Added: 4 years ago
From: showmanlee
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  • wow this is really beautiful

    Can't stop listening

  • He is lost in his own world, there is nothing there but a man and his piano. He truly defined the art of playing the ebony and ivory instrument, he is one of the greatest pianists of all time and will be forever loved, so long as you love good music, Liberace rest in peace and may your memory live on in the harmony of your songs and let them forever hold a place in our hearts. My only wish is that your songs will reach future generations and show them the beauty of music, like you showed us.~<3

  • The third movement of this sonata is an intense piece of music

  • awesssssooooomeeeeee....!!!!

    

  • He was amazing. An unbelievable talent. There will never be born his equal. He puts his entire heart and soul into this work of art. Just amazing.

  • So Michael Douglas is playing him in the upcoming biopic. Who do they have playing younger Liberace?

  • Cool. He's playing the whole thing from memory. I don't see any sheet music.

  • @samuelq1 He always memorized the Tune.

  • @samuelq1 He could play by ear

  • @samuelq1 The sheet music is built in to his DNA.

  • ah man! the media brass forced him to cut out the second half of Beethoven's greatest piano masterpiece of all time?!? how dare they do that! the audacity!

    but it was still beautiful. come hear me play it sometime ;)

  • My favorite song of all time. He plays it absolutely perfectly. RIP Mr. Liberace.

  • beautiful piece i just discovered Liberace and he's amazing! I'm 15 by the way, call my odd i i really dont mind.

  • @DestructionBattery Your not odd just because you are well aware of great talent. I saw him in concert and it was the best concert that I have ever been to.... RIP Lee

  • @rotory2002 Why thank you :)

  • God rest your beautiful musical soul L

  • Moonlight in the Garden of Heaven.

  • So beautiful!

  • Spooky sounding piece, but I learned piano off Moonlight Sonata.

  • ¡¡que pianista x Dios!! Elvis imitaba su vestuario, pero Liberace fue un genio musical

  • Wonderful, I have always had a special place in my heart for Liberace. Truly, Lee was an exceptional entertainer and pianist. 5 STARS

  • Kempff - "What the hell how the fuck did you get that popular playing that PIECE?!!!"

  • I wish the timer wasn't there.

  • I like his music and I don't care that he was gay, but the man was a fucking nut job. He made his boy friend have plastic surgery so that he looked like Liberace. Yeah, Liberace had a fantasy of having sex with himself. Just thought I'd point out something interesting about him. Good music, good video, interesting dude.

  • Of all the YouTube clips of Lee doing Moonlight Sonata, this one may very well come closest to the track on his album "My Most Requested". Utterly spell-binding!

  • Beethoben is beautiful

  • haunting, yet beautiful. scary, yet relaxing. just plain wonderful. he really plays with his heart. ♥

  • He massages the piano. His playing is so peaceful. What a talent.

  • My mother just made me discover this man, and I'm already in love! So talented!

  • All you snobby tossers can p** off... Lee is better than any spoiled rich concert pianist you've seen. He didn't even practise, this guy could just play. He didn't need sheets like your crap conert players.

  • @nchannon1984 lol as much as I like your sentiment, you obviously don't know much about concert musicians when you say that liberace didn't need sheets. I've never EVER seen a concert musician that actually needed sheets (though they might have them in front of them). By the way, I love liberace, but I'm actually not personally the biggest fan of this rendition of the Moonlight Sonata. I've always preferred it to be a little more delicate and less deliberate. but liberace's is still great. 

  • @weej267 That's a fair point but i've always been under the belief that sheets will only ever keep you "out of the zone" - even just a glance at them could put the pianist back into "school" mode - the reason I commented on his sheet-less performance is because you can see right there, he's feeling the music from head-to-toe. He isn't even thinking about any notes or anything apart from playing the music. Lee can play ANY style - even Boogie Woogie to a great extent - the guy's a legend!

  • My mom used to critisize his playing venomously, but we never missed his program. He knew that he was the focus of much critisizm. I remember one time he made a joke/comment about it. He said, with a tear in his eye, "I felt so bad that I cried all the way to the bank".

  • @whiffenpoof1 He made the comment that he didn't give concerts, he gave shows. There's a difference and I'm sure he knew it.

  • He was the pianist of all times.

  • According to the encyclopedia, during the 1950s–1970s he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world. Enough said, he achieved a level of success that made others jealous. Its easy to say he butchered music, but obviously he took boring pieces and made them perfect. The music he created will go down in history, while the others boring music is long forgotten.

  • the greatest piano player in the world!!:)

  • I like the set, too. It's quite beautiful.

  • This man was/is a great musician and showman. Who really can hold a candle to him today? He could play classical along with jazz, blues, and rock and roll, and do it all with panache, great techinque, style, and soul.

  • Loved by many, hated by a few. He brought more music to people than ANY of the "intellectual elite" did. They hated him for having the popularity they didn't, and who loves the selfpromoted intellectual elite anyway?

  • Just a wonderful showman. Great talent. Too bad that he didn't live long enough for HIV therapy drugs to come and save this amazing person who Wowed a ton of people. DennisM

  • You "critics" need to get a life. People rip on Liberace's style because they don't get that he was an entertainer. The guy was a pianist who incorporated classical music with contemporary popular music, and thus took his own spin on the pieces as he saw fit. Sure, it probably isn't 100% accurate, but you really doubt that if he wanted to he was more than capable of playing more faithfully?

    His career made more people become interested in classical music than any of you snobs ever will.

  • There was a good part of this classical piece that was skipped for some reason. It is more less a finale stage of the piece. It is a combination of doubles of the same key on the left hand alternating rapidly, and it brings the listener to solemness. It is toward the end.

  • I never knew Liberace was into classical music. I didn't watch tv when I was growing up and Liberace was alive. My brother took control over the tv or my Dad took it away. Now I know. I learned this Moonlight Sonata when I was younger, it is a good learner piece for a beginner pianist. Nevertheless, Liberace did this well.

  • This puts you in a trance.

  • During the 1950s–1970s he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world.

  • he actually blinks at 1:53....wow..epic...well its glows in all perform

  • he actually blinks at 1:53....wow..epic...

  • I love this man! Liberace was amazing. A man who could put emotion to those cold ivory keys! I don't care what some people say, he could play! His showmanship is just to accentuate what he could make those keys do.

  • Moonligh Sonata - often mentioned as the saddest piece of music ever written. Liberace makes it cry here. Brilliant.

  • awesome....

  • @33Mengele So? More people know his name than they know yours.

  • phenomenal! 

  • it doesn't even look like he is playing it is so effortless for him. wonderful

  • @maddorox you're joking! Can you do better?

  • @maddorox Bad?!?!?!? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­ha!

  • @madamerotten - You think this is bad? Liberace became a national icon, the highest paid pianist ever, and was known around the world as "Mr. Showmanship". During the 1950s–1970s he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world.

  • @YouCanSayIt I think I was commenting about some troll claiming that his piano playing was bad, which it is obvioulsy not. In my opinion, he was among the greatest of all pianists, past and present.

  • "I know you've been out" "what no i haven't" "Paul my ceramic penguin in the study always faces due south"

  • @maddorox How? Possibly the mosy physically gifted pianist there

    has ever been. Natural, effortless and seamless when playing the piano.

    His whole body was made to play a piano. It's a physical gift with Liberace more

    than a musical gift.

  • GREAT performer! Thank you for sharing your talent and hard work with the world. Rest in peace, Lee.

  • a song to die too....

  • @maddorox What the hell are you talking about?

  • WONDERFUL

  • Playing a whole classical piece is not going to entertain the world's population, its going to bore them!!!! Thats why he shortened all his classical repertoir.

  • Liberace is not one of my favorite pianists but he is one of my favorite entertainers!!!

  • Moonlight sonata is my favorite piece of classical music,Liberace did an excellent job of performing it.!

  • magnificent

  • Good performance, but the orchestration in the background was awful.

  • @crumbar true!

  • @crumbar Yeah, unfortunately that is true.

  • everytime i hear this music i think of the scene in Misery when Kathy Bates takes the sledgehammer to James Cann's ankles. funny thing is, it was because of that movie i became a fan of Liberace.

  • he is so amazing i'm writing a research report for him for my English essay at my middle school and his life is so interesting like how he grew from a loner of a child to one of the most beloved man of the 50-80s

  • @PaigeRMusic Yeah, he's FANTASTIC! Imagine if they made a full length Hollywood movie about his life like they did Ray Charles. I'd go see it!

  • @therealraybaby i know i love him and when i gave my presentation on him people were so mean calling him pratically a freak since he was homosexual but i'm like who cares he was still an amazing person! and you shouldn't judge him when you didn't take time to know the real him! and also they are making a movie on him but not the kind i would have wanted them to make since it is about the "scott thorson affair" only

  • @PaigeRMusic People can be so cruel :( He was not a freak at all. I agree he was amazing. I hate that they are making a movie based on that low life scum Scott Thorson

  • I always thought that this was one of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces ever written for the piano. It reminds me of a special restaurant where I used to take my late wife when we first met. I always requested it from the lone piano player there. From the standpoint of complexity, it's a relatively simple piece even for a beginning student, but it's always been beautiful and reflective.

  • beautiful

  • Liberace was amazing. The guy could play anything from Beethoven to hillbilly music. How many can you say that about today?

  • Liberace will be loved and admired for all eternity as the greatest pianist who ever played... Van Cliburn couldn't hold his Candleabra

  • i play the piano and want to be just like him!ive been playing for 6 yrs

  • Say what you want about Liberace, I think he did the world a favor by being a showman on the piano and bringing in a new audience during rock n roll's early days. Much can be said about Lang Lang, people don't like his over the top playing but if it brings in interest all the better for the music and all classical musicians.

  • Artelron: I love everything about Liberace,i love over the top/flamboyant people. I have been a lover of classical music since I was 8 and I'm in my 20's now. I think he really brought something to the music world

  • Great cover of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Such an inspiration.

  • i think those things shining very bright on his jacket is actually real diamonds, he was famous for that

  • Irrespective of all his personal issues, the man had incredible talent

  • VERY GOOD!

  • This is one of the more soulful performances of this piece that I've heard. Brilliant.

  • beautful piece

  • Wow this is really beautiful-brings me tears to my eyes. I also think he looked extremely attractive in this clip. You are still loved Lee

  • @DingoHunterDan Because I have eyes and I can see this man was attractive,but even more he seemed affectionate and loving and thats more attractive then just a face. And as for him being gay,thats just a stupid comment and doesn't change the way he looked

  • @balto4 NOTICE ALL BY EAR & MEMORY NEVER SEE ANY SHEET MUSIC RESTING ON HIS PIANO'S WHEN EVER HE PLAYED, A REAL GENIUS RIP LEE

  • @MyREDTAIL That's extremely common, and basically mandatory in any given concert. And he most likely learned it from music, not by ear. Not a difficult piece to play or memorize.

  • he is amazing

  • He used to play extremely fast, I believe it must be a pain for him to play slow, especially this song ----Moonlight Sonata.

  • @Jajabing08 I disagree, he could play it all I don't think he's in pain at all here.

  • A good pianist and entertainer! His interpretation of the "Moonlight", however, is totally deliberately tongue-in-cheek (ironic) - so all you critics miss the point!

  • This is AMAZING,love this piece of music-and Liberace was one of the best entertainers of all time

  • I really like it :-)

  • sorry.. I don't like it....

  • cool piano

  • Agreed. If he was supposed to be such a bad piano player, the day I could play so badly can't come soon enough.

    Honestly, critics!!! Sheesh!

  • Saw him in the 70's. Amazing entertainer. Although he was flamboyant I never thought he was . Ornever wanted to believe it. He was good

  • I think only people who have spent years learning piano and mastering it can understand how talented and spectacular Liberace's performances actually were. Time and practice doesn't get you to that stage...it's pure talent

  • cazm94: I agree this guy was amazing,sure he might have been a bit 'wacky' or 'out there' but no denying he had talent-I'm only sorry I was very young when he died. i'm a huge fan of classical music

  • Liberace practiced more piano before he was 20 than most people actually work in a lifetime.

  • Many musicologists believe that Beethoven was inspired by this from W. A. Mozart's Don Giovanni's opera when the Commandatore is slowing dying after by stabbed by Don Giovanni's sword during their duel.

  • that's the point of being a performer... if you dont own the audience then you are just being selfish...

  • he had style and showmanship and he was witty but other then that he wasn't that great of a pianist. many better out there

  • If this is horrible, then I wish I could play horribly like Liberace.

  • Whilst I am in general fond of Liberace the man, if not his music; this is too loud and too fast for me. The string accompaniment is dire. But I do applaud the courage to do something different, even if it's not to my taste.

  • this song is from resident evil 1 when Jill is playing the piano to open that wall to get that gold shield or when rebecca is playing it

  • Yeah I heard Liberace was a great Resident Evil player.

  • @brainburger I don't get it, is it a reference? Please explain.

  • Surely you don't think Moonlight Sonata comes from Resident Evil. You do know it was written by Beethoven, right? A long time ago, right? Please tell me you don't think it came from Resident Evil.

  • Don't even say that.

    It's from Beethoven's mind.

    He wrote it over 150 years ago.

  • Yeah Beethoven wrote it for Resident Evil

  • LMAOOO

  • NO NO was wrote it for Shadowman :)

  • You're so full of crap XD

  • if how this guy plays is crap, i want to be able to play piano like crap.

  • I didn't mean Liberace! I commented a guys stupid comment on this video!

  • 1212Wolfgang12.. Yes i agree that the dynamic markings are not what is SUGGESTED all dynamic markings are suggestions.. They all have a very broad spectrum.. How one performer plays the dynamics isnt going to be exactly the same to another..Yes the acompniment is heavy but however its does not over shadow the melody!!!

  • yes i agree the orchestra sounds horrid

  • I think folks are forgetting that this is how Liberce decided to play it this time. I am sure he could pla it differently many other ways. This version is quite stunning

  • Some people will always find something to bitch about! Let the man play.

  • *Thinks* gawd dat timer sure is fuktard 1 star :P

  • Straphmark, this interpretation is far from excellent, his "Adagio sostenuto" is far too quick. And as for control, the inner accompaniment is far too obtrusive, given that the movement is marked "sempre pianissimo". Raakim, thanks for the advice...

  • I have to agree about the accompaniment being intrusive i believe this peice is better played as a solo rather than with an orchestra

  • If we want to get technical about liberace's abilities..... as a pianist... excellent control over dynamic markings... excellent control over gradiation of tone..... excellent INTERPRETATION and could hold a audience... What more does any pianist need???

  • This is a very unmusical performance, typical of Liberace. I feel like vomiting when I read some of these posts which liken Liberace's abilities to those of truly wonderful pianists like Horowitz and Kempff. Liberace was a showman who could play the piano, Victor Borge was a pianist who could put on a show.

  • IF YOU COULD ONLY, LEARN TO PLAY AN 1/8 OF WHAT THIS MAN..... ACCOMPLISHED - WE CAN DEBATE!

    IT TAKES TALENT , THIS MAN HAS DONE MORE FOR CHARITY THAN YOU WILL EVER COMPREHEND!

    YOU MAY THINK YO ARE A CLASSICAL OFFICONADO BUT RETHINK IT...........

    Ugliness, begets ugliness!

  • Liberace's charity contributions bear no relevance whatsoever to the fact that this is an unmusical performance. Beethoven would be rolling in his grave. Even if he had played this piece nicely, it would not merit praise. Alone, it is an extremely simple piece of music, it's true beauty is in context with the rest of the sonata, which Liberace couldn't play.

  • Beethoven was a man of Romanticism, and I doubt he would be as disgusted as you think he would have. If everyone thought like you there would be no music,no originality,it is the fact that it is imperfect which makes it human,if everything were meant to be so rigid than a man could easily be replaced by a computer,which could be 100% precise. Stop being a critic, the world has enough of them already,just enjoy the damn music for God sake

  • So, and if a piece is easy to play it cannot be beautiful? Schumanns Traeumerei is easy to play - not beautiful? C'mon, get down from your high horse exactwolfgang12past12

  • I'm not saying anything at all about the beauty of the composition, only the poor playing. However one cannot help but feel that when a piece IS easy, poor playing becomes less excusable.

  • Liberace was without doubt......a prodigy!

  • LOL! Certanly not. This if very tasteless. But it's hilarious! :D:D:D

  • Ok, I can agree on that. But, you know, I play the piece myself (I'm one of them who cannot play the other movements) and I enjoy the piece. I try to play it good, with feeling - not too much of it - and felt included in your critical comment.

  • Good on you for playing it, might I suggest that you listen to Claudio Arrau's recording, in the context of the rest of the Sonata (Sonata no.14 in C sharp minor, Op.27[no.2]). Arrau succeeds in realizing Beethoven's instructions with far more sensitivity and style than Liberace. For that matter, if you've learnt the first movement of the sonata, I see no reason why you couldn't learn the second. Granted, the third is massive, and perhaps too ambitious, but please to have a look at the second

  • Classical music was never music for the masses. Bach and Teleman were underwritten by the massive wealth of the church. Royal families employed Mozart, Hyden, and Beethoven. In Wagner and Verdi's day, only the elite could afford a ticket. Nevertheless, Classical composers and musicians such as Franz List (Wagner's father in law ) and Vicolo Paginini were, like Liberace, showmen to the Nth degree.

  • wow, that was really beautiful.

  • I love Liberace...I really do. Wonderfully fun entertainer and pianist. But this is a pretty terrible performance of one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. It's completely lifeless and lacking in any of the expression due to it. He plays it like he's playing a scale. This is due to a pianist of any kind simply playing far, far too much piano - you lose the passion and turn into an automaton.

  • this is the best performance of Moonlight you can find!

  • Kempff's performance is better i think, but i disagree with london as well, this is far from a terrible performance.

  • top 3, the very best moonlighters:

    gold: Liberace

    silver: Horowitz

    bronze: Kempff

  • I disagree again lol reverse them you have my choice.

  • so we agree who is number 2!

  • Yes, yes we do lol

  • Try listening to Maksum Mrvici - ''Child in Paradise'' He's Brilliant - Composers long gone, would appreciate his renditions of their work

  • 1 rock4all20>dream of reality

    2 Kaldoreii>PVE - Twisted v. Eredar Twins (Rogue/Melee PoV)

    3 Maksim Mrvica - Child in paradise Cofusion mix

    4 Maksim Mrvica - Child in Paradise

    5 Maksim Mrvica - Child in Paradise (Played by Arvin)

    in that order....

    i agree 1000%

    this is quite something

  • IT IS THE intros that are so massively great.

  • there was never a recording of beethoven...

  • too bad beethoven composed this piece

    aahah prety ignorant if u ask me

    and i wouln't even say that this peformance was that good

    could be the recording but still dosn't sound pleasant tomy ears

  • Beautiful, impressive...

  • C'est effrayant!!!

  • God Bless you Talented Kind person

    the one and only Liberace His music

    will live on forever!!!

    Thanks for posting

    Liberace has a special gift from the

    Almighty God and it was so beautiful

    that he shared his music of happiness

    to all

  • If you will take the time to look in the Dictionary....I submit you'll find the following : " Elegance" ....see Liberace...!

  • Liberace will never be matched because the classical pianists ONLY play classical music, but Liberace played all music and Brilliantly! Very Talanted Man, He had a special gift which can't be taught or learnt by anyone, he Loved the piano and that only comes from within! R.I.P. Sir.

  • This has always been one of my favorite songs by Lee. I had the pleasure of seeing perform when I was growing up. I will always remember that show very much.

  • Quest'uomo ha trasformato in MERDA tutto ciò che ha suonato. Che dio lo perdoni R.I.P.

  • Questo non è sicuramente il suo genere.. liberace è stato piu un entertainer negli usa che non un pianista classico, e il suo genere, come saprai, era il boogie woogie; la tua affermazione è fuori luogo.

  • sono d'accordo con mrsubwdj ... più dell'esecuzione trovo tremendo l'arrangiamento di archi... mammamia.

    Dio perdoni chi lascia andare sentenze e giudizi!

  • e tu sei un coglione che trasforma in merda ogni considerazione che fa, senza conta che ti dimostra il solita italiota provincialotto senza un briciolo di culture, scrivendo in italiano in un video americano dove tutti scrivono inglese. Tu pensi che in un video spagnolo qualcuno si metta a scrivere in polacco? Sei così tipicamente italiano con la tua zoticoneria e la tua ignoranza che fai accapponare la pelle. Che dio perdoni quella provinciale di tua madre per averti messo al mondo.

  • Liberace was truely a gifted performer..! Moonlight Sonata Opus #27 is a work of art when performed properly. And of course, as always Liberace made sure of that...! He was sincerely one of the best...!

  • Thankyou for posting this. Let us never forget this wonderful musician. He was and will never be equalled. A wonderful and fantastic human being. Thankyou for your music Liberace.

  • No pianist will ever match his talent! Not one!!

  • u cant compare libreace with horowitz or kissin lol if u do, ur really wrong...

  • yes thank god somebody has some sense, not even worth comparing, 'SIBIONIC' you need to watch horowitz or richter!!

  • or borge

    he's friggin hilarious and yet still produces some of the amazing music i've ever heard

  • indeed but in this case Victor Borge is a classical music pianist who decided to do some comedy =) and i like it so much haha

  • The comedy was the hook to get people to the show but when he got serious, he was a superb pianist. I loved his music.

  • What's with the timecode?