GERMANY: Dutch Pianist Yvo Verschoor makes silent movies come to life

A Dutch pianist is recapturing the past, travelling around Europe to perform in front of silent films. Dutch pianist Yvo Verschoor accompanies silent movies on a grand piano, an art rarely seen since the 1920s. The piano, an original Bluethner concert grand from 1897 and nicknamed Fraulein, accompanies him to every concert across Europe. On Sunday (October 28) he was in Germany at Berlin's "Theaterbar". ' Fraulein Bluethner' - that's how his piano is called - comes apart for transporting, and Verschoor has built a special contraption to move the 200 hundred kilogram piano. "She is a representative of another time where tone was more important than melody or volume ", Verschoor says of Fraulein Bluethner. "It's got a beautiful tone, it can really sing, it can whisper and it can roar. That's exactly what you need to reach audiences with silent films, to make these films come alive. So I am very glad I got this." Verschoor, who studied jazz and improvisation at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, says his love for old movies and music is responsible for the profession he has chosen. "I have the feeling the trade of film accompaniment and silent film and piano building, all these things are hardly there anymore, so I feel I should show people the beauty of it", he says. Verschoor worked for years at the Dutch Film Museum, which allowed him to watch many of the classic silent movies by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and less famous works from Russian filmmakers of the early 20th century. Verschoor says the beauty of those movies captured him and he was fascinated by how music makes silent images come alive. The greatest challenge for Verschoor is to catch the attention of movie lovers used to modern fast paced cinema. "It stays a challenge to try to show this to people and try to get them into these films" the musician, who lists the great jazz pianist Keith Jarret among his influences, says of his audiences. "There is a huge time gap between the 1900s, 1910, 1920, and now. The storytelling is much slower, and to some people, maybe at first it seems boring. But when you get into it, there are so many small things that are so beautiful because there is so much time taken to tell something." The shows are proving popular with audiences who enjoy the early genius of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, the all-round artists of their time who wrote, acted and directed their movies. Yvo Verschoor wants them to remain the stars. "If everything goes to plan, they (the audience) won't notice that I am there at some point, because they are in the film, that is the main thing", he says. "At first, you see, okay, there's a film, there's a piano, there's a guy playing it. But when it's good they often say, at some point I forgot that you where there. And then I did my job right. And that is what I try to do." Verschoor plans next to work with old documentaries from the 1910s and 20s, about old trades that no longer exist.

ITN Source | November 5, 2007

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