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120859bk Borge:MASTER BOOK 3+3 NEW 17/11/07 9:49 PM Page 2 1. Bizet’s Carmen 3:16 7. Unstarted Symphony 2:43 The Naxos Historical labels aim to make available the greatest recordings of the history of recorded (Victor Borge) (Victor Borge) music, in the best and truest sound that contemporary technology can provide. To achieve this aim, Columbia 38181, mx HCO 3012-1 Narration with piano accompaniment Naxos has engaged a number of respected restorers who have the dedication, skill and experience Recorded 20 December 1947, Hollywood Columbia 38181, mx HCO 3013-1 to produce restorations that have set new standards in the field of historical recordings. 2. Borge On Inspiration 4:05 Recorded 20 December 1947, Hollywood (Victor Borge) 8. Happy Birthday 16:03 Also available from Naxos Nostalgia … With Bing Crosby & Ken Carpenter (Victor Borge) Kraft Music Hall broadcast Columbia CL 554, mx XLP 31303 Recorded 12 March 1942, Hollywood Recorded February 1953, Boston 3. Clair de lune 3:23 9. Warsaw Concerto 5:15 (Claude Debussy) (Richard Addinsell) Piano solo Columbia CL 554, mx XLP 31304 Columbia 38184, mx HCO 3019-1 Recorded February 1953, Boston Recorded 23 December 1947, Hollywood 10. Phonetic Punctuation 5:53 4. Inflation Language 3:15 (Victor Borge) (Victor Borge) Columbia CL 646, mx XLP 34918 Columbia 38183, mx HCO 3017-1 Recorded February 1953, Boston Recorded 22 December 1947, Hollywood 11. A Mozart Opera By Borge 9:10 8.120834 8.120836 8.120837 5. A Lesson In Composition: The Blue (Victor Borge) Serenade 8:39 Columbia CL 646, mx XLP 34917 (Victor Borge) Recorded February 1953, Boston With Bing Crosby, Mary Martin, Ken Carpenter & John Scott Trotter’s Orchestra Transfers & Production: David Lennick Kraft Music Hall broadcast Digital Restoration: Alan Bunting Recorded 29 January 1942, Hollywood 6. The Blue Serenade (Complete Version) 3:08 (Victor Borge) C Piano solo with Paul Baron’s Orchestra Columbia 36912, mx CO 34675 8.120844 8.120858 8.120860 M Recorded 9 May 1945, New York These titles are not for retail sale in the USA Y 5 8.120859 6 8.120859 K 120859bk Borge:MASTER BOOK 3+3 NEW 17/11/07 9:49 PM Page 1 musical comedian and starred in as many as By 1946, he launched The Victor Borge critics to refer to him as one of the world’s delighted audiences everywhere. VICTOR BORGE Unstarted Symphony four Danish films in one year. His popularity as Show on NBC and it was over the next few great clowns. In his later years, he often appeared as a Original 1942–1953 Recordings a performer grew rapidly, but so did his acid years that many of his signature pieces heard He would fall off the piano bench, play guest conductor with some of the world’s great tongue and as the Nazis became more on this recording were created. chords with his backside and generally create symphony orchestras, bringing him back to his It’s easy to tell the two most famous Danes in He was born Borge Rosenbaum in powerful, he made it very clear what he Inflation Language was one of his an atmosphere of controlled pandemonium roots. showbusiness history apart: Hamlet was the Copenhagen, Denmark on 3 January 1909, the thought of them. wittiest, a verbal tour de force about forcing up that audiences found irresistible. He died peacefully in his home in melancholy one and Victor Borge definitely son of musicians Bernhard and Frederikke ‘What is the difference between a dog and a the values of numbers that appear in everyday Borge finally assembled his ‘Greatest Hits’ Greenwich, Connecticut on 23 December wasn’t. Rosenbaum. His father played violin in the Nazi?’ he used to ask and then provide the speech, with ‘Once upon a time’ becoming into an evening called Comedy In Music which 2000, having just returned from yet another The man frequently referred to as ‘The Royal Danish Philharmonic Orchestra for 35 answer. ‘A Nazi lifts its arm.’ ‘Twice upon a time’ and – most memorably – started touring America early in 1953. Some of successful concert tour. Clown Prince of Denmark’ was an incredibly years and one wonders if the paternal career After the German invasion of Denmark in ‘Tea For Two’ turning into ‘Tea Five Three’. the selections on this disc are from the Boston If you want to sample both sides of Borge – skilled pianist who also happened to be a inspired the later filial joke: ‘The difference 1940, Borge found himself near the top of the He also learned the knack of delivering a run in February of that year. the serious artist and the jester – then listen to highly gifted comedian. between a violin and a viola is that a viola Nazi Enemies List and he left his homeland just Reader’s Digest Condensed Books version of He finally brought his masterwork to his exquisite recording of Debussy’s Clair de Although his period of greatest popularity burns longer.’ in time, sailing on the U.S.S. American Legion, the world’s great opera, like the three-minute- Broadway, where it ran for 849 performances at Lune, made in 1947. in North America was probably during the By the age of three, young Borge was taking the last passenger ship to leave Europe. and-fifteen second version of Bizet’s Carmen the Golden Theatre, which remains a record for And right after that, recall his famous decade in which these recordings were made piano lessons and soon after, he revealed the When he arrived in America, Borge was that begins this recording. a one-man show. comment: “I only know two pieces of music. (1942-1953), his career continued successfully combination of musical angel and comic devil broke and spoke not a word of English. He Perhaps his greatest triumph was Phonetic From then on, Borge found a groove that One of them is ‘Clair de Lune’ and the other for nearly another half century and he was still that he would delight in for the rest of his life. assumed the stage name of Victor Borge, Punctuation, in which he provided deliciously he would work the rest of his life. He would one isn’t.” performing sixty concerts in the year of his His parents would encourage him to learned the language by watching movies night comic sounds to indicate the presence of present variations on Comedy In Music around death, 2000, when he was 91. entertain their dinner guests and Borge would and day and within a year, made his commas, periods, dashes, etc. the world for the next 45 years, playing to Richard Ouzounian The secret to his success is that what he announce he was about to play a Beethoven professional debut on Rudy Vallee’s radio show. The recording of that particular number did was incredibly complex, but he made it all sonata, only to launch into one of his original By the next year, Bing Crosby had hired him heard here is from 1953 and when the seem blissfully easy. compositions, delivered in the style of for his Kraft Music Hall and some of the earliest audience realize that’s what he’s leading into, Long before Dame Edna, he knew how to Beethoven. He would then egg the guests on recordings on this disc (Borge on Inspiration the delighted murmur of recognition indicates insult and interact with his audience. Ages in to enthuse about how that had always been and A Lesson In Composition: The Blue the impact it must have generated in the six advance of P.D.Q. Bach, he understood the one of their favourite Beethoven pieces, Serenade) come from those first appearances. years since its creation. humour to be mined from mocking classical exposing the hypocrisy and shallowness in Listening to them it’s amazing to see how One of Borge’s other great successes was music. these so-called musical experts. quickly Borge assembled his North American his ability to play Happy Birthday in the style And yet he never forgot that the public He studied piano under a full scholarship at persona and then polished it over the following of whatever composer the audience chose – a always had a long-standing love affair with the Royal Danish Academy of Music and made decades. clear throwback to his childhood days when he serious virtuoso pianists and so he made that his classical concert début when he was only He was named Best New Radio Performer convinced people that a Borge sonata was by element a part of each show as well. seventeen. of the Year in 1942 and made his first American Beethoven. If anyone wondered how Borge was able to But the totally serious world of music had film appearance in 1943 opposite Frank Sinatra The arrival of television only added to combine all these elements so fluidly, the no lasting appeal for him and by the time he in the film Higher and Higher, playing several Borge’s success, as he introduced an inspired answer is simple: he’d been doing it all his life. was 24, Borge was appearing on stage as a classical concert pieces during the film. element of physical slapstick that caused many Original monochrome photo of Victor Borge from Jan Persson / Redferns 2 8.120859 3 8.120859 4 8.120859 120859bk Borge:MASTER BOOK 3+3 NEW 17/11/07 9:49 PM Page 1 musical comedian and starred in as many as By 1946, he launched The Victor Borge critics to refer to him as one of the world’s delighted audiences everywhere.