(diaryland) August 05, 2013 - 1:23 p.m.

In Defence of Liberace

Rosie and I saw Behind the Candelabra on Saturday. I really liked the CGI effects to make Michael Douglas look like he was playing the piano. It was pretty cute.

The whole movie seemed to be fully told through one lens: that of Scott. It's based on the book he wrote, I guess, but the whole entire thing seemed to be that he was put upon. I was kinda hoping for more about Liberace's career or something.

Critics seem to be of the opinion Liberace was not all that great at piano, but I don't know about that. While I frickin' hate the cloying stuff he played, I reckon he was on his game mechanically, to the max. I mean, he was mentored by Padarewski a little bit in his early days. This guy was the biggest name in late 19th century piano playing, bro.

I can't say I like what I have heard about Padarewski. Apparently, his playing was somewhat histrionic, but whose wasn't at the time? Style over substance. Even Franz Liszt dabbled in crap tunes that looked super hard from time to time to get chicks' bums on seats. What I'm trying to say is that Liberace was carrying the torch for the non-highbrow school of piano that started waaaaaaaaaaay back. PS he has a costume that suspiciously looks like he stole it from the Who in 1967.

It's just that classical piano is pretty much niche now. It's purists vs. everyone else. In Europe, before the 1910s, it was mainstream. Liberace was just mainstreaming piano, I guess. Now we've got Andre Rieu, which sucks, but he's the 2000s connection to the mainstream.

Speaking of Liszt, I want to learn Lovedream 2. Lovedream 3 is one of those sickly sweet tunes you play to pick up chicks, but Lovedream 2 is pretty happening.