Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Richard Clayderman

Pianoloverus, thanks for the suggestion. I have one for you, too: lighten UP.

And you should be less of an authoritarian brown nose.

Seriously, it's like I blasphemed or something.

I say whatever I like about performers. Live with it, because it's not going to change.

I think you should have more respect for pianists (even Liberace) especially because you are a beginner. Unfortunately, you don't have this respect and will undoubtedly say "whatever you like." Maybe it will change when you understand more about piano playing and music. You have a lot to learn about piano playing, even from Richard Clayderman.

I don't want to get into trouble but would like to add a comment on what people seem to forget easily on internet.

I personally believe that it is very important when you criticize (the word is neutral) someone, there should be reasons for it. Perhaps you can say so to someone you know well, and had some prior knowledge about your taste or personality. But I sometimes find it annoying when people call a music/ movie trash simply he/she doesn't like it. You may have perfectly good reason to not like him, then say it and try to convince the others. Whether I agree or not I will repect your opinion. Otherwise it will be an empty echo that no one cares.

Therefore your opinion should to be validated, in an internet forum where different people of different culture and age gather. So you will have to be more careful than when you talk to people who know you offline, because your personality can only be only judged by what you say here. You will find it difficult to be accepted especially the language is extreme.

p.s. personal attack not welcomed

Ramel:

I've never heard of that song, "Holding All My Love For You." I went to amazon.com to try to hear it. Rats! There are no sound clips available from the soundtrack cd of the movie "Open Range". I don't know if sheet music is available for the piece of music or not?

If there is no sheet music available and the music isn't that involved - and you just have to have that music to play - you might consider doing the same thing I did with the piano music played by the actress n the Jane Eyre movie (George C. Scott version). I love that piece of music and since no sheet music is available, I wound up tape recording it from the movie on television and then transcribing it myself.

Sorry. Wish I could have helped you out with the sheet music instead.

P.S. The piano music from the Jane Eyre movie is "played" on the piano by the actress in the movie. I searched and searched for the soundtrack of that movie, so I'd have it on lp or cd, but by the time I got around to trying to get the soundtrack-it was out of print. After wanting that soundtrack for the last 25 years, I was overjoyed last year to find it's back in print and bought it. Imagine my chagrin when I found the piano solo was not even on the cd!!!! It's a John Williams movie score and there's tons of orchestral music using the melody, but the main theme song as played solo on piano is not included on the cd.

Moral of the Story: Never assume the piece of music you want that was in a movie is included on the movie sountrack cd -it might not be! Check the liner notes.

Re: my post regarding Kostia. I think maybe that would be better as a new thread. It would be interesting hearing what composers of today other Pianoworld members like. I did a search and did not see that this question had been asked before, so I'm going to bring my post forward.

Jeanne W

Pianoloverus, I have absolutely no regard whatsoever for your opinion as to what I should or should not say. You are WAY out of line, trying to tell other people what they are allowed to type.

You need to ask yourself why you feel entitled to tell another adult what he can or cannot say. Who made you moderator? Are you Liberace's mother or something?

I say what I want, and I let you say what you want. I don't tell other people what to say, because I don't share your amazing arrogance.

Your remarks are uncalled-for, inappropriate, insulting, and unfounded. I can't believe you have the audacity to defend them, and I have no intention of heeding your bizarre advice.

Elfen, you sound like Joe McCarthy. Do you really expect me to have my opinions "validated" by some sort of committee? If I think Richard Clayderman's music is bad, I'll say so. That's what this forum is for.

By the way, who validated YOUR opinion?

TheloniousPunk, sorry, but you're not allowed to have an opinion unless you are more than a "beginner" in music. At least, that's what pianoloverus is implying.

You've missed the point of my posts again. Anyone can say or type whatever they want. But based on your level of pianistic skill and musical understanding at this point I think you should have far more respect for professional pianists and be less prone to criticize them.

Just because you are an adult it doesn't make you knowledgable. It's fine if you you want to post about things like learning to use the pedal for the first time but why you offer opinions about things you know so little about and then try and defiend them so stubbornly.

The Punk can say whatever he wants. It doesn't matter if he's a beginner or not. This whole "can you do it better argument" is of no value at all. I can't make wine, but I know what a good one tastes like.

It's important however,that one not make erroneous assumptions about another's level of competence, intelligence or ability to pass judgement, and publicly pronounce them. Those assumptions skirt the boundaries of politeness if nothing else.

I first heard of Richard Clayderman when living in Germany. I find his music to be pleasant and very easy to listen to; primarily as background music. It's perfect "restaurant music".

That said, if you *really* listen to some of his arrangements, they are quite clever and unlike any I've heard before. I especially like his arrangement of "Over the Rainbow". An arrangement I've never been able to reproduce and actually broke down and tried to buy it. Unfortunately, I cannot find it anywhere.

Derick

I'd like to echo Hans. You don't have to know anything about the golden ratio or the Fibonacci series to appreciate the beautiful sound of a Stradivarius or a whole host of other wonderful things in the world around us.

I dont mind Clayderman!:-) He can live..
*puts away rifle!*

"It's important however,that one not make erroneous assumptions about another's level of competence, intelligence or ability to pass judgement, and publicly pronounce them. Those assumptions skirt the boundaries of politeness if nothing else".

Apple, first of all, I really like the way you choose your words.
But Clayderman decided to be a public figure. He chose to be loved and hated.
He's not the cute little pianoplayer next door.
I don't tell my little causin he's a horrible guitar player because there may be people with more talent.
All "we" do is saying: "His fame is not justified. There are better artists".
Statements like these go along with a certain amount of "rudeness".
But if your name is Richard Clayerman, you're definately asking for it and you are prepared for it as well.

My money is on Pianoloverus being either a cop or a schoolteacher. That domineering attitude is might familiar.

My being an adult does not make me knowledgeable about music. However, it means I am entitled to more respect than I got from you. You are rude, pushy, and arrogant. I deserved better.

Thanks to all who acknowledged that.

As for Liberace, he was an idiot. He took a one-in-a-million gift and flushed it down the toilet because he was greedy and shallow. He could have made a contribution to the arts, but instead he dressed in green feathers and played "Tico Tico" for lonely, deluded women in stretch pants.

On top of that, he sued two newspapers for correctly implying that he was gay, and he took their money when he won, knowing he was wrong. Talented or not, he was a loathsome person.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!

"As for Liberace, he was an idiot"

Mmm....

There is one thing that maybe you should all add in these posts in respect of both Liberace and Clayderman and that is

'IMO'

Does'nt hurt to say it and it would at least validate it to your specific opinions.

To say the above is a little foolish imo as you are missing something about Liberace . His one in a million 'gift' as you put it was being , arguably, a comic entertainer who used the piano as his sidekick. He was loved by millions and certainly found his niche . I don't think he'd agree that he 'flushed his gift down the toilet'

Ask the tens of thousands that queued up to pay him his millions

Check out his fame and fortune to see if he felt he enjoyed his life to the full. I suspect you will find he did

In respect of his pianism from what I have heard ( which to be honest is not a lot) he could more than hold his own in well known virtuosic pieces
so although he was no Ashkenazy or Brendel he certainly had a quality secure technique ( If any one reading this knows of any more about him then maybe it would be informative to find out a bit more )

Clayderman I know little of and have to say I find his music difficult to listen to BUT again he can certainly play a bit and for both men one has to respect that fact alone.

One thing both men had /have is immense balls ( not that I have seen them ! ) to carve out a career in such a competitive world playing a musical instrument is not easy and again I suspect that both men although not at the very top of their tree instrumentally must have had some agonies to ebndure wholst they were strugglers early on.

What does happen to all the players who are not quite on the top tier? Many give it up - many settle for a different life . Not these two - they went for something different and although maybe not to the purists liking you cannot argue they have been incredibly successful and deserve full respect from us 'other' pianists

Why should Liberace have made a "contribution to the arts" when he maybe saw his talents could take him in a much more lucrative and unique path?

I'd argue he did make a contribution as such.

I think earlier in this thread I saw that Clayderman had inspired someone to learn the instrument .....that's no bad thing is it so he can't be that much of a fool can he ?

Well did not take too long :

'Liberace was an international superstar dating back to the early 1950s. He averaged $5 million a year in income for more than 35 years. The 1978 Guinness Book of World Records identified Liberace as the world's highest paid musician.'

'He was born Wladziu Valentino Liberace in a Milwaukee suburb in 1919 to poor parents. He was classically trained on the piano as a youth and made his concert debut as a soloist at age 11. As a teenager during the depression, he played piano in speakeasies to make money for his family.'

In 1940, Liberace moved to New York and scrounged for small-time nightclub gigs. His charm and piano playing paid off, and within seven years he was touring the hotel clubs. Liberace's story might have fizzled right there, but he got in early on two gold mines--Las Vegas and TV.

In the late 1940s he began playing extended runs in Las Vegas, which was just becoming an entertainment and gambling center. He would appear at the casinos in Vegas regularly for the rest of his life. And as Vegas grew, so did Liberace's fame and his paychecks.'

So, clearly he could play and obviously was a gifted young prodigy

Here' some more pretty funny too

'Liberace's musical repertoire included a unique mix of classical, boogie woogie, movie themes, cocktail jazz, and sentimental ballads. He knew thousands of songs and could play almost any request from the audience.

He freely edited long classical pieces down to four to six minutes. "I took out the boring parts," he quipped. "I know just how many notes my audience will stand for. If there's any time left over, I fill in with a lot of runs up and down the scale."

This approach enraged serious music critics, who were mostly male. They wrote vicious reviews of Liberace's music, particularly in the beginning of his career.

For instance, in 1956 a British tabloid called Liberace a "deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavored, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love." In case his position wasn't perfectly clear, the writer concluded that Liberace was "the biggest sentimental vomit of all time."

Liberace's pat response was, "I cried all the way to the bank." (However, Liberace did take that British tabloid and its writer to court for slander, where he won a modest settlement.)

By the end of his career, the critics realized that criticizing Liberace was a fruitless endeavor. The women loved him anyway, and Liberace just didn't care. He was too busy raking in the dough.

He also amended his response the criticism with this zinger: "Remember that bank I used to cry all the way to?" (Pause, smile, wink.) "I bought it." '

All from

http://www.missioncreep.com/mw/liberace.html

No mug was old 'Libbers'