Original subtitles

So we are back, on a quest to find more brilliantly talented musicians.

So that means brand-new stations, a brand-new concert

and - why not? - a brand-new instrument.

Welcome to The Harmonica.

I'm joking. It's still The Piano.

But it would be good.

This year, our piano will travel to even more train stations

up and down the nation... Lovely to meet you.

I'm Claudia. ..celebrating more incredible undiscovered pianists

than ever before.

# And I'm feeling good. #

We'll hear their music...

So good. ..and learn why they play.

# I want you to know. #

Watching nearby once again...

WHoa! Do you see how many people is there?

Lang Lang, things have changed!

..will be two of the most acclaimed and successful performers

in the world. It's like a butterfly. Look at this.

Lang Lang, one of the finest pianists of all time...

She's definitely got fire burning inside of her.

..and pop superstar Mika.

I want to go down and sing with the audience.

But this year... Come on, Lang Lang, before she runs away.

..they've been unleashed.

Bravo! SQUEALING

Oh, my! I love you so much!

Everything has gone wrong.

They've got your piano bike. OK. OK.

Oh, my God, this is so cool!

# A design... # Each week,

they'll choose one amateur pianist...

# Ave... #

I've got goose bumps. Yeah. Me too.

..and give them a life-changing opportunity.

Do you see him in the final concert?

We need to have a longer discussion.

The chance to play a very special concert at a spectacular

new venue in Manchester.

APPLAUSE Well done!

That's all, folks!

This is The Piano.

Our first stop this year is Manchester,

and things will be a little different.

Mika, Lang Lang, I don't want you to take this the wrong way.

What? But when we did this the first time, I thought,

"And we're done." THEY CHUCKLE

Because now people will know that you're hiding.

But we ALL thought that. And here we are. And here we are.

This time they know we're watching.

Mm-hm. When I think back on the most powerful moments, when we did this

last time, it WASN'T the big reveal.

No. It was stories that, with piano, became so moving.

Step On by Happy Mondays

We start in Manchester.

So much music that's had an impact across the world

has come from Manchester.

And I think they are also brave enough to take more young talents.

Take more risks.

Like my debut in UK was in Manchester.

We're about five minutes away. Are you ready?

We're never... Never! ..never ready!

We don't know what's going to happen!

Forget about it!

Due to today's wet weather, please take extra care

while on the station.

Yeah, Manchester!

I'm really excited. And look, look, look, there's the piano.

Very nice spot. Off you go, guys. You're going up. See you later.

I'm going to the piano. Hello, sir.

Here we go. I love that we're still here,

not down there. Yeah. We're free here.

Yes. And they're free down there. Yes. We can talk.

This is our first guy. Oh, OK!

Now I see him. OK.

Hello. Hi. How are you, Ellis? I'm great. I'm Claud.

So nice to meet you. Have a seat. Oh, thank you.

Do you know what? I already love Manchester Piccadilly

because lots of lovely people are here to watch you.

There's so many people watching already! It's right there! Oh, wow.

He hasn't even started to play! Lang Lang, things have changed!

Wow. There's a lot of people.

Tell me about you and the piano.

When did you first start loving it? Four years old.

No! It was my mum, bless her.

She saved up and got like a keyboard from Argos. Yeah.

Did you have lessons, or how did it...? No.

Like so, like, we couldn't afford them.

I come from a single-parent family in a lovely council estate

full of needles and students. A high crime rate,

but we've got a Costa, so it's all good.

I can say with confidence that if I didn't do boxing,

I probably would have had a criminal record.

The discipline you need is very similar with, like, the piano.

You just go when you're ready.

You need to be so willing to leave your ego outside

to grow and get better.

We're about to start all over again.

We've got a boxer in the middle of a station. I hope

he's not going to beat up the piano!

When he's happy, he'll play, when he's not happy... Boh!

LANG LANG CHUCKLES

Ballade No 4 is a very difficult piece.

Do you think he's aware of how difficult this piece really is?

Not really. That's what I love about him.

He's fearless.

My heart's racing.

I'm nervous for him. Yes, it's real. I know.

HE SINGS ALONG Nice.

It's really beautiful. He's singing it.

He's making YOU sing it, but he's also singing it

in the way he's playing it.

LANG LANG SINGS

One of the reasons why I work so hard at the piano is

because I have nothing to fall back on.

I don't come from privately educated music.

It was all done through schemes from the council and stuff.

For me, classical music is the finest form

of human expression.

You may not be good with words,

but somehow that music explains it perfectly

without saying a single word.

You don't need to be a certain person to do that.

I think you just need to be a human.

APPLAUSE Yay!

That was absolutely brilliant. Beautiful.

Well done! Oh, thank you. That was brilliant.

Thank you. It's Ellis!

So fun!

For me, it was really beautiful because he managed to convince us

to listen to him and then he seemed to stop and slow down time.

Yeah, really, really wonderful.

It's incredible that he's doing boxing

and then played the most lyrical Chopin.

I mean, this is... A perfect way to start. Yes. Perfect way.

INDISTINCT TANNOY ANNOUNCEMENT

Oh, hello, little dog.

You can't look at him or talk to him.

He's a very sweet dog,

but if you look at him or talk to him, he gets very irate.

I'm not looking.

What's his name? Henry. Henry.

I had a boyfriend like Henry. HENRY BARKS

I'm Salome, I'm 23, and I'm from Manchester.

I am a full-time DJ at the moment, so it's like the piano

is like my focal thing,

but then jungle and drum and bass is kind of like my roots as well.

But Salome's roots actually lie over 3,000 miles from Manchester.

I was born in Georgia, in Tbilisi, which is like the capital city.

They had a politician problem, so we have to leave our country.

Salome was one year and three months old.

Fleeing political unrest, Salome's family sought asylum in the UK.

I couldn't get a passport, like citizenship,

so I was stateless until I was 18.

Like, I was just off the radar, like off grid.

My mum had worked so hard.

She was like cleaning gaffs

just so I could get like a piano lesson.

It's not easy when you've got three kids to support.

So it was quite...er, tough.

We did not go to restaurant or have nice clothes

or something like that.

Basically, the person that you see now is literally

all down to my mum.

Georgian parents, immigrated.

She goes to raves.

I have absolutely no idea what she's going to play

at the piano. Completely wild!

And I'm really curious.

# Birds flying high

# You know how I feel... #

Good voice.

# Sun in the sky

# You know how I feel

# Breeze driftin' on by

# You know how I feel

# It's a new dawn, it's a new day

# It's a new life for me

# It's a new dawn, it's a new day It's a new life for me... #

This is Nina Simone.

# Ooh-ooh

# And I'm feeling good... #

Mm. Her rhythm's all over the place.

# Butterflies all having fun... #

The voice is pretty good, right?

The voice is brilliant.

# And this old world is a new world

# And a bold world for me

# And I'm feeling good... #

She has the technique. Look, it's very good.

I like the dynamic, what she does...

Yeah. There's a crescendo.

Yes! Amazing! Come on.

Amazing!

Ladies and gentlemen, it is Salome!

CHEERING

I think she moved me tremendously.

Yeah. And I think that she kind of draws me into her music making.

She did an amazing job. I'm really proud of her.

She might have the best voice out of anyone in any city so far,

since we started doing this.

Next to play for us will be Emma.

Can I get through? Excuse me. Sorry. Hi! Sorry.

Hello, Emma! Hello! How are you? I'm Claudia, nice to meet you.

Hi, Claudia. Nice to meet you. Come round and have a seat.

There's an iPad, so she's going to play something with the score.

Tell me all about you and the piano.

Well, I started playing the piano when I was about five years old.

Yeah? Yeah, it's always been in my life ever since, really.

OK. What are you going to play today?

I'm going to play The Winner Takes It All.

The song of songs.

The Winner Takes All?

No. IT all. Oh, OK.

I think I'm with the only human being in Manchester

that doesn't know The Winner Takes It All!

Well, tell me about this. # The winner takes it all

# Da da da da da da. #

Nothing.

MIKA IMITATES HOLLOW KNOCKING

Are you serious?!

So, who was the artist on this?

It's, um...

..Nirvana. Ah.

Very sad.

I think playing piano is like a meditation for her.

I've played the piano all my life, and it's always been there for me.

But there was a time when, um, it wasn't.

Oh, my God, this is going to be really difficult.

It's just the reasons for it.

The reasons, you know...

OK. Are you happy to talk about it?

OK. Sorry.

That's fine.

So I got divorced and it was really, really tough.

Really difficult.

Um, one of the hardest things I've ever done.

It just makes me think there are no winners, really.

The winner doesn't really take it all,

it's just a very tragic situation.

I kind of liked her soft touch,

in a few places.

But from the way that she's playing it, it's kind of like

you slow things down and you speed them up

to make them more expressive.

There's heartbreak that's underneath.

But it's trying to come out in a really simplistic way,

and it's just not working.

She played the wrong thing.

It's an ABBA song.

It's simple. She's hanging this crazy baggage on the wrong hanger.

Do you think she can play something else?

No!

LAUGHTER

She's so...she's so sad, right?

She is sad. Sad, right? I mean, it's like almost crying.

But what do you want her to play?

Anything but ABBA.

Do you want me to ask her? Yeah.

Oh...

Mika... Do you want me to ask?

I will. You take me down there and I'll talk to her, come on.

Where is she anyway?

Go on. Go. Follow Mika. I'm not coming.

Come on, Lang Lang!

Oh, you mean she's already gone?

Everything's gone rogue.

I loved it when they were next to the toilets.

What? What? What?

Hi! Oh, my God! Oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness!

Hey, listen, you fascinated us.

Really? Yeah.

But it's very clear that you're playing the wrong song.

So we would like to give you another chance and let you play again,

express yourself more freely. Do you have another piece?

I... Oh, my gosh. I can try and find something.

Yeah. All right? OK. Ready to go? Yeah.

Let's go back. Yeah. Oh, my God!

Close your eyes, breathe four times and play and kill it.

It's way better.

Come on. She's a different player.

I never thought I'd do anything like this

because I never thought I was good enough.

And the piano for me really was what brought me back to myself.

But it's not always easy to play those happier songs.

I think the more I start to believe in myself,

my song choices might change a little bit more.

Wow.

And now you're smiling!

Thank you! Does that feel better?

Wow.

It was beautiful. Thank you.

Wow.

I just feel like I've just dreamt the whole experience.

I can't believe it.

I-I just...I think I'm just going to take me a long time

to come down from this.

She played better. Much better. Way better. Yeah.

We're at Manchester Piccadilly, and Lang Lang and Mika are searching

for the city's best street pianist...

Who will be the next pianist?

..and for the very first time on The Piano,

we're about to meet a married couple.

Hello! I'm Claudia.

Fran. Hi, Fran. Duncan. Hello, Duncan. Duncan...

Duncan. Have a seat. Duncan, I believe you're going to play.

Yeah. How long have you been playing the piano?

Since I was four.

Wow. I'm 80 now, so a little while ago.

At a very, very young age... Yeah.

..I found that I had this strange gift of being able to play by ear.

Oh, my goodness. Fran, do you love him playing?

The first time I heard him play, which is a long time ago now,

I said to him,

"There's something rather special in your touch on the piano."

We first set eyes on each other in 1964.

Duncan came into the room, and when I looked at him,

what went through my mind was,

"That's exactly the sort of man I would like to marry."

But I was going out with somebody at the time -

not happily, I have to say -

who I ended up marrying. But anyway...

I qualified as a solicitor,

but my heart was absolutely not in it at all.

But I feel very, very fortunate

because, bit by bit, we found a situation

where we could see each other.

And there we were.

A couple.

That's the nearest thing we've got to a wedding photograph.

We didn't have time to organise photographers,

but it was the last thing on our minds.

We didn't really want to do anything other than just... Be together.

..be together, exactly, yeah.

How beautifully put.

In fact, in ten days, we will have been married 42 years.

And how does that feel - 42 years together?

Absolutely fine.

There's no feeling of, er...

..being bored... being bored with the situation.

You've got to make a...

..an excu... Or accept...

No.

I do have this difficulty

with dealing with one or two of the questions,

questions you might ask me, simply because I've got dementia,

and I've had it for six years.

It was diagnosed two years ago.

Mm-hm. There's a vulnerability there now

that wasn't there before.

And there's an awful lot more that I need to do.

It's dealing with it in the most positive way possible.

That's what I try to do.

The future is unknown,

but Duncan is everything to me.

I would have him in any situation, rather than not have him.

And how are you? If you mean, how am I in this situation?

Uh...I'm fine.

I'm absolutely fine.

No, I'm fine.

What are you going to play for us today?

It's a Theme For Fran.

So...this is Fran.

It's a great big thank you. Oh, wow.

How does it make you feel when he plays this song

that's just for you? Oh,

even now, if he's just playing anything and then he plays that,

I just have to go across and give him a kiss.

I'm going to get out the way. I will not stop you from kissing him.

Fine. Fran, you go for it. Go for it.

I'm prepared to go for it, too.

Yeah. I'd like to get a kiss before I play every time.

Have a wonderful time. Enjoy it. OK, will do.

Oh, that's sweet.

It's beautiful.

He wrote the song?

It's beautiful! It sounds like a piece from another time.

Yeah, but it's beautiful, though. It's very beautiful.

Yes. Very romantic.

And playing the piano since the age of four,

but now it's taken on another importance,

because it's part of his healing.

Yes, it's part of his recovery.

His self-prescribed medicine.

Yes.

Another great thing is, like, in music is

that if you remember that song,

probably the things around that song... Yeah. ..will come back.

It feels part of us now.

I feel love when I hear it.

There are moments in it when I go...

It just gives me such total feeling

about the girl I found

and the girl I married, the girl I love.

And always will.

Yes!

That's beautiful. Wow.

Ladies and gentlemen - Duncan!

Bravo!

Duncan!

The crowd loves him.

It's enormous. Yeah.

They don't know everything that we know,

and yet they understood that there was an emotional charge. Yeah.

I'm going to go up. I'll be two secs.

Could you see him in the final concert?

We need to have a longer discussion.

He's going to the concert.

It's not a debate.

Go, go, go, go, go. Tell us why. Yeah.

Duncan and Fran need it.

Oh, boy...

And it is also important to have somebody like that.

And the fact that he can speak through the piano.

And that is what's keeping his disease at bay.

And what are we, if we're not putting THAT on the stage?

What you're saying is this, it's like we're here to show the power,

no matter how old you are, or your health,

the power that that instrument can have, and it...

..it's a superpower.

Thank you for listening to me.

And I'm really sorry to be so bolshie. No, we're listening.

Yeah, it's really important.

Another kiss.

The only problem with doing this in a station is that

I just end up hungry all day.

Looking at all these people eating and buying food.

LANG LANG LAUGHS

There's a pasty shop.

Have you ever had a pasty?

No.

Add that to the list.

# Stray cat strut

# I'm a ladies' cat

# I'm a feline Casanova

# Hey, man, that's that

# Get a shoe thrown at me from a mean old man

# I get my dinner from a garbage can... #

Do you know this piece?

No. Neither do I.

Something YOU don't know?

I don't know. Oh, my...!

Mika has some repertoire he doesn't know!

Don't be... Great!

# Singing the blues while lady cats cry

# Wild stray cat, you're real gone guy... #

I don't like cats.

I'm more of a dog guy.

This piece is a very difficult piece technically.

The left hand has to keep very, very strict.

I mean, this is Beethoven.

I mean, you need to be like a heartbeat.

So, the rhythm is strict?

Rhythm is absolutely strict.

When I was about 14, I started using the internet to look at tutorials.

I watched YouTube videos and I kind of just copied them,

and I'd kind of just repeat it until I get it right.

I really like rock music, and I find that this piece,

Moonlight Sonata, 3rd Movement,

I feel like it's kind of the rock piece of its time.

When you're self-taught, and if you can play like that, it's amazing.

If you give that person with a very obvious, enormous natural talent

access to lessons, what she could achieve would be huge. Yeah.

Wow!

Look, there's Claudia over there.

Hi! Hi.

So good to meet you. My name is Claudia.

My name is Ethan... Hello, Claudia.

Hi. Nice to meet you.

Guys, come and have a seat.

Ethan, thanks for coming.

And you're how old now?

I am nine years old. Yes.

I was born near Manchester. Love it.

And I am proud of it.

And I love Ethan.

I like going around to places and travelling

and sometimes pranking my dad.

Sometimes Ethan tells people,

"He's not my grandad, you know. He's actually my dad."

OK, what about Macbeth himself, then?

She doesn't really care who he kills.

Ethan is slightly different.

I try not to label him in such a way.

He learned the periodic table when he was three.

He can do complex maths when he was about four or five.

He's already doing his GCSE.

But then, he doesn't seem to understand

a lot of emotional feeling.

But on the piano he can express himself in a whole spectrum of way.

Joy.

And he practised those feelings using the piano.

Sorrow.

Using the piano to express his emotions recently became

crucial to Ethan and his dad.

My brother passed away just a year ago of prostate cancer.

We were very close.

A little bit more than a year ago.

Well, more or less, yes, more or less.

It's just, time flies, isn't it, really? Yeah.

Time flies.

It's like yesterday, huh? Yeah. It was just like yesterday.

Can I take your jacket, darling?

Oh, and the shoes.

No, I think you'll be OK with the shoes, yeah? Yay!

OK.

I am going to play the Chopin Nocturne, No. 20.

It was my Uncle Paul's favourite song.

OK, you got to relax with it. Wait till they tell you, OK?

He'd asked for Ethan to play this for his funeral.

He play it very free.

In a way, it's kind of a very fantasised version.

Yeah.

It's totally breaking all the rules in every single way.

The rhythm is being thrown up into the air. But...

But it's beautiful. It's beautiful. I like it.

I love this. I think... Look at his face.

If you close your eyes, there's a lot of emotion in there,

and then you look at him...

..and he's quite detached. Mm-hm.

I think the piano...

..it's probably something that expresses emotion

in a way that he can't.

Is it a complicated song to play?

Not really.

It's the feelings that's complicated, I would say.

The melody is really easy,

but the feelings are complicated.

Yes!

Un... unbelievable.

Ethan!

Darling, that was brilliant.

Brilliant!

Ladies and gentlemen - Ethan.

You were amazing.

In what other contexts would you ever get to discover

or put on a stage a kid like this?

LANG LANG LAUGHS

Thank you. So lovely to meet you.

Oh, yeah, look.

Do you see Mika? Oh, wow.

Wow, that's Lang Lang over there!

Lang Lang and Mika is over there! Look! They're waving at you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Bravo!

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Really beautiful.

I actually didn't think I did it that good.

Don't worry.

You were in front of all the people. That end bit...

It's OK. You done very well.

The playing was absolutely brilliant. Yes.

He just basically played with his heart. Yeah.

And he... Wherever his heart goes, he follows. Exactly.

But that was the most emotionally sincere, emotionally connected,

best piano playing we have heard, so far.

Absolutely. I totally agree.

Officially now, Manchester just got interesting. Yeah.

I don't have a kid. How old is your kid?

My kid is almost three.

Does your kid play the piano? He doesn't.

Wait a minute. Lang Lang, shame on you.

By the time you were three, you were getting ready

for the Wigmore Hall. What have you done?!

You have a responsibility!

We need Lang Lang II!

What's going on?

My mum the other day said, "Maybe you should teach him, because..."

Yeah, maybe. "By the same time, you already start playing."

Wait a minute. Are you saying you're not going to teach your kid?

No. I...

I will probably ask my wife...

Yeah. ..to do that.

Because sometimes...! Lang Lang!

I'm too intense!

You know, I want... I want a good relationship.

I want a good relationship with my son.

You want a good relationship with him. Yeah, yeah.

Good boy. Come on, straight on.

Next to arrive at Manchester Piccadilly is Shaun.

Shaun, I'm here.

I'm going to give you my hand.

I'm Claudia.

Oh, my... Oh.

Beautiful guide dog.

There we go. I haven't got a treat for you. Shaun and Kevin.

This is our Kev. Welcome. Hello, Kev.

Now, tell me about you and the piano. Erm...

How long have you been playing? Oh, gosh.

I started when I was 12 on the Hammond organ.

The earliest piano memory I have was when I was about five years old.

We had a piano in the house, and I used to just hit it.

My mother would go, "Can you just stop that noise?"

Music was just everything.

Music was oxygen. I was so driven.

Good boy.

The eye condition I've got is called retinitis pigmentosa,

and it's a degenerative condition.

So, by losing your sight over 15 years.

It breaks down really, really slowly.

And that is psychologically so hard to deal with.

Good boy.

It's a grind.

It pulls you down, makes you feel thick,

makes you feel stupid, and all those things.

I stopped playing the piano.

For someone like me, without music, you're just lost.

Just completely lost.

And that's why I just used to take loads of drink

and drugs all the time.

I lost my soul, man.

# I wanna know

# Do you really feel it?

# Do you even feel it now? #

But I fixed it, man.

Took me two or three years.

And I fixed it by getting my backside out there

and facing it.

# Oh, baby, preach!

# Come on, teach me

# Teach me!

# Oh, do the soul lovin'

# Do the soul lovin'

# Now preach!

# You got to say...

Nothing compares to the passion in creating music.

It's my solace. It's my place to go.

# So shake it like your mama... #

And I think it's fixing, bit by bit, all those broken parts of me.

# To the drop!

SHAUN BEATBOXES

Nice harmony. Yeah.

SHAUN VOCALISES

# Preach now!

SHAUN VOCALISES

# Yeah! #

Big range.

He sings well, right?

He sings well, and he plays well. Yeah.

It's a strong flavour. Yeah.

Well, you can't deny that it's got a thing.

Something there, yeah. Yeah.

It's what we call... Marmite.

Mar-my?

Marmite. Marmite.

A Marmite performance.

Do you know what that means? Not really.

You either love it or you hate it.

Do you like Marmite?

Not so sure I have...

But I like him, though.

I'm Brooke, I'm 20 years old, and I'm from Southport.

She looks like a star. Yeah.

I saw her, I thought it was where you invited, like,

a surprise or something, you know? Yes. That's what I thought.

Hello! Hi!

Hi, Brooke. My name's Claudia.

Nice to see you. You look so beautiful.

Thank you.

Tell me about you and the piano.

I've been playing piano since I was seven. Yeah.

I love classical music, and I love playing it.

Oh. She's classical.

I can never tell what someone's going to play.

It is so hard to know. Never judge a book by its cover.

Yeah. It's brilliant.

What do you do when you're not playing piano?

I'm studying law at university.

A lawyer, mm.

That's a major degree.

Yeah, it's very hard. It's hard.

So, do you use the piano, in a way...? As, like, a stress relief.

When I've got my university exams, I always turn to the piano

as, like, a relief.

She plays well. She plays really well.

It's a very beautiful piece.

Maybe too much holding back a bit. Yeah.

But in a way, it's very elegant.

It's elegant, but she could be a little bit more magical.

I agree.

Beautiful!

Well done!

Such a beautiful piece.

Your mum and dad were in tears.

Ladies and gentlemen - Brooke!

Well done. Glad you could come.

She is cool.

Barrister!

One thing I would say to her is, she has so much presence.

She's someone who obviously has discipline.

She's someone who takes care of herself.

She needs to let go a little bit when she's playing. Yeah.

Do you know her?

No!

She's amazing!

Look at this poser.

What's her name?

Amber. Amber.

Hello. Say hi!

No, you don't have to if you don't want to.

It's nap time. She's a bit serious now.

Yeah, I get it. I get it.

I don't have time to chat.

She doesn't really like what I'm wearing.

If I check...

No, don't laugh, whatever you...

No? Tough crowd, I think.

This is a hard crowd!

Amber, what am I going to do with you?

So serious!

# You tell all the boys no

# Makes you feel good... #

My name is Fred. I am 18 years old.

I am from the Caribbean, Turks and Caicos Islands.

I am a student, just currently in my gap year.

Just doing everything and anything, you know.

# But I'm going to try

# Would you let me

# See beneath your beautiful?

# Would you let me

# See beneath your perfect

# Now take it off now, girl

# Take it off now, girl... #

I really love the performance.

Yeah. It's phenomenal.

Yeah, I really love the performance.

# See beneath your beautiful tonight... #

My foundation is gospel.

My first memory of the piano dates back to when

I was really, really young.

Just seeing the musicians playing in church.

# Oh

# I'm gonna climb on top your ivory tower... #

The piano, in that sense, called me.

Nothing compares to the feel of the heavy weighted keys on the piano.

Just the way the felts hit the string.

Like, it's all so intimate.

I don't feel like it could fully be replicated.

# I want you to know

# Would you let me

# See beneath your beautiful?

# Now take it off now, girl

# Take it off now, girl

# I want to see inside

# Would you let... #

The balance between the piano and the voice is fantastic, too.

He grew up in a church, right?

When he sings, he's super emotional and quite sensual, as well.

# Tonight

FRED VOCALISES

# Oh

18!

Just saying, 18. 18.

Very mature.

Fred!

Well done, Fred.

Thank you so much.

Fred, everyone!

Thank you.

I'll see you later, darling.

Well done, well done.

Thank you so much, Claudia.

Bye, Fred.

Look at that.

I don't think we've ever had that many people, ever. No.

No, no, he's amazing.

Wow.

I love him. I think he's a great talent.

The voice, the feeling.

He's just got a natural musicality. Yeah.

He's got this crazy talent.

And what I love is that he's at the service of the music. Yeah.

He's less important than the music. Mm-hm.

Which is why the performance is more powerful. Mm.

The potential is enormous. Enormous.

Final concert.

I think he's totally capable.

We've gathered all of the Manchester street pianists together,

so they can meet each other and discover who might be chosen

to play at Mika and Lang Lang's concert.

What do you think of Manchester?

I've loved it. There were some real magical moments.

It's hard to make a choice, actually.

Let's talk about some of the people that impressed you.

Shall we start with Ellis?

Boxer plays Chopin. We didn't expect him to be playing Chopin.

No. 4 Ballade, which is one of the most difficult pieces. Yeah.

And he played with such an ease and poetry.

# Tonight... #

Did you adore Fred?

The voices that we've heard in Manchester, whether it's Fred

or Salome, they're probably the best voices we've heard in any city.

# And I'm feeling good.... #

I think she's the best singer we've ever had.

Do you? Yeah.

Let's discuss Ethan.

He really brings this romantic touch into the Chopin playing.

The two most romantic moments that we've had,

one of them has come from a nine-year-old... Yeah.

..and the other one from an 80-year-old.

On the subject of the 80-year-old, you know what I think.

That relationship that is purely based on love between him, the piano

and his wife makes us feel like the world is a better place.

Changing people's lives. Yeah.

At the end of all of this, you're going to put on a concert.

Do you think you've seen somebody worthy in Manchester?

There are - hand on my heart - three people that we could choose.

Hello!

SHAUN PLAYS PIANO

Shaun, everybody.

THEY CHEER

I just want to say a massive thank you for coming

to one of the busiest stations in the UK.

Did you enjoy it? Yes!

I'm so happy.

And I love the fact you've all met each other and you've been playing.

Now, I know it's not a secret -

cos you know two people were watching you -

but they really, really want to meet you.

Please welcome Mika and Lang Lang.

Hey, everybody.

Some of you have met us briefly.

Hello, Emma, again. And a lot of you haven't.

What's been astonishing about this is how we can never

judge a book by its cover.

Because every single one of you showed up, and we had no idea

what you were going to play.

So, Ellis, for example, you showed up. You're a boxer.

But you played Chopin in a way that we were always waiting

for someone to play it.

And, Ethan, I love the way you play.

It's so free and so poetic.

You are a little romantic guy.

THEY LAUGH

So, we're planning a very special concert at the Aviva Studios,

which is a state-of-the-art, brand-new performance space.

We would love to invite all of you to be there

as our special VIP guests.

But there's something that we haven't told you.

We want to make this concert really, really special,

and that's why we're going to be selling tickets,

and every penny that we raise will go towards putting pianos

in stations across the country.

Yes!

But there's one person we're going to invite to perform onstage

in this very special concert.

There was one moment where we were able to understand why

we are doing this all over again,

where the piano just had its place and music just made sense.

And that was during the performance of...

Duncan.

Thank you so much.

I'm speechless. Can I come, too?

Yes, you can.

And, please, have the kiss before!

I'm absolutely stunned.

I think it will change my feelings for the future,

because I've always had this secret dream of somebody saying,

"Yeah, I really like that."

Manchester has given us the best possible start.

It's not what I expected, and that's what I love about it the most.

The choice of Duncan was a pretty obvious one.

In that moment of illness, the fact that the piano can also be

a healing thing is... it's really powerful, actually.

It's quite... it's quite emotional watching that.

Music is a perfect way to remember a beautiful time,

to remember the loved ones.

And Duncan is doing it, and he plays beautifully.

And we need this inspiration in our world.

We make music to express things that we can't express with words.

He is the perfect example of that.

Do you think you'll write another song for Fran?

Any time, yes.

What a touch.

Bravo. Thank you so much.

Beautiful. That's very kind of you. Thank you.

I'm allowed to kiss you again.

Next time...

They've got your piano bike. OK.

Oh, my God. This is so cool.

..the piano pulls into Cardiff Central station.

Look at this, look at this.

Look at this!

And for Mika and Lang Lang...

I've got goose bumps. Yeah, me too.

..the land of song.

Her performance is one of the best ever.

..hits too many...

Triplets! Oh, wow.

..of the right notes.

This is going to be impossible.

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