Bette Midler credited as playing...
Self - Host (segment: Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102)
- Bette Middler: Hi. You may not know this, but over the years, the Disney artists have cooked up dozens of ideas for new Fantasia segments. Some of them made it to the big screen this time. But others, lots of others - how could I put this politely - didn't. For example, the Danish illustrator Kay Nielsen drew these sketches for a segment inspired by Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries." Here they are, and there they go. Now, Salvador Dali, you know, the "limp watches" guy, he got into the act with an idea that featured baseball as a metaphor for life. How come that didn't work? Makes perfect sense to me. Let's see. Then we had a bug ballet and a baby ballet and for a time, they even considered a sequence inspired by the Polka and the Fugue from Weinberger's "Schwanda the Bagpiper." But finally, a success. The Disney artists wanted to create a short film based on Hans Christian Andersen's wonderful fairy tale The Steadfast Tin Soldier, but they could never find the perfect musical match until now. Here is Yefim Bronfman playing the Shostakovich "Piano Concerto Number 2" and The Steadfast Tin Soldier.