@@fatitankeris6327 That person was Liberace, famous for having a candelabra always on his instrument and a stringed orchestra in his back pocket. Bach's "Gigue" was a dance movement so why is he playing like a lament? Because in the later20th century began a lot of primary research into what the music actually was, including the titles. For example, the "Gigue" is a dance, how do we know? It's name is related to the Germanic /English word, "jig," a form of short dance.
@@meeeka Bach's "Gigue Fugue" BMV 577 was composed for the organ. The contrapuntal lines, of which three are going at once, require, IMHO, multiple manuals with one being on pedal board to really bring out the theme in the bass. Liberace is trying to infuse some type of saccharine-like sentimentality to the music when this piece does not lend itself to that.
Indeed, and in this instance, something is drifting horribly in and out of tune, esp on the first piece. I wonder if the backing is on tape and there is some variation in speed. I'd much rather have listened to Librace playing unaccompanied the backing IMO spoils it.
Actually, Steinway pianos (as with all other pianos) have degraded in quality since World War II, so if that trend continues, pianos 500 years in the future will sound so garbagey that nobody will play them as anything more than a grotesque sound effect for select purposes, rather than a proper solo instrument :D
@@yoshi_drinks_tea No, planned obsolescence would be if pianos broke after merely 10 or 20 years of use. Anyway, it's pretty obvious to think that a piano wouldn't last very long on its own--it needs to be tuned with fair frequency, and quite often requires minor work for the action and hammers. Rather, what i was saying was that the general quality of a piano (even a piano brand new, or maintained in perfect condition) has declined. So i meant to say that a brand new piano in 2523 would sound like garbage the moment it came out of the factory. And this very well might not be the case, somebody might come up with the good sense to do something to restore the standards of piano building, or even to make them better than ever before. I was only speaking about the instance if this trend continues. By the way, i drink tea too :)
But he is wrong in a lot. Mozart compose for both - harpsichord and also piano, sometimes he didnt specify the instrument. The spinet is not a smaller piano, but smaller harpsichord. And Chopin used piano of his era (in saloons he had smaller types of grand pianos). It's not essential, who were speaking on this video, more important is knowledge :)
When we were kids mom would chase us out of the house or upstairs for the half hour when he came on TV so she could vege out on the sofa to beautiful piano music. It was almost a call to leave or change the channel to one of two others when that candelabra came in view. Most TV personalities were factious and over acted. It's gettin that way now in Public Radio with the likes of Fred Child.
there is a plenty of music in nature as well from birds singing to the wind blowing and other sounds you normally don't hear in an urban areas . but I get what your'e saying
I enjoy that he really made an effort to play period pieces to really immerse you in the time, and context of the instrument. You can hear the remnants of the harpsichord in the early piano, and it actually gives it a very beautiful bright texture
For everyone wondering: 16:57 is Bach’s Gigue Partita No. 1 in B-Flat Major, though I much prefer how Liberace plays it here than some of the other interpretations I’ve heard so far on YT. There’s a certain haunting quality to it that I enjoy, perhaps due to the slow tempo and recording quality at the time
or perhaps due to an actual orchestra accompanying him. his tempo is not anywhere close to what gigue would have been for bach, btw, and i can't stand it
I would have preferred to hear the clavichord unadorned. Also, I suspect the use of equal temperament might have been anachronistic here, but I’d prefer it to whatever he is using here.
@@erikpnoman I feel that in a historical depiction of period instruments, anachronistic depictions of tuning (i.e. equal temperament) just wouldn't work.
Another interesting point - the felt interposing system never completely went away. On many modern uprights, the middle "practice" pedal adds a very similar layer of felt between the hammers and strings, and while it hasn't really seen adoption in the classical world, I have heard the muted effect in some modern jazz. Wonderful video!
25:10 The reason concert piano's are placed sideways to the audience these days (always to the players right) is so the open soundboard will reflect sound directly toward the auditorium, essential at large concert halls.
How is this the best video on the history of Pianos I could find on RU-vid... It was a great video but I'm just surprised nobody else has really made a super high quality video about it yet.
Wrong at 37:14 when the narrator states the harpsichord and clavichord plucks the string. The harpsichord does pluck the string but the clavichord has brass tangents that STRIKE the strings like a piano.
A double keyboard harpsichord with 2 8 stops, a 4 stop and a coupler, makes a mighty sound! The feeling of power, only thing with more power is a massive organ.
the “Mozart” piano is beautiful - incredible sound. i love the harpsichord. i had no idea how the piano had evolved. fascinating - thank you much. :) 🌷🌱🌼 you played the Mozart beautifully ~~~ Liberace was quite a complicated person - have been accidentally finding videos of his work. it seems Jack Benny liked him a lot. just look at his face playing the first piece - it’s beatific ~~~ listening to him playing these pieces on the different keyboards is amazing. you really see into his soul. the last videos are really interesting, too. love this whole video :) 🎹🎼🌷🌱🕊
He didnt make this presentation, he basically stole the video, no credits, the original is by a channel called BaroqueBand. Learn, dont fall into tricks.
Great compilation! You know what I am surprised doesn’t seem to exist? Documentary that puts the history of the wonderful instruments seen here with the history of other categories of keyboard instruments, such as the pipe organ (which apparently dates back thousands of years) all the way to the synthesizer…
I’ve always heard that the reason the clavichord outlived the harpsichord was that it was very popular organist to use as a practice instrument until it could be replaced with reed organs in the 1890s then electrics in the mid 1900s
I'm always going to remember the Addam's Family when Gomez and Motricia gave their harpsichord to a museum and you see Lurch sitting with Huge Tears where the harpsichord once sat.
Liberace was a prodigy! I grew up with the glitz but when you get older you realise the talent! A great insert into this very educational video. Well done..
I vaguely remember the '60s Batman episode where Liberace played a guest villian that bedazzled Aunt Harriet with his music. I remember Victor Borge better from the many PBS appeals in the 90's that ran his comedic performances.
That guy in the old video had all the Amazing instruments. A standing up clavichord, a double manual harpsichord, a SQAURE GRAND, and freaking grand piano Liszt played! Wtf
During my life I owned few musical instruments. I was brought up with Petroff upright of my father, the opera singer. Later in my early twenties I got a Winner made Grand
What a treatise and my mentor of the piano Liberace. I am currently 77 and I grew up with his music inspiring me as I learned. I have been so fortunate to have taught it for more years than I can count. Music in so many forms has been my companion throughout my life.
I would just love to have a clavichord, but because there is basically no demand for them and basically nobody makes them anymore (and certainly no company mass produces them), they're extremely expensive and hard to find despite being such primitive musical technology.
Liberace's music "must be served with all the available tricks, as loud as possible, as soft as possible, and as sentimental as possible. It's almost all showmanship topped by whipped cream and cherries."
Recently heard Balint Karosi playing Bach on the pedal clavichord on a RU-vid video. Your video answered my question about where that instrument fit in the development of the piano. From Chicago. U.S.A.
I enjoyed and appreciated the David Schrader segment ,1st 16 minutes. The Liberace segment is interesting , but certainly belongs by itself, and deserves a few corrections of fact. The other segments are such oversimplified, and ramshackle compendiums, they really don't belong very much anywhere, but certainly not with a history of keyboard instruments. By the way electronic instruments (synthesizers) make sounds with loudspeakers and amplifiers, if connected to them, and use electronics and analogue or digital synthesis, to make electronic waveforms, only singing Tesla coils make music WITH electricity !
The fellow demonstrating pedals needs to do a little research. The left piano on most grands is called the Unacorda pedal. It shifts the entire keyboard, hammers and action so that the hammers strike fewer strings on each note. The middle pedal on most grands is the Sostenuto pedal which sustains only the notes already being held open when the pedal is depressed. That allows you to sustain any notes you hold down - such as the bass notes, for example - while playing all the other notes dry, with dampers. While holding the Sostenuto pedal, you can still use the Sustain Pedal as you would normally, but those notes being held open by the Sostenuto will sustain until the middle pedal is released. Of course, everyone knows the Sustain pedal - the one on the right. It lifts the felt dampers off the strings and allows them to ring as long as the pedal is held down. Some call it the “LOUD” pedal, because all those strings sustaining can build up the sound pretty loud. But its name is the Sustain Pedal. When you see the words “without dampers” or “senza sordino”, it means to push down the pedals and let the strings ring without dampers that normally silence each string. On an upright piano the pedals are, from the left side, the “soft” pedal (usually moves the hammer action closer to the strings so it can’t be struck as loud), the half-sustain which only sustains bass notes below C#3, and the sustain which works like any other sustain - raising the dampers off the strings. But when you see them referenced in the sheet music itself, they are named (left to right) Unacorda, Sostenuto, and Sustain.
around 10:10, the moderator felt screen "never on English pianos" ... had a British-made Challen upright home piano in the 1970s, which was probably made in the 1950s if not earlier (quite old but still in relatively good condition anyway) which had 3 pedals: 1. the sustain controller on the right, 2. the moderator pedal in the middle, and 3. the left one, don't know what it's called, which reduced the distance between the hammers and the strings, maybe halved it, which made it more suitable for playing at a lower volume ... (or good for playing in pizzicato style perhaps? for 'weaker' fingers?) there was also a little extra cut in the bottom front wood panel for the middle / moderator pedal that let it be locked by pushing it down and moving it to either the left or right (can't remember which direction?) so it would be held in that little cut without having to keep it pushed by your foot, until you moved it back and out so it would go back up by itself to release the moderator felt screen ... (great instruments those English Challen pianos btw! i also happened to play with a royal model in some school later, and it was just as good in that both models i played with, had the softest keys i have ever seen on any piano: very comfortable to push down with just a little force ...) btw, this is a really fine video here ... why not add some closeup shots of small detail such as the harpsicord's pluck for example?
@@MERCEDES-BENZS600GUARD_V12 dunno what "half-blow" means here but some pianos' left pedal works as half-sustain (damper) so to say ... mine wasn't like that ...
@@dadautube that's what the very left pedal on upright pianos is calld the half-blow pedal. It as you said reduces the distance between the hammers and, strings for softer playing🎹🎶
@@dadautube as for the half sustain damper I think you're refering to the sostenuto pedal mostly found on grand pianos. The only upright piano I can think of that has a sostenuto pedal is the Kawai K800🎹🎶
Interesting but the surprise artist, playing by ear, was just beautiful. The harpsichord has the most beautiful sound of any instrument but many pieces such as Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto’s, which I have on CD, are more than likely played on a piano which is a shame.
Is the first instrument Liberace was playing really a clavichord? Looks and sounds more like a spinet (type of harpsichord) to me, especially if you look at what little they show of the action.
No, no you don't go from an early classical piano to Steinway as "the" modern piano. There was a lot going on in the middle, Erard, Broadwood, and Chickering in the US... long before Steinway.
Thanks GOD, I tried (my gardening coach&tutor) Christina&Garry's Clavichord(but with the reversed darker colour) when I was studying at Brockwood Park, Hampshire, UK. Thank you for sharing this video I hope you won't mind if I share it through my RolandIndonesia.news helping the young keybordists aware of musical instruments history, cheers!). I have been working for the main musical distributor company since early 1990 and for me, learning for a life time never stops. By the way, I didn't notice any of those Clavichordist playing the vibrato function on the keys - did I? I visited the piano museum in Hamamatsu not far from Roland's factory, go there and you will enJoy it, too! God bless you Luis!
20:05 Thank you Luis - very interesting and informative. Recently started learning how to play keyboard (using my trusty Yamaha PSR-73; old hat, I know but still great, plus Rondo Alla Turca is my own piano Holy Grail - might be able to do a good rendition in about 70 years or so). Never considered/thought about the development/history of the piano until now. Plus kudos for your own keyboard skills. Nice one Sir - much appreciated.
In fact, Liberace's video seems to contain almost nothing but misinformation. (From my understanding, he seems to have gotten the part about Liszt right.)
