Sunday, March 15, 2009

David Helfgott Hungarian Rhapsody #2

One of today's afternoon movies was Shine, an Australian biopic (1996) of David Helfgott. (b 1947)
I became a Helfgott fan the year the movie came out. My wife and I saw him in concert in the fall of that year.
His piano technique gets on the nerves of purists because his delivery is uneven and his improvising grates on their nerves. To me he is an inspiration. I got over musical snobbery years ago. Here is a man redeemed by his spirit, whose love of music is a joyful as a sparkler on a summer night. I was pleased to find this You Tube video from last December.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you have admiration for David Helfgott, than I think you find a program interesting. I work at NOVA, the PBS science series, and we are broadcasting a show about how the brain responds to music. The story follows Oliver Sacks and his neurological studies as well as the stories of four people who have some form of mental disability or illness, but have superb musical talents.

It is airing June 30th on your local PBS station. Or you can view it online for a week after the premier.

Hope you like it!

Bree