"Derek-Derek-Derek-wearek-Derek, I must ask
you something--Is she from Paris?"
--David Helfgott inquiring after the lovely Chantel
My whole fascination with David Helfgott's life began back in early 1997, when I went to see the movie Shine with my friends Adam and Brent. It is a well-made film about the astonishing life of a pianist from Australia. The movie follows David through his whole life, starting with his tough childhood at the hands of an abusive father. From there, we see the makings of a piano prodigy who eventually goes off to the Royal Academy of Music in London. Here, David continues to excel in his craft, but begins a downward spiral that ultimately leads him to spending over eleven years of his life in various mental institutions. The doctors tell him it would be best to keep away from the piano and he does just this for many years.
But, finally, David does begin to play again and meets a lady by the name of Gillian. They fall in love and with her help, he works at his craft and tries to better his mental state. Currently he is on a World Tour and there is a lot of debate about whether he should be. It is obvious that he still has mental problems when you see his mannerisms and the way he talks. David is always moving and talks with great speed--he often repeats words. He reminds me of a hyper-active eight year old. His conversation takes wild leaps onto strange tangents and his speech always seems to be trying to catch up to his thoughts. Doctors are not quite sure what he has. It seems to be some form of autism. David is very intelligent and aware of what is going on, but he is not able to verbalize it very well.
I had heard that
David Helfgott might be touring, so I checked it out on the internet and
soon found out he was. Within minutes, I booked tickets to his closest
venue, Chicago. I thought I had better do it right away because tickets
had just gone on sale and appeared to sell quick. He's playing in twelve
cities in the U.S. and I believe only one of them hasn't sold out yet.
Chantel loves piano music, so I knew she'd enjoy the concert.
Prior to going to the concert, I often checked out a great website that talked about David's world tour and how it was going. It talked about everything from crowd reactions to the ongoing debate about his health. I appreciated the work that someone put into this website and shot off a quick e-mail to them in the middle of the night, thanking them for their work. To my surprise, about two weeks later, I got a letter from Pia di Paolo, the manager for Helfgott's tour. She informed me that the person who ran the website was a friend of the Helfgott's and that he had forwarded my e-mail to them. David and Gillian read my letter and when they learned we were coming all the way from Minneapolis for the concert--they decided to invite us backstage after the show! We were thrilled!
So, on April 14th, we found ourselves at the Auditorium Theater in downtown Chicago. We were on the first balcony and had an almost perfect side view of Helfgott and the grand piano. David began playing and within the first two minutes, I heard three notes that were obviously misplayed. Critics have said that Helfgott isn't a top-notch player and I was beginning to wonder if they were right. But after this rough start, Helfgott recovered and played beautifully!! I was extremely impressed and I'm not a musical expert--but I thought Helfgott played very well. Of course, you have to remember that this comes from the same guy who thinks the Proclaimers, Murray Head, and Falco are talented musicians. You'll have to make the call on what kind of a musical judge I am. If you're interested, you can check here for the complete listing of what Helfgott played that night.
At one point, David stood up after a Liszt piece and suddenly bounded offstage. We don't know what brought this on, but soon he ran right back out and proceeded to play. After every song, David stood and walked to the front of the stage. He smiled from ear-to-ear and threw kisses to the audience. The audience reaction was intensely positive and you could see David soaking it all in. He ended the night with three encores and numerous standing ovations.
After it was over,
Chantel and I met with an usher and she lead us backstage. The touring
director (Di Paolo) met with us and brought us onto the actual stage. It
was dark and in the far corner, I could hear David talking in that unmistakable
staccato voice. He was surrounded by about twenty people, who I believe
were ushers and some of their family members. Gillian Helfgott doesn't
allow any interviewers or photographers backstage because she wants to
somewhat shield her husband from all the publicity. Di Paolo took David
out of the crowd and introduced him to Chantel and myself.
Upon introduction, David ran up to me and started hugging me while exclaiming, "Ohh-Derek-Derek-Derek! You made it!" At this point, I told David that we really enjoyed his piano playing, but he wanted to talk about other things. He started telling me how important it was to have an image and then suddenly, he pulled me close and began whispering in my ear. "Derek-Derek-wearek-Derek--I must ask you something. Something very important." He looked at Chantel and asked, "Is she from Paris-Paris-Paris? Tell me, tell me, is she? Is she?" I started laughing and tried to tell him no, but he didn't seem too interested in my answer.
At this point he shook Chantel's hand while saying something about how he mustn't be too touchy. But it seems he soon forgot about this and began giving Chantel numerous kisses on the cheek while laughing. Then, he suddenly ran off to talk with someone else. You could tell he was very excited and just loved that all these people had come to see him. I mean, he was genuinely thrilled that we were all there.
While we were free
from David's hugs, we went up to Gillian (David's wife) and presented her
with a present. We brought them a recording of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra
with Bobby McFerrin. We thought this might be something from Minnesota
that they would enjoy. Gillian thanked us for the gift and proceeded to
tell us that when David heard we were coming from Minneapolis--he promptly
told her that Minneapolis was a big city, but that St. Paul was the capitol
of Minnesota. At this point, David snuck up behind Chantel and started
kissing her again. "You know, it's very-very important that you have
a smile on your face. Always be happy, happy, happy!" Then he ran off
again and soon Gillian told David that they should probably be going. I
think if she didn't shepherd him off, David would have ran around and talked
all night.
So, this was our brief (but exciting) encounter with the Helfgotts. Unfortunately, we were so busy talking and getting grabbed by David that we were unable to take a picture together. When I finally did get my camera out, they were already heading towards the back room. I had wanted to ask first before I took a picture, but I should have just taken a few--I'm sure they wouldn't have minded. Oh well, we still have the memory and that will be enough. David is currently completing the rest of his North American tour and then he's off to Europe. I was thoroughly impressed with the man and wish him the best in life.
