lang.
See my blog entry - Inspiration from the Cat playing the piano!....Lang Lang did!


Last but not least, follow the link to our next funny animated piano video:
Bugs Bunny Playing the Hungarian Rhapsody #2 in C# minor

Piano Masters: Gyorgy Sebok on the Bach-Busoni Adagio - Toccata and Fugue in C, BWV 564

Pianist Gyorgy Sebok, was a music professor at the University of Indiana. He studied in Hungary at the Franz Liszt Academy with legendary composer, pedgagogue Zoltan Koldaly. He disucsses his feelings and emotions
during the second world war, of being in fear of his life and also of suffering. He then performs a truly emotional storytelling of the Adagio from Bach-Busoni's transcription of the Tocatta and Fugue in C major, opus BWV 564. The piece is a transcription by Busoni of Bach's original organ work. After his introduction, it is performed Eglise d'ernen 1997. A truly haunting and emotionally deep performance, Bravo Maestro!




Further reading:
Gryorgy Obituary

Piano Legends: Dudley Moore - a tribute

Dudley Moore, CBE portrait [source: wikipedia]

The 27th of March, 2011 is the 9th anniversary of Dudley Moore, CBE's death. A comedian, pianist, composer and all around loved entertainer. Dudley Moore was a very talented musician, he won a scholarship to study organ and composition at Oxford University.  I include some videos of his pianistic skills combining comedy and virtuosity! Enjoy.

Here's Dudley Moore's Beethoven Sonata Parody


A biography on Dudley Moore


Dudley Moore was influenced by Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, here he is performing a Gershwin Medley

Play it again, Mr President: The Statesmen Pianists

There's a great article Famous People who Played the Piano  from the playpiano.com website. The article mentions politicians, but also includes famous actors and scientists.

Two US Presidents played the piano to a high standard: Harry Truman

Harry Truman at the Whitehouse (playpiano.com)

 and Richard Nixon - here playing his own composition


Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice performs a piano Brahms quintet for the queen in 2008. Read the Daily Mail's article covering the performance. Her counterpart in the UK William Hague,  Foreign Secretary started playing the piano when he stepped down as leader of the conservative party according to this 2003 article in the Guardian: William Hague - the piano years. 

Ignace Paderewski, Polish Prime Minister in 1919, and a student of the great teacher Theodor Leschetizky (who also taught Schnabel) performs the Hungarian Rhapsody (clip originates from "The Art of the  Piano"). I'm quite familar with one of his legacies - the Paderewski editions of Chopin piano works.


Then there are the hobbyist statesmen - pianists. Here's Vladimir Putin singing and playing Blueberry Hill on the piano.


Perhaps a little more accomplished is Germany's oldest living Chancellor Helmut Schmidt who released a CD of Mozart and Bach Piano Concertos in 2008 coinciding with his 90th birthday.

7 Tips to play Stephen Foster's Camptown Races [ABRSM grade 1 piano]

Those of you who have seen The King's Speech, will in no doubt recognise the Stephen Foster's American folk song Camptown Races, which the King sings in order to overcome his speech impediment.

Photo: Camptown Races [Credit: jimmywayne (Flickr)]

My 5 year old daughter is learning the piece, which is on the Associated Board Royal Schools of Music [ABRSM] Grade 1 piano repertoire list.






So I include tips of best practice to help you with this piece:


1) This is a folk song afteral, so Get a feel for the character with this Johnny Cash video:


2) Understand the piece - read it's background and lyrics on Wikipedia.
3) Pentatonic scale - the key is Gb - let's immediately reduce the complexity by knowing that all notes in this piece will fall on black notes.
4) Rhythm - this is the most complex aspect of the song. Break the piece into quavers (4 in a bar)  instead of counting in crotchets.
5) Coordination: Make sure you know each hand separately in the correct rhythm
before joining the two hands together.
6) Staccato - make it Bouncy: have a bouncy sound for the staccato elements - make sure you have light relaxed wrists and curved fingers on the black notes (no flat fingers)
7) Marcato section - in the bass clef. This needs to be a different and strong character, I get my daughter to play it imagining singing "I'm the Big Bad Wolf" to this particular phrase.

Here's Alan Chan (no relation) on Youtube performing the piece. My observations and improvements of his performance below.
I think Alan plays the piece fairly well with a good tempo, to improve - perhaps more lighter touch, more dynamic contrast, and the rhythm needs to be tighter at the end.

Here's an excellent and faultless  performance of the piece by PianoPalace on Youtube: .


Good luck, it's a tricky piece!