I worked with him on a Carnival cruise ship back in 1990-91. He lived on the ship with his wife (Miss America 1947!! I kid you not!). He was a very nice man who spoke 7 or 8 languages. I spoke with him in French mostly and his French was excellent. We always had a blast playing his show as it was a complete clown fest on the bandstand which he encouraged! He was great even then and everyone loved him.
Daniel Seguin That is so amazing, thanks for sharing. It's so weird how small the world is and how whenever you get older you see people ya knew on T.V.
Thats amazing Are there some other performances by him on on RU-vid or somewhere else? Cause for me it seems as if this one would be the only in the entire Internet haha
The guy is a genius. Considering all this "horsing around" amazingly in tune, while holding the steady beat. It takes a great talent to make such an effortless spoof of a basically fairly difficult piece (to play right ;-). Brings to mind Keaton, Chaplin or Grock... This comes not form an amateur, have been international musician for seventy years.
From the Baron's promotional material: "Baron Buika Van Balthazar, born of Noble Parents in Budapest, left Hungary at the age of three and was raised in Switzerland. Coming from generations of violinists, he gave his first concert at eight as a soloist with the Symphony Orchestra of Berne, Switzerland. Linguist, gourmet cook and painter, he plays all instruments except the trombone. Baron Buika also is a composer, arranger and conductor, and he records for Columbia Records. He received his Virtuosity Diploma at the Conservatory of Music in Vianna, and also has studied at the conservatory in Berne, Switzerland. Baron Buika was a concert violinist for several years in Europe, but after coming to America, he switched to "commercial" show business, making people happy with his unique show of music and humor. The Baron's many awards are proof that he is considered by European and American critics as one of the world's greatest technicians of the violin. His permanent address is Spain on the southernmost coast of the Costa Del Sol, where he lives in a lovely old castle with his wife, one son and three grandchildren, and breeds Arabian horses.""
I'm just a RU-vid commenter and I don't play the violin, but after watching this on loop for like an hour I'm pretty confident this is real. The main thing that convinced me was 0:28 - during that transition you can see he doesn't quite have it for a couple moments, and you can hear in the audio that it sounds a little quiet and awkward before he gets back on track. If it was a recording, it would sound correct right away. Plus, if you think about a performer working hours and hours to practice how to play this piece like that, none of what he does is really that out of the realm of possibility. Incredible impressive no doubt, it's some god-tier stuff, but I don't think it would need to be fake
Hmmm...At first viewing this show of musical acrobatics while performing those difficult Hungarian violin pieces perfectly without missing a note and staying with that blistering tempo is more than impressive. Upon second glance though, me thinks this entertainer was dubbed including the orchestra. Any other videos of Baron Buika performing? I couldn't find any.
@Tony Green It doesn't take a genius to see that at least he knows the principles of playing I played a few instruments in my life - not a violin though, but electric guitar, where the basic principles of left hand work are almost the same, the absence of frets, different arm position and strings tuned in 5th not 4th being the only difference. And I see he nails the fingering. Bowing seems legit too. No doubt he plays violin in general and does it good. The only problem to make this performance real would be developing the strength and flexibility to maintain those outlandish playing positions. How do you think - would it be a big problem for a guy who basically was making a living by being a show off?
I understand your skepticism, but no, he was for real. There are other recordings of his cruise ship days, many years later, but he could still play. Had a great sense of humor!
Whoooaaaaa !! I think, he is actually playing re-tuned open strings on the violin under his chin ! Can someone teach me the trick of making the violin turn around the bow ?? :-)
I wouldn't recommend this, but assume that he put the bow under the strings between the bridge and the fingerboard so the violin would stay close to the bow.
This man is incredibly talented and the genuine article of a time we may never see again. And I think Lindsey Stirling is also a talented musician, and doesn't need to measure up to the standards of anyone to bring happiness and joy to other people.
@14Shelling13 His bow came off the string before the first piece ended, so he might be faking. I first I thought it might’ve been bad syncing but his bow stroke was too quick to match the longer note in the audio. I was surprised when Brett and Eddy didn’t mention it.
