DESCRIPTION:
The Four Aces -- The World Outside, from the "Warsaw Concerto" (R.Addinsell), Decca 1958 (Decca Vinyl 45 rpm., USA)

NOTE: Today, on the day of the 69th Aniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising (1.08-3.10.1944) -- the bloodiest tragedy of any capital city in the mankind's history -- let me allow The Four Aces sing the theme from the "Warsaw Concerto" as their tribute to the brave young fighters and to the tormented civilians of the Polish capital city, dying with no help from outside -- in August/September/October, 1944. The Uprising led to the annihilation of more than 90% of the city's material substance and murdering 300.000 of its citizens -- the direct murdered being the Germans, while the indirect assasins were Russians: whose Red Army was waiting on the other bank of the Vistula River, just watching the death of Warsaw and forbidding any help be provided to the uprisers from outside -- as well as the Western "allies", especially British, who -- after careful calculation of all yes's and' no's, moved no finger in their Bond Street shoe to stop the ultimate destruction of the capital city of their committed war ally's, leaving the "solution of the Polish problem" to Hitler and Stalin.

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The Warsaw Concerto is a short work for piano and orchestra by Richard Addinsell, written in the style of Rachmaninoff for the 1941 British film Dangerous Moonlight, which is about the Polish struggle against the 1939 invasion by the Nazis. It became very popular in Britain during World War II. Dangerous Moonlight tells the story of a Polish concert pianist and composer, Stefan Radetzky (Anton Walbrook) who defends his country by becoming a fighter pilot. After an air raid in Warsaw by the German Luftwaffe, he is discovered by an American reporter, Carol Peters (Sally Gray), practicing the piano in a bombed-out building. It is the opening of his Warsaw Concerto, at this point a work in progress, and the first line he says to her is, "It is not safe to be out alone when the moon is so bright" (referring to the moonlight bombing raids). The success of the film led to an immediate release of the film's soundtrack (at nine minutes, it fit perfectly on two sides of a 12 inch disk playing at 78 rpm) along with sheet music for a piano solo version. Such unexpected success had another consequence. The off-screen piano part was played by Louis Kentner, a fine British musician known for his performances of Liszt, but he had insisted that there be no on-screen credit, for fear that his participation in a popular entertainment would harm his classical reputation. However, when the recording sold in the millions, Kentner withdrew his concerns and he even asked for royalties (they were granted). Ultimately the Warsaw Concerto was such a hit that it made the unusual journey from movie screen to concert halls. The theme of the Concerto is borrowed in a popular-music song whose lyrics include "The world outside will never know..." recorded by The Four Coins and by Ronnie Hilton, a very popular singer in the UK; it was also recorded in USA by the Four Aces. José Carreras recorded the Concerto as the opening track on his 1999 album Pure Passion.