Torment and triumph play
into this concerto

---

By Scott Vogel
svogel@starbulletin.com

David Helfgott and Sergei Rachmaninoff: Separated at birth? Judge for yourself, but first a little background.

Helfgott is a name you may not remember but whose Hollywood turn is unforgettable. He's the charismatic, mentally disabled figure at the center of "Shine," Scott Hicks' phenomenally successful biopic for which Geoffrey Rush won an Oscar in the role of Helfgott.

While the film's narrative bears only a passing resemblance to the pianist's actual life, it is correct in a number of respects. For one, Helfgott began life as a promising young prodigy, leaving his native Australia in 1966 to study at London's Royal College of Music. For another, he won a prestigious prize for musicianship from the college a few years later. And finally, in both accounts Helfgott suffered a mental breakdown, later diagnosed as incipient schizophrenia, which threatened to bring his piano career to a swift and premature end.

That's pretty much the sum of the similarities between fact and fiction. In the film, for instance, Helfgott's breakdown occurs during his prize-winning performance; in real life, it occurred sometime later. Nevertheless, in both cases, Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto appears to have been an accomplice.

The Rach Three Featuring pianist Alexander Toradze and the Honolulu Symphony; Samuel Wong conducting Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall When: 4 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Tickets: $15 to $55 Call: 792-2000

Bold, treacly, alternately championed and derided, the piece -- which Alexander Toradze will play with the Honolulu Symphony on Sunday and Tuesday -- is a perpetual source of puzzlement in the classical music world. Its popularity is indisputable (in part because Helfgott played it many times during a post-"Shine" concert tour). Yet in spite of that popularity, or perhaps because of it, critics often complain that the concerto is emotionally shallow.

Technically difficult, it's a favorite of fame-seeking pianists, who use the piece to win competitions (Helfgott won his prize with it, and five of the six finalists in the 1993 Van Cliburn competition played it). Still, even contest judges often dismiss the piece as campy and sentimental.

And the debate over Rachmaninoff's Third rages on, its reputation inextricably bound up with issues of mental illness and pianistic celebrity. The composer was himself afflicted (Rachmaninoff battled depression for much of his life), and like Helfgott, he weathered the storm that erupts on those rare occasions when a classical musician breaks into the mainstream. In the case of Rachmaninoff's Third, the issue is further clouded by the post-diagnosis career of Helfgott, whose playing is either a service or a disservice to the concerto, depending on whether you buy Hollywood's heroic take on the story.

Sadly, audiences at his performances have often left with a profoundly different view of David Helfgott than the one depicted in "Shine." Conditioned by the film to expect something life-affirming and inspirational, the spectacle instead was of a deeply ill man who, while capable of playing the notes, was somehow unable to make music out of them.

Whether the concerto's unmusicality is the fault of Helfgott or Rachmaninoff, however, is a question better left to healthy, living pianists -- Toradze, say -- and the audiences for whom they play.

Click for online
calendars and events.