Victor Borge Live!

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Free Music Notes for Victor Borge Live!

Free Music Review: An Experience Not To Be Missed
Hit: 5 Stars

Victor Borge didn't know any English when he arrived in the USA and thus appreciated all the silliness of the language as he was learning it - this really shows through in his patter from this concert recording.

The CD begins with the "Comedy In Music" concerts he did in the 50s. Here, it is possible to understand the lively wit and sense of timing he had throughout his life as he calmly sends classical music up. He begins with a "request number" and just as quickly dispenses with it before a wonderful discourse on the merits of an intermission ("We're going to have an intermission of one and a half hours tonight"). After much discussion on such topics as Rachmaninov's domestic situation; why his second piano concerto was written in 4 flats; the number of pedals on a grand piano and so on, we are ready for him to play some music.

Following the "excerpts from Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto" (I won't give away the punchline), he then admonishes an audience member for being late before launching into the "variations on a theme" routine. Most of this sequence can be understood by people with little classical music knowledge, although some of the more obscure composers are not ones I'm familiar with.

Following this, he then launches into two "medley" routines. The first one (Comedy In Music Part 2) derives a lot of the humor from the arguments he has with the audience ("Don't you know it? If you don't, why should I?") about the tunes. The second one (3 Borge Favorites) is punctuated with Borge's silly observations about the music.

Borge then turns his hand to the opera by sending up Mozart in his hilarious "Mozart Opera". These are followed by "Family Background", a riotous account of the Borge family history (it is neccessary to remember that "Borge" was Victor's original first name in order to get one of the jokes) and "Phonetic Punctuation". The less said about the Punctuation the better - as it would spoil the listening pleasure.

In short, if you enjoy seeing how the language can be misused, this is the album to get. The jokes will never get old, they'll just seem cleverer. After all, it's not every day you have "Brahms" spelled backwards for you.

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