Archives 1997 | R: ARCHIVE, S: MOVIES, D: 04/03/1997, Shine writer/director Scott Hicks based Peter helfgott on david s with whatthe pianist told Beverley Eley for her biography The Book of david Daddy http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archives/1997/documents/00524487.htm
Extractions: R: ARCHIVE, S: MOVIES, D: 04/03/1997, Does it Shine Further thoughts on the phenomenon Shine protagonist remains an unbalanced, unwell man, and (b) his piano playing is spasmodic, arrhythmic, and totally unworthy of the concert hall. Still, Helfgott went on as promised at the Academy Awards, and he got away with a finger-exercise Flight of the Bumblebee on a dubious music night of torch songs from Kenny Loggins and Celine Dion. He played fast and tricky, piling on intertwined notes, and lost the rhythm only a couple of times. Geoffrey Rush, as everyone predicted, got Best Actor for his unerring Shine re-creation of Helfgott's buzzed, Lucky-in- Waiting for Godot riffs and huggy Harpo Marx personality. Otherwise, Shine was stepped on by The English Patient in every Oscar category where it was nominated. Is that because The English Patient is such an unbelievably strong film? Or was it that Helfgott's concert debacle made Shine lovers hesitate on their ballots, made them wonder whether the film hadn't duped them. Who can defend Shine 's sunshine, holistic, on-stage ending, which cajoles us to believe that today's Helfgott not only plays beautifully but is closing in on achieving mental stability?
Dead Or Alive? - David Helfgott Go Back Alive david helfgott. Field, Music. Info, Classical pianist, known forhis performances of Rachmaninov s Third Piano Concerto, his battle with http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/dead.nsf/hnames-nf/Helfgott David
Greg Sandow -- Rachmaninoff 3d Comparisons Poor david helfgott got an F; Vladimir Horowitz got an A, for his version Click the RA icons below to hear the pianist of your choice, and if you have http://www.gregsandow.com/rach3.htm
Extractions: This all started with a "Consumer Guide" I wrote for the Village Voice, New York's big alternative weekly. I listened to 17 recordings of this suddenly popular concerto, and wrote 17 quick paragraphs, with a grade attached to each one. Poor David Helfgott got an F; Vladimir Horowitz got an A, for his version with Fritz Reiner conducting. (Though a later Horowitz release, a live performance with Eugene Ormandy, only got C+.) You can read this adventure, right here on this site. Much later and by a happy coincidence I was asked to write about the concerto once again, this time for the Los Angeles Times. In fact, I was asked to defend it against critical attacks, which I was happy to do. The more I listened to it, for my Voice consumer guide, the more I loved it. And I enlisted two very articulate pianists to help me defend it Alexander Toradze, and Byron Janis. This piece, too, is available here But you want to hear the music my comparisons of six pianists playing the same Rach 3 excerpt. Click the RA icons below to hear the pianist of your choice, and if you have RealAudio 3.0 or higher installed on your computer you'll hear the excerpts "streaming" down the Internet in real time.
Greg Sandow -- Rach 3 Consumer Guide To bring it off, you need a pianist with power, pick hit must to avoid poetry, david helfgott/Copenhagen Philharmonic, Milan Horvat (RCA) http://www.gregsandow.com/rachguid.htm
Extractions: Village Voice, April 22, 1997 Another classical piece becomes a pop sensation, thanks to Shine and David Helfgott, who makes his second New York appearance on Thursday (April 17). And there couldn't be a better candidate than Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto.''Rach 3,'' as it's come to be known, challenges a heroic soloist to ride the tumult of the orchestra, lingering now and then for interludes of great romantic tenderness. ''Movie music,'' say the snobs, forgetting that Rach 3 is tightly constructed, and that it's bigger than any background score-epic enough, in fact, to be the film itself. To bring it off, you need a pianist with power, poetry, and also brains, so the music can be more than mush. These virtuosi come in two varieties, old school and modern. The old ones tell a more individual and, a severe critic might say, a more indulgent story. The modern ones sound sharper, clearer, and less Romantic, though on their own terms they generate a lot of heat. What follows aren't all the choices. But they'll show you what your options are. The grades run high, and the reason should be clear: This is one of the hardest piano pieces ever written, and except for one obvious unfortunate exception, nobody records it who isn't in complete command.
David Helfgott - Saxton Speaker Bureau - Speaker Details david helfgott, superb pianist, virtuoso and inspiration, has performed recitalsand as a concerto soloist in the most illustrious Conservatories and http://www.saxton.com.au/default.asp?sd8=1042
Extractions: David Helfgott, a middle-aged, mentally-ill pianist from Australia, was all but unknown outside his native land a year ago; today, he is one of the hottest tickets in classical music. His recording of the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto, released in January,(*) rose within weeks to the number-one spot on the Billboard classical chart, and had sold 200,000 copies by the time of his New York recital debut, which took place in March at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. This concert, part of a North American tour which attracted mass-media coverage comparable to that received by Van Cliburn when he won the Tchaikowsky Competition in 1958, sold out within days of its announcement, as did two hastily scheduled repeat performances.
David Helfgott The pain of pianist david helfgott. by PHILIP ANSON. By now everyone is familiarwith Shine, the movie version of Australian pianist david helfgott s rise http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/1997/022797/music4.html
Extractions: by PHILIP ANSON By now everyone is familiar with Shine, the movie version of Australian pianist David Helfgott's rise and fall. Yet in the months since Shine premiered, we have learned remarkably little about the real Helfgott. What is the truth behind the myth of the child prodigy who collapsed under the weight of his own musical genius, only to be rescued by the redeeming power of love? Is he a goofy genius who thrives on making a public fool of himself? cooperation, and he had to omit unflattering details before they finally approved the screenplay. As a result, what the movie leaves out is almost as disturbing as what it includes. UPFRONT NAKED CITY POP CULTURE ABOUT TOWN ... BACK
Boing Boing: Mystery Piano Man The case has drawn comparisons with the 1996 film Shine which depicts the storyof acclaimed pianist david helfgott who suffered a nervous breakdown. http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/16/mystery_piano_man.html
Extractions: The man shocked staff with a performance of classical music after (social worker Michael) Camp showed him the piano in the hospital's chapel... (The adult mental health manager for the West Kent NHS and Social Care Trust) said that the labels had been removed from every item of clothing the man was wearing when he was found on The Broadway in Minster, Sheerness.
Extractions: -"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 New York Times > Movies > SHINE > Review, Cast And Synopsis Rush stars as david helfgott, a pianist with a history of mental problems.As a fragile boy genius at math, chess, and piano, david is driven hard by his http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=135474
About David Hirschfelder as both composer and musical director for Scott Hicks award winning film,SHINE, the moving retelling of pianist david helfgotts complicated life. http://www.davidhirschfelder.com/about.html
Extractions: Read more.... David Hirschfelder is one of Australia Australia and the United States , and his compositional skills have been honoured with distinguished awards from several nations. As a teenager in Australia When Hirschfelder emerged from his schooling, he was swift to work his way up Australia United States . Hirschfelder, for one, found it an incredibly moving experience, not only to be setting his delicate music to drama, but to real-life situations. Australia Australia the film garnered thirteen Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award nominations, while in Britain , the score picked up a BAFTA (British Film and TV Academy Award) for the Best Original Score. Also in 1992, Hirschfelder was responsible for one of Australia Ever one to meet a challenge, Hirschfelder set about composing a score that would seamlessly blend with the on-screen piano music, yet retain its own voice. His completed work successfully reflected the elegance of the past masters, but with a post-modern twist. By peppering classicism with a contemporary edge, Hirschfelder helped SHINE connect with worldwide audiences. The SHINE score was honoured with Best Original Score nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts 1996 found Hirschfelder hired as both composer and consultant for Scott Hicks' award winning film, SHINE, the moving retelling of pianist David Helfgott's complicated life. The composer found it tremendously formidable opportunity. Not only was he to work with the real life Helfgott, but also his original score was required to exist along side piano works by Rachmaninoff and Rimsky-Korsakov. Ever one to meet a challenge, Hirschfelder set about composing a score that would seamlessly blend with the on-screen piano music, yet remain a style apart. His completed work successfully retained the elegance of the past masters, but with a modern past. By peppering his classicism with bits of popular influences, Hirschfelder helped SHINE connect with worldwide audiences.
Movie Review: Shine The movie Shine, the story of pianist david helfgott, entrances its viewer frombeginning to end without having to rely on spectacular explosions or http://www.teenink.com/Past/1997/8144.html
Extractions: The movie "Shine," the story of pianist David Helfgott, entrances its viewer from beginning to end without having to rely on spectacular explosions or over-muscled superheroes. Instead, it narrates the story of Helfgott from his childhood through middle age in a subtle, yet telling way. Helfgott is portrayed superbly by Golden Globe winner Geoffrey Rush, who is able to capture the emotions of the prodigy and endear him to the viewer in a subtle, unassuming way.
Movie Reviews By Mark Leeper to the point of being nearly autistic but is also a brilliant pianist.david helfgott is a man with many personal demons, some real and some imagined, http://www.eclectica.org/v1n3n4/leeper6.html
Extractions: There are some minor spoilers in the plot description. SHINE is a true story, a biography of a sort of local celebrity in Australia. The man is eccentric to the point of being nearly autistic but is also a brilliant pianist. David Helfgott is a man with many personal demons, some real and some imagined, who was a musical prodigy but could not face the pressures that a musical career placed on him. The greatest of all the pressures came from his father, a man of huge rages who wanted to control David like he would control a puppet. What is interesting in the film is the affect that music has on David. As a boy music is a negative influence on him, dragging him down into the strange psychological state he eventually reaches. He is eventually even forbidden to play the piano for fear of the effect it will have on him. Yet the same music is also what pulls him out of that slump, returning some semblance of a life and even a career to him. Also remarkable is how people seem to keep finding David endearing. In spite of his many problems and the infinite patience that is required for dealing with him, the adult David seems to have the charm somehow to attract admirers and people who are willing to care for him. The adult David strikes one as having an intelligent, but uncontrolled mind. He talks as fast as his fingers move playing the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto, but he jumps from idea to idea and drops each for the next.
Filmcritic.com Movie Review: Shine look at that country s david helfgott, a prodigy of a pianist driven insaneby his father, only to emerge again after 20 years of institutionalization. http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/0/f3fc1077dc381c86862564060059949e?O
ECU Staff News ECU conferred an honorary degree on classical pianist david helfgott, david helfgott stirs the graduation audience with the playing of three http://www.ecu.edu.au/pr/Publications/staffezine/141004.htm
Extractions: News Free software Worthy of mention - V-C David Helfgott award Digital camera winner ... Click here for past editions Free software for use at home ECU staff and students now have access to a greater range of software titles for home use. EndNote Macromedia Studio MX 2004 (includes Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Freehand, Flash) QSR NVivo and Nudist SPSS Symantec Anti-virus Staff and students can call into any ECU library and, upon presentation of their ECU identification cards, obtain any of the selected applications available to them under the new Consolidated Home Use Licensing program. Library staff will ask for a simple form to be completed. For more information on the Consolidated Home Use Licensing program, click here The ECU Advantage The ECU Advantage IBM Thinkpad University project is both a strategic and an institutional academic initiative. The current pilot involving the schools of Management, Education, Communications and Multimedia will continue throughout Semester 1 2005. The School of Computer and Information Science will join the program in 2005. The ECU Advantage project will be supported by a series of professional development activities for academic staff wanting to find out more about the use of technology to improve the learning environment.
ECU Student News david helfgott receives honorary doctorate at ECU took place on 11 October,when classical pianist david helfgott was awarded an honorary doctorate. http://www.ecu.edu.au/pr/Publications/studentezine/251004.htm
Extractions: October 2004 CONTENTS Get ready for HESA changes ECU's most successful games Extreme youth festival Transformation starts at Churchlands ... Public Notices: Nominate outstanding students, RUCSN scholarships, SIMO upgrades, Click here for past editions There have been significant changes to the Higher Education Support Act, (HESA), which is the legislation underpinning a series of reforms being implemented at Australian universities from 1 January 2005. ECU is working hard to finalise new processes for admitting, tracking and financially supporting students. There are new terminologies and and rules for both new and continuing students. HECS students will now be called Commonwealth supported students. PELS students will be referred to as Commonwealth assisted students and HECS amounts will now be known as the student contribution amount. Students can now access the new ECU website at http://fees.ecu.edu.au
Mail&Guardian: It's Brilliantissimo! THE sister of pianist david helfgott has mounted an extraordinary attack on Shine,the critically acclaimed film which tells his life story. http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/mg/art/reviews/97feb/7feb-shine.html
Extractions: DELAIDE, Western Australia, May, 1986: Kerry Hicks had a memorable birthday that year. She and her husband Scott were expecting friends for dinner, to celebrate. The scene was set for a convivial but hardly unusual evening. Until, that is, Scott, an established film-maker, read in the local newspaper of an eccentric pianist who had survived a mysterious "illness" to return to the recital trail. The man was playing in Adelaide that night. Hicks felt he had to attend. He listened and marvelled. The result, 10 years in the making, was Shine , the unlikely story of a deranged pianist, which is already on course to become one of the most talked-about movies of 1997. With its bittersweet theme of destructive and redeeming love, Shine tells the tale of childlike genius David Helfgott. But the story behind the story - the making of the film - is almost as compelling. The narrative includes some potent cinematic myths: a director with a dream, a virtually unknown star, an unseemly wrangle over distribution rights, and controversy over the film's version of the truth. "Something - I don't know what - compelled me to skip Kerry's supper that night and attend that recital. I'm glad I did," says Hicks. "She's since forgiven me. I remember I came away from the recital feeling like you do when you've seen a good film. It was an extraordinary experience." What intrigued him is evident from his biopic. David Helfgott is no thin-blooded interpreter of the piano repertoire. He hums, grimaces and laughs while he performs. His interpretations are not purist: notes or lines occasionally go missing.
Pantagraph.com - Craft's Movie Review: "Shine" This uplifting but uncloying Australianmade account of the life and times ofreal-life classical pianist david helfgott has been structured along the http://www.pantagraph.com/ent/movies/reviews/shine.html
Extractions: "Shine" is a sort of triumph-of-the-fractured-spirit drama about what happens when artistic genius and dysfunctional upbringing collide head-on, sending the genius part of the artist's psyche twirling off into its own privately dysfunctional orbit. That would be, of course, madness not an uncommon realm for genius to visit from time to time. Although film portraits of artists as troubled young men are a fairly common breed, "Shine" is something else again. This uplifting but uncloying Australian-made account of the life and times of real-life classical pianist David Helfgott has been structured along the compositional lines of the concertos favored by its artist. Meaning: varying movements of different tempos and rhythms, recurring leitmotifs, repeated refrains, periodic crescendos and virtuoso solo work against an orchestral background. The three movements of Mr. Helfgott's opus are divided between his early childhood in the 1950s, his adolescence and young manhood in the '60s and '70s, and, finally, his middle-aged mental dysfunction of the early 1980s.
