The Piano’s standout performer? A romantic OAP with dementia

ANYBoDY who’s ever struggled through Grade 1 scales and broken chords will tell you that playing the piano isn’t as easy as it can look.

So imagine what it must be like with Lang Lang, one of the world’s most renowned pianists, peering over your shoulder.

The Piano was one of the surprise hits of last year. It’s essentially Britain’s Got Talent for the keyboard, and the second series began last night in Manchester’s Piccadilly railway station.

Which meant that one moment we were listening to the tricky third movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and the next we heard that the Northern Service train to Windermere was at Platform 14.

At least, I think that’s what she said. Sometimes it’s tricky to tell with rail announcements.

It was contestant Emma who had Lang Lang hovering behind her. She’d originally played The Winner Takes It All, but the judges weren’t at all impressed. Far too easy. They asked if she might play something else and she gave a flawless performance of a work by Ludovico Einaudi. Presumably unrehearsed, too.

Lang Lang, by the way, had never heard of The Winner Takes It All, and fell for Mika’s joke that it was by Nirvana. The unworldly star has also never eaten a pasty, and didn’t know what Marmite was.

The Piano isn’t really about music, it’s about good stories. First to the station’s Yamaha upright was Ellis, who was raised by a single parent on a tough housing estate. he wore a hoodie and a nose ring, and is a keen boxer.

Yet he had the most delicate touch as he played Chopin’s Ballade No. 4. ‘one of the reasons I work so hard at the piano is that I have nothing to fall back on,’ he said. Never judge by appearances.

That also applied to Brooke, who looked as if she’d arrived straight from a Love Island audition. She was tall, blonde, and could be mistaken for a beauty influencer. Yet she’s studying law at university and wowed the judges with Poulenc.

Were you inspired to take up the piano? Because another contestant proved you don’t even need lessons. Amy taught herself from YouTube, repeating pieces until she got them right.

But last night’s undoubted star was modest Duncan, 80, a retired solicitor who had a love story with a poignant twist.

he and his wife, Fran, first met in 1964 but she married somebody else. They eventually found each other again, and have been married for 42 years. Now suffering from dementia, he played — from memory — a song he wrote for Fran. A large crowd gathered to watch, and he was picked to perform in the show’s final concert.

Was it the best performance? he had stiff competition, but it was certainly the most moving — and an example of how music can change lives for the better.

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