I Am David

Being an advocate for mental health awareness, I used to follow David Helfgott’s career with great interest. David  was a prodigy pianist who never realized his complete potential when he succumbed to mental illness before his career really took off. His struggles were documented in the movie ’Shine’. David Helfgott’s story is inspirational and a testament to the power of the human spirit.

David Helfgott is now 69 years old and plays concerts all over the world. He is an easy target for criticism. His technique is not perfect and his continuous commentary while he performs can be very distracting.  I was excited to hear the German conductor, Matthias Formeny, make the following observation about David Helfgott  in the documentary ‘Hello I am David’

“Enjoy it, enjoy the moment. It’s really great. We all know that, but he practices it and always reminds us all that we should do that with him too. We’re really fortunate when playing with the ensemble of the orchestra. He sometimes gets distracted with his enthusiasm, because he’s so happy the flute’s playing with him, or the horn or cello, and at times it makes you wonder what will happen next. As the conductor, you need to keep an overview, but that’s what gives the special, improvisational character to the performance. It’s underpinned by great piano playing. It doesn’t have the hallmarks of perfection, but of primeval musicality, of drive, of reverie, and of great extremes. That’s how music should be. Not one tempo from start to finish, but playfulness with the various characteristics of the music. And it’s so full of that, you have to concentrate when listening. It’s not just “okay, here we go, as one might think with Rachmaninoff’s music. It’s very intoxicating music, very sonorous, rousing music. At the same time this music has, in the good sense, a show effect. It really does. It was the age of George Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, Leopold Stokowski, Philadelphia Sound. To an extent they were dandies, who played and composed it, and they knew how to live life. And David exudes all that in his own way, with his joy and his jazz-man mode in which he plays this music. That’s incredibly moving for me.”

Wow, what a perfect statement about life. David Helfgott may not be able to function like the majority of us, but his ability to live life to the fullest is beyond what most of us will ever achieve in our lifetime.