Liberace, Borge, and Stieff but not together

[D.L. Bullock]

To kill three birds with one email.

Stieff pianos in any form are simply awesome.  I would put your Stieff
upright fully restored and WITH THE ORIGINAL SOUNDBOARD RECROWNED up against
any major brand grand under 7ft that I have seen in the last 20 years.  It
would beat the sharps off of them hands down.  If you want it to sound
merely as good as a major brand grand then replace the soundboard and it
will still probably stand up.

Liberace and Victor Borge were cut from the same cloth in many ways.  Both
were trained in the classical piano school after Theodore Leschetitzky by
being students of students.  This lineage included most of the finest most
flamboyant pianists of the 20th century.  They then went similar but
different ways.  Victor made up some good lines and schtick and clowned
around.  I have records of his piano bench comedy on 78 records from the
1940's.  If you went to one of his last performances before his death you
will notice it was 99.9% word for word from his 50 year old records.  He did
the same schtick for Sesame Street and the Muppet Show and all the
television performances he did.  For whatever reason he never got any new
material.  He took comedy and a little good music to the masses.
Unfortunately, near the end the masses did not know what he was talking
about when he mentioned certain classical music.  The audiences knew all
about it in the '40's because it was everywhere.

Liberace, on the other hand wanted to proselytize the gospel of good music
to the masses.  He studied and became an awesome technician with even
greater musical sense.  I personally believe he was influenced by the
reproducing piano rolls because his renditions of classical pieces mirror
those by Paderewski, Hoffmann, and others.  He also must have heard many of
the popular Ampico rolls because of the way he played many of the popular
things early on. In the 1950's he was put on television in his plain black
tuxedo and simple candelabra and played heavy duty classical music.  He was
very popular but his popularity soared when he played popular tunes as well
as the heavy pieces.  He responded to his audience and found that the more
fun he put into his performances with flashy pianism, fast playing, flying
hands, a sequin here and there, the more people would attend his shows.  He
spent the next several decades trying to outdo himself which was no small
feat.  One could describe his performances as giving the audience MORE,
MORE, MORE.  He succeeded in becoming one of, if not THE wealthiest concert
pianist in the world as well as one of the largest draws of the Vegas
headliners.

I don't know of any female in my family that did not turn to jelly listening
to him.  My grandmother used to say, "He may be a big sissy but he sure can
play that piano."  I may have first begun taking piano because of how much
everyone loved his playing.  Even my tone deaf father loved his playing.

D.L. Bullock
www.thepianoworld.com
St. Louis