This Newly Resurfaced Video Of Princess Diana Has The Internet Talking
Today, Princess Diana is remembered for many things. Even decades after her untimely passing, she is beloved as a philanthropist and a style icon. Her impact on her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, also remains evident. "She smothered us with love, that's for sure," said Prince Harry in the 2017 documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy (via Us Weekly).
While it's safe to say that Princess Diana won't soon be forgotten, there is still a lot about the royal to discover — or rediscover, as the case may be. Many royal watchers are just learning that Princess Diana was a talented musician, thanks to newly resurfaced footage of her at the piano.
According to Yahoo! Lifestyle, the video dates back to 1988 when Princess Diana and Prince Charles toured Australia. Henri Touzeau, a music professor at the University of Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts, prompted the royal to play during a visit to the school and she performed a passage from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2. Princess Diana appears quite shy in the footage. After her performance, the crowd gathered in the room broke into applause, but Princess Diana quickly exited looking embarrassed.
Princess Diana was quite skilled at the piano
A generation later, people are just as impressed with her piano skills. "Good God I love how she just casually slips into Rach 2," tweeted one person (via Yahoo! Lifestyle). Another noted that Princess Diana had "upstaged" Prince Charles, who can be seen in the footage playing a few notes on a cello far less skillfully than his wife played the piano.
Princess Diana's former piano teacher at West Heath School, Penny Walker, was quoted in the book Diana: The Portrait saying that the young Diana had quite a gift for music.
"She started learning the piano with me when she was 14, and I think she could have done really well, but I think it was just a bit late to start," she said. "I think she had a real musical talent there, unrealized at school. She had a lovely singing voice, but we couldn't get her to audition for the choir. She was just too scared, which was a real shame."