I keep hearing of how much eye-candy the man had during his performances (sparkly pianos with Swarovski Crystal etc. and a matching flamboyount..spelling?...costume)

But how was he when it came to playing the masters of piano music? Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Clementi, Chopin, Rachmaninov...etc?

How does he compare to pianists like Rubinstein, Gould, Horowitz, etc?


Thanks
-JG

He was quite an artist is his own right. Imagine Gould's eccentric playing with Lang-Lang's flair for mannerism with a heaping helping of Elvis' showmanship. He had PIZZAZZ!

I never much liked pizzazz.

Pete the Monk

His interpretations of the classics were often tasteless but competent for sure. I heard him live at Radio City Music Hall (free tickets someone didn't want), and a great deal of the show was bad jokes about being in or out of the closet but he did do his boogie woogie 8/16/32/64 to the bar thing, which was one of the most amazing LH feats of pianism I have ever seen and the end of the "concert" was a 7 to 10 minute Liszt Rhapsody arrangement with orchestra, focusing on the 2nd Rhapsody but including quotes from several others. He brought this to a shattering climax worthy of a great pianist.

He could have been a great pianist, but chose to b a great showman instead. That said pianists often wrongly deride or dismiss his pianistic abilities, which were considerable but overshadowed by the showmanship.

When in Las Vegas visit the Liberace Museum, a fascinating and bizarre glimpse into his life and personality, and one of Chopin's (maybe) pianos and Gershwin's Chickering concert grand are there too.

BTW, about Elvis' showmanship; HE copied Liberace, who designed and bought the gold lame outfits for Elvis and coached him in stage presence and prersentation.

But enough of this...

it is ashamed that he went down the wrong path of "showing off" by what he does and wears instead of showing off what he can do with the ivories (but not overkill Lang Lang showing off).

He certainly carved his own niche. He had something unique to say and succeeded in saying it. Flashy showman? Yes. Dilletante? No.

I wish my brother George were here.

Hey, I'm going to Las Vegas next week! I wasn't planning on it, but now I have to go to the Liberace Museum. And here's a link to the museum site.

http://www.liberace.com/museumBrochure.cfm Click on the Photo Gallery to hear Liberace playing Chopin.

The Nocturne in F- sharp is my favorite nocturne, but I don't like Liberace's interpretation at all. Still what a flamboyant character. Look at those costumes

so generally most people remember him for his flashy shows and skills for playing his music. that means that i guess his classical intrepretations were not on the same level. eh.

someone remind me, how did he die?

Although some consider it debatable, he died of a combination of complications from AIDS and cardiopulmonary disease.

I wouldn't say he was artistically inferior. He posessed the skill to be artistic, he just didn't want to play in the pure classical sense. He chose his styles with the intent to give the Vegas audiences what they wanted, a SHOW. He delivered.

RAZZLE-DAZZLE!

PF

I went to the museum a couple days ago. What a strange little place. I was the youngest person there by at least 30 years. Liberace's costumes are amazing. Elvis' outfits pale in comparison. Took a couple pictures of some pianos. Sorry about the quality. The Pleyel is not one of Chopin's since it was made thirty years after Chopin's death. The other piano is Gershwin's.

If I was there with you I would dare you to play a note on one of those pianos

It was a big dare just taking the pictures. They said no flash photography allowed so I quickly used my cell phone to take the pictures. I think I may have a flash on the phone but don't know how to turn it off so I shot the pics when nobody was looking.
I hope I'm not arrested now that I blabbed this.

Don't be too sure... I bet FBI are on your tail now, they must be monitoring this forum

Yes, there's nothing better for them to do besides spying on some goofy musicians. They'll probably get the CIA to check out my clandestine activities too.