I forget which virtuoso it was but apparently he grabbed Dudley by the shoulders and said something like "if you'd only stop mucking about with this acting lark, you'd be a good pianist"
When I die, if there’s a heaven, or at least, an afterlife/alternate universe/different dimension, I hope there is a club called The Establishment where, in the music basement, there is a concert grand piano and dear Dudley performing his heart out - if all this holds true, I’ll be found there!! He is sorely missed. What wit, what boundless talent. How I miss him - thankfully we have RU-vid!
From 3:20 onward Dudley was really giving that right sustain pedal on the piano a brutal stamping - I've seen him before at this point using it, his right foot thumping on it time and time as he played the finale.
I was playing some Pete and Dud comedy for my housemate and it turned out that she worked a Dudley Moore piano concert. She says that all the staff of the venue had been very clearly told not to approach him bother him speak to him ask him to autograph anything -- she's at all of those things anyhow, she says, and he was extremely sweet and generous to her...
I have a note-for-note transcription of this piece of Dudley brilliance! I can *follow* it, yeah, but PLAY it? Huh! Fat chance!! 😉 (So, how many of us heard the "Hernando's Hideaway" reference from The Pyjama Game ?)
A genius indeed - and mercilessly bullied by Peter Cook - which was a shame. Apparently, Dud's dying words were (Astonished): "There is music everywhere!"
Playing flying octaves with such accuracy of delivering comedic timing. Incredible talent, incredible entertainment. Well, at least we have Taylor Swift.
So many geniuses back then. No one would EVER EVER go through all that training, become that good, and decide to make people laugh and stand out doing that too. 10 was funny as hell
So, having thoroughly explored Hitler's affliction, does the second movement finally move on to Goering? What about Himler and Goebbels? We should spare them the same fate...
I was blessed to see him perform with the original cast of "Beyond The Fringe" in London ... he (as were the rest of them) was amazing and very, very funny!!!
The tune is called Colonel boogey, And During the war, The words were Hitler has only got one ball the other is at the Albert Hall ,Himmler has something similar and Goebbels has no balls at all, That is what raises the first laughing,
"Beethoven or similar"? What: like Mozza or Chewpan or Barr-ok? So let's ask what might be going on. Dudley had indeed been an organ scholar; and what he's attempting here is an exercise in Sonata Form (which any first year music student could have tackled) using Beethoven's early 'Pathetique' sonata, yet substituting "Colonel Bogey" as its first subject. It's not genius, and Dudley would - I like to think and hope - never have claimed that it was. One of the things about Dudley Moore's career was that he was probably too modest for his own good. But at least nobody is claiming that this was a Beethoven parody, as is usually the case when this clip resurfaces. What it IS, is amazingly good and offbeat fun. Would post-Millennial audiences have a clue as to what was going on? Let me stop being a music bore - and credit where credit's due. "Pete and Dud" were one of the jewels of my childhood; and if only Dud had been more ready to shake free from Pete when Pete sank, really, into being a drunken bully: well, the latter-day Dud might have shone as he deserved? A gifted musician, yes: a fine comedian and a dear, gentle human being. RIP Dud, indeed. Highly recommended: Pete and Dud in the art gallery. You'll never see a Vernon Ward duck in the same light again. Rare souvenir of a lost and possibly golden age.
What surprises me the most is his body English. I am convinced he has a secret stash of Beethoven videos somewhere and his body English too is in the style of Beethoven or similar.
OMG! The only thing I knew this guy for was that movie where he played a drunk. Fantastic piano! And with an incredible, (un)- disguised sense of humor.
