Victor Borge was a wonderful comedian and musician. Mr. Borge was born on January 3, 1909 and passed away on December 23, 2000.
He was born in Denmark. His parents were both musicians. His father was a violist and his mother was a pianist. Victor Borge began piano lessons when he was two years old.
During World War II, he had to escape his country and he fled to the United States. When he arrived, he had $20 and he had to pay $3 for customs! He did not know any English, but learned a lot by watching movies. He soon began to perform and he developed his musical jokes.
You can find out more about his life here.
Victor Borge was a very talented pianist. He liked to make a joke where he pretended to get "distracted" while he was playing a long piece. He would suddenly start talking about something silly or else he would play something that reminded him of another song (often a popular song) and he would begin to play that song instead!
Here is a video of Mr. Borge playing with Rowlfe the Dog on the Muppet Show. They are playing the Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2 by Franz Liszt.
Here is another video clip in which Victor Borge is playing a duet with another pianist, but he adds other songs (like "Oh My Darlin' Clementine" and "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow") and then starts changing the key so that the other guy can't figure out what notes to play!
Want to hear the real pieces? Click on the links below.
Alice Sara Ott performs Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
Lang Lang performs Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1
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