Grainger Bridge River Kwai by Percy Grainger Society

(Note sound drop :05 to :30) In the late 1950s, Grainger Assistant Burnett Cross made several home recordings of Percy Grainger and other musicians playing the pianos at the 7 Cromwell Place, White Plains, NY, music room. Percy had recently seen the 1957 film The Bridge Over the River Kwai and made an arrangement for six hands at one piano of the film’s theme, the “Col. Bogey March.” Here is a recording of a 7 Cromwell Place rehearsal of that piece played by Dorothy Payne, Ramona Helfer, and Ella, with Percy coaching the threesome in the background.