Classical Gas (Victor Borge)

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Product:	Victor Borge
Date:	02/03/01 (56 review reads)
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Advantages: Exercises the chuckle muscles

Disadvantages: None

I doubt if anyone under the age of thirty or maybe even forty has heard of the concert pianist and comic genius called Victor Borge. That is their loss because here was truly great man who combined classical piano music with humour. Sadly he died a few weeks ago leaving his wife and five children but his memory and his genius lives on in a handful of records.

Victor was born in Copenhagen between the two great world wars and at the age of three his mother taught him to play the piano. He had a natural flair for the instrument and music in general so that at the age of ten he was awarded scholarships in Berlin, Vienna and his hometown. He became a professional pianist at thirteen and played with some of the most important orchestras of the day. It was during one such concert that his propensity for humour came to the fore whilst playing Rachmaninoff’s concert No. 2 for piano and orchestra. His eloquent eyebrows raised and lowered to the beat of the music and that had the audience sniggering into their fans and hands with the occasional explosion of outright laughter. The conductor, unnerved by such unheard of goings on, accelerated the beat and the orchestra got itself ahead of Victor. Unabashed and in the middle of an unaccompanied cadenza, Victor stopped playing, calmly arose from the piano, walked to the conductor’s rostrum and turned the score back three pages. He gravely bowed to the orchestra, and the bemused conductor and giving the audience a broad wink resumed his place and continued playing. His true destination in life was set from that moment and he became one of the most popular performers on stage, screen and radio.

His antics of attacking the Nazis got him labelled as Germany’s public enemy number one and in 1940 he had to flee Denmark to avoid being arrested and sent to who knows where. It is fortunate for the world and us that he did escape; otherwise we would have been much the poorer had he been interned.
r>Victor Borge arrived in the United States unable to speak a word of English and even with his piano, conducting and composing skills he spent the first year in near starvation. It wasn’t until he got to Hollywood that he started to get noticed after playing at parties and social gatherings. This lead to him to getting a job with Bing Crosby to act as the warm up act for the studio audiences for the crooner’s radio shows. He became an instant hit with the American public and stayed not just as a warm up man but as part of the show for over a year.

Victor starred in his own shows and went on tour all over the States and Canada as a concert artist and comedian taking time out to perform at nightclubs and hotels including the Waldorf-Astoria. His forays into England and Europe were few and far between but one such concert at the London Palladium was a huge success.

With the new fangled TV becoming more popular Victor’s popularity was assured as he enchanted audiences with his skill as a musician and tickled their laughter buds with his humour. Although no two concerts were alike they always included one or two of his specialities.

He would tinkle the tune Happy Birthday and invite the audience to name their favourite composers and proceed to play the tune, as those composers would have composed it. A truly magical feat. One of his greatest comedy acts was when he invented “phonetic punctuation”. He attributed sounds to punctuation marks and then read out a short story that he had written to illustrate what it would be like if we too used sounds to punctuate our sentences as we spoke to each other as we do when we read and or write. It is impossible to describe the result, as it must be heard to be appreciated. I mean how can you describe a sound.

A huge favourite of mine is Victor Borge’s “phonetic inflation” where words that contain a number are increase by one. So that ‘tennis&
#8217; becomes ‘elevennis’, ‘wonderful’ becomes ‘twoderful’, ‘before’ becomes ‘befive’ and ‘create’ becomes ‘crenine’ and so forth, er fifth. Here again he reads out a specially written story to demonstrate the result. I defy even the glummest person in the world to keep a straight face whilst listening to his phonetic inventions.

Apart from his two forays into ‘improving’ the English language most of his concerts were ad libbed and that is the hallmark of a true comic genius.

We are fortunate that a few of his concerts were recorded and on one such recording where Victor had set aside his funny hat to play ‘seriously’ you can still hear the odd muted chuckle from the audience in response to something visual on stage. You see Victor Borge just couldn’t help but make people laugh even in moments of seriousness.

I only know of five vinyl LP’s and one vinyl EP which is dedicated to phonetic punctuation and A Mozart Opera. Whether they have been put onto CD or not I don’t know but they should be.

Victor Borge Caught In The Act on Phillips BBL 7118 also on CBS ALD 6110 where amongst other gems like phonetic punctuation is the famous Mozart Opera. This is an opera where Victor sings all the parts that have the audience roaring with laughter.

Comedy In Music on CBS ALD 6074. Speaks for itself.

Borge’s Back on MGM C 897. As good as ever.

Victor Borge Plays and Conducts Concert Favourites on CBC ALD 6337 on which he demonstrates his skills at the piano, with the baton and pencil in composition. Ending with the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata the listener’s tears of appreciation will undoubtedly be sprinkled with a tear or two of laughter.

The Adventures of Piccolo, Saxie and Company on CBS ALD 6268 is a ‘serious’ attempt to explain the evolution of the symph
ony orchestra to children and parents alike. And oh yes there is still a hint of humour here and there. He just can’t help it.