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Grieg Piano Concerto in Film 'Lolita'
By David Kelzenberg

In the 1997 film 'Lolita' (yes, that one!) with Jeremy Irons, there
is a scene where the Quilty character is running away from the Humbert
character (Irons), who is shooting at him with a revolver.  In a frenzy,
Quilty sits at a grand piano and begins to play the Grieg concerto.

His hands are not in the right place on the keyboard for the music and
my first thought was "poor directing, he's obviously not playing that."
However, when he is shot again and falls to the floor, we see that the
piano continues to play.  It's a reproducing piano!

I have no idea if the performance is the Percy Grainger one under
current discussion; I'm far from an expert but I assume it was recorded
for one system or another by at least several artists, as it's arguably
the most famous piano concerto ever composed.

On a slightly related topic, did anyone ever record Richard Addinsell's
'Warsaw Concerto' for reproducing piano?

David Kelzenberg
Iowa City, Iowa


(Message sent Thu 5 Dec 2019, 05:12:43 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.)

Key Words in Subject:  Concerto, Film, Grieg, Lolita, Piano
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