Ever seen Victor Borge on the recorder?

Ever seen Victor Borge on the recorder?

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norman lebrecht

July 13, 2019

Or watched Michala Petri corpse in mid-recital?

You have now…

Has there ever been a funnier Dane since Hamlet?

 

Comments

  • fflambeau says:

    Hilarious. Not only was he a terrific comedian, he plays the piano well. And looked good at 80 (he lived to 91).

  • Marj says:

    The best laugh Ive had in ages. He is just amazing.

  • Musician says:

    Hilarious! Thanks for posting.

  • Petros Linardos says:

    As musical as it is witty: this clip made my day. Thank you.

  • Cubs Fan says:

    It’s sad, but we’ll never see the likes of Borge again. He, Anna Russell, PDQ Bach and Gerard Hoffnung were from an era when audiences were sophisticated enough to get the humor. Some of their material would today be seen as politically incorrect. Glad they were recorded.

    • Petros Linardos says:

      I agree only partly.

      Political correctness could be the primary reason why Monty Python couldn’t have taken off today. On the other hand, a lot of Borje’s humor was harmless.

      What could be extremely hard to find today is musician’s with Borje’s natural talent for musical improvisation.

      Moreover, the more refined an audience’s sense of musical styles, the better they would appreciate a lot of Borje’s musical humor. An example of this is the “minute waltz.”

      https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x35g7k8

      Beyond Borje, another example in the same vein is Dudley Moore’s Beethovenesque improvisation on the theme from “Bridge over the River Kwai”

      https://youtu.be/GazlqD4mLvw

  • Hokland says:

    Try his four-hand piano version of the 2nd Rhapsody by Liszt with Amalie Malling – at the end of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f0hVP9e3hI. Nothing was arranged before, especially not the pinching! This was his 80th anniversary concert, where he also played with Petri.

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