My brother John played the piano for Annie and Matt’s wedding last Saturday. John has been playing since he was 5 or 8 or maybe still in the womb or something. He’s 45 now, and I can tell you that I have never heard him play better in my whole life than I did on Saturday. And he has always impressed me.
He played the Rachmaninoff piece 18th Variation From Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini that became the theme song for Somewhere in Time, at Annie’s request. He’d never played it before getting the sheet music about 2 months ago, and he committed it to memory in that time. He didn’t just play it, he felt it. It was so awesome to watch my brother play this, that it made my eyes well up, I have never been prouder of him. I came this close to standing up and yelling “That’s my brother!” when he finished. He played about 30 minutes of waiting music before the wedding started, including two or three of his own compositions.
This is the actual performance of 18th Variation From Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini at the wedding of Matthew and Annaliese Beghtel, July 8, 2006.
Download the MP3 here. You may also want to Update your Quicktime Player.
That’s
my
brother!Hearing him play the Rachmaninoff piece reminded me of the movie Shine and the famous “Rach. 3” that David Helfgott played for that memorable concert. I bought the CD of that movie’s soundtrack and I listen to it while I paint. The Rach. 3 is one of my favorite pieces, now. I never tire of it.
This past Wednesday, on our Road Trip home after attending my niece’s wedding, Teresa and I took a purposefully slow detour down California’s 101, and, among other sites, drove through the Avenue of the Giants on our trip back, and I put in the Shine soundtrack as a musical bed for what we were about to see as we turned off the 101 onto the Avenue of the Giants.
Watch this video of Vladimir Horowitz playing a bit of the Rach. 3. Give it at least 57 seconds of your time—see if it hooks you. I love watching a master, maybe you will, too.
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