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Monday 16 May, 1998 The Ballroom, Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre |
David Helfgott 'Live' in Singapore Presented by Diakanos |
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FR蒁蒖IC CHOPIN Scherzo in B minor EDVARD GRIEG Four Lyric Pieces MAURICE RAVEL "Ondine" from Gaspard de la Nuit. Toccata from Le Tombeau de Couperin FRANZ LISZT Rhapsody No.6. Concert Etude No.3 - Un sospiro. Sonetto 104 - Del Petrarca LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Sonata in F minor, op.57 "Appassionata" |
OVERALL NOISE RATING:
5 (Generally a non-classical concert crowd who whispered, with handphones going off after repeated reminders, pagers of all sorts going off at different times paying no attention to the reminders. Urrgh, really irritating.)
The Noise Rating Index is a partially-objective measurement of pager and handphone blasts, 9pm and 10pm watch beeps, coughing-during-the-pianissimo-bits, intra-audience conversation and other mind-bogglingly inept noises emitted in the concert hall during actual performance of music. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 5, in increasing annoyance.
This review is kindly sponsored by Diakanos.
by Johann D'Souza
I have to commend the sound technicians for putting forward some very good sound acoustics across the ballroom. I for one did not believe that it was going to be pulled off after being disappointed watching two concerts at Suntec City in the past, those by Yo-Yo Ma and Isaac Stern held a couple of years ago.
The concert began 20 minutes late at 8.20 pm. I think the organisers should know that one of the golden rules of Classical music concerts is that it starts on time no matter who is late. If the audience is late let them wait till the appropriate time is right before letting them in.
Singaporeans do not give standing ovations easily to performers, the last one being the recent Sumi Jo concert held (reviewed here) and the one before that - well I can't really remember. Thus when the audience tonight gave David Helfgott a standing ovation, it really came as a surprise to me.
Running up onto the stage and giving half-bows to the audience across the room, he smiled, grimaced and swayed. It seemed evident that the audience had come to listen to the person portrayed in the movie SHINE. Slightly reminiscent of the genius Glenn Gould, he huffed and puffed on stage and even mumbled and sighed as he played. While the crowd watched in bewilderment, he swung his right arm out away from his back in an arc before returnng it to the keyboard. Meanwhile, his left hand played on, and this alternated on occasions. This must be David Helfgott the phenomenon.
He began his programme with Chopin's Scherzo in B minor. I have to admit his playing did not give me any immediate impressions: the dynamics were rough, with forte chords done in the extreme. Descending runs were conspicuously uneven and at times he skimmed across the notes missing the salient melodic line. There was no sight of the climax as repeat runs were given the same treatment and impressions, and build-ups to the climax were virtually non-existent.
Not all was lost - he did do some justice to Grieg's An den Fr黨ling ("To the Spring"), Schmetterling ("Butterfly"), Notturno and Erotik from the Lyric Pieces. I think he is better in short pieces where he can concentrate on different shades of colour for the individual works. Helfgott produced an introspective reading of the Notturno and Erotik with his childlike demeanour and breath of innocence.
His impressionistic reading of Ravel's Ondine was done with fine taste and there were signs of his true brilliance and sensitivity. However these seemed to be few and far between. Watching David Helfgott play is quite different from listening to David Helfgott on his CDs, studio conditions notwithstanding. His visual antics at the piano show his unique style and also displays his love for the instrument as he smiles to himself, talks incessantly and at times whispers during the performance.
The performance of the Toccata from Le Tombeau de Couperin was but a mildly virtuosic experience, with inconsistent tempi and staccatos which bothered in a semi-legato fashion. Everything seemed rather smudgy.
I did not quite take to his interpretation of Liszt either, with virtuoso elements missing in the Rhapsody No.6. Whereas it should be a pinnacle of exuberance, Helfgott gave a rather mild reading, with only a distant understanding of what Liszt created in the Rhapsodies, which are a combination of wild and boisterous dances. His rendition of Un Sospiro was heavy-handed. Where the glissando runs in the introduction are supposed to be light and superfluous, here it seemed rather uninspirational and uneven. I am forced to agree with Alfred Brendel when he remarked that "anyone who does not play Liszt with nobility, passes sentence on himself" (and this is quoted from the S$12 programme booklet).
Helfgott's performance of Beethoven's "Appassionata Sonata" was to me a complete (musical) disaster. From the opening three notes which are supposed to be explosive in expression, there was no depth or premonition of what was to come. Phrasal markings which make the music in this sonata poignant were often given very literal translations and at times too abstract readings. Tempi was uneven and coordination virtually non-existent. Beethoven's score is completely ignored. All we have is Helfgott. Is this Beethoven?
The "Appassionata" is noted for its climaxes, but here there was none, no depth nor insight. Helfgott raced through the second movement like a jack rabbit and showed a total lack of understanding. However at the end of it all he received a grand applause which I somehow did not begrudge. It seemed to me that the audience, discerning or otherwise, clearly did not want or expect the technical perfection many critics demand. It was more the enjoyment of his enthusiasm and his joyful spirit that they had paid to watch. Perhaps this is true to some extent of the spirit of Romanticism.
For the encores Helfgott played three works: Pasquinade by Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-69), a transcription of Khachaturian's Sabre Dance from Gayaneh and Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble-Bee as transcribed by Rachmaninov, the last which he seemed to have whizzed through without the introductory chords.
While I was deeply disappointed with the performance, I think many around me were happy to finally see the star that was portrayed in SHINE - and nothing more. They had come to explore the mystery of the man more than the music.
I was one of the few that went into the concert hall early and noticed massive confusion regarding ticket seating. While the management had said tickets were "upgraded", some disgruntled patrons refused to sit at their new seats. I suppose the $150 tickets were just too expensive for anyone's liking to be told where to sit. I heard one patron remark that she did not pay $150 to watch the side view of the potted plants - well, she was lucky enough to be given better seats on the left side of the stage, where the keyboard is visible. Others sat disgruntled and tried not to cause a scene.
What was it that they were judging? Was it the triumph of the human spirit? Watching David Helfgott one cannot escape looking back at history - his life, his breakdown - all this is still an unavoidable part of him. Many great performers of the past have also suffered breakdowns and depressions, including famous composers such as Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov himself. However I feel that to compare David Helfgott, who seems to mainly bank on these handicaps for audience sympathy, to these greats would be scandalous and a mockery to the virtuosos of classical music who practise day in and out to achieve a certain level of virtuosity and fidelity to the composers' music.
Johann D'Souza has just watched the local production of THE TEENAGE TEXTBOOK and wonders why is that his college life was nothing like that portrayed in the movie.
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