Something for the weekend. Chopin’s Polonaise in A-Flat Major performed by Liberace. It is possible that this is the first music I can recall hearing. I have a distinct memory of being in my crib in 1957 or 1958 and watching Liberace playing the piano on television, and I think he was playing this.
A film biopic of Chopin from 1945, A Song to Remember (1945), is available on You Tube. The film emphasized that Chopin was a Polish Patriot. When he refuses to play for “Tsarist Butchers”, the scene had quite an impact at the time, many Americans being aware of how the Soviets were imposing their rule on Poland in 1945. A fine tribute to Chopin and Poland from the golden age of Hollywood.
Liberace, Władziu Valentino Liberace, was from Wisconsin, his ancestry being Polish and Italian, and Chopin was always a hero of his. His trademark candelabrum came straight from his viewing of A Song to Remember where Chopin is depicted having a candelabrum on top of his piano.
Chopin is one of my favorites. I did not know that Liberace was Polish.
At the very beginning of his professional career, Liberace played bar-room piano in the arcade -basement of the Plankinton Building at the center of downtown Milwaukee. The building still stands, although the arcade is gone, like Liberace.
Side-note: Plankinton was a meat-packer who employed two men who stayed in the business: Swift (Chicago) and Cudahy (Milwaukee.)