Read Online Out of Tune by Margaret Helfgott - Free Book Online
Authors: Margaret Helfgott
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Genius?” accompanied by a huge, half-page photo of my brother, a caption in one paper
stated: “David Helfgott is already being hailed as a coming genius who could bring great credit to Australia. Two world-famous
artists, Isaac Stern and Abbey Simon, have declared that David displays great promise and should go abroad to study.”
Another paper reported Simon as saying, “David should go to one of the great schools of music such as the Curtis Institute
in America”—a reference to the famous Philadelphia music school founded in 1924 by Mary Bok in memory of her father Cyrus
Curtis. Simon, who had also been a child prodigy, had himself studied at the Curtis Institute.
An especially glowing article appeared in
Woman’s Day
in July 1961. Entitled “Little Boy on Way to Fame,” it began: “Children, housewives, old people on an evening stroll often
pause a little awed, outside a modest home in Highgate, Perth. From the home tumbles a tempestuous stream of music played
with an intensity that moves everyone who hears. They are listening to a young pianist who could one day be one of Australia’s
greatest musicians—fourteen-year-old David Helfgott … He is believed to be the youngest pianist ever to reach the finals of
the ABC competition … David squirms with embarrassment when the conversation turns to him … He would have been horrified to
know that after he appeared on TV many Perth housewives phoned the station to describe David’s hands as the most beautiful
they had ever seen.”
The article by James Penberthy in the Perth
Sunday Times
, which started the whole ball rolling, also included a feature about the family. “The Helfgott family is rich in pride, talent,
and happiness,” Penberthy wrote, “but they have barely enough money for the necessities of life. Proud papa, Peter Helfgott,
a State Electricity Commission fitter, has a wife and five young children to support. Margaret, sixteen, who plays the piano
with great dash, passed the Junior Certificate with nine subjects. Leslie, ten, plays Paganini on the violin without any teaching.
Eight-year-old Susanna, also untaught, played some Rimsky-Korsakov on the piano. Baby Louisa, just nineteen months, only listens
with interest to the others.
“How Polish-born Peter and Rae Helfgott keep their family happy, well-fed, dressed, and educated in their humble home, is
quite beyond me,” Penberthy added. “Peter Helfgott told me: ‘We wanted to maintain some [musical] life in the house so we
managed to keep up payments on the piano.’ The Helfgotts are with justification a proud family—they ask help from no one.”
After a while, my father went to the Perth
Sunday Times
office to find out how much money had been raised to send David to the United States. But hardly anything had come in. Although
a donation had been sent from as far away as Canberra, and a prominent Perth businessman, Alec Breckler, had generously offered
to help, the sum raised was far short of that needed. David’s move to America was therefore not a realistic option.
To suggest, as
Shine
does, that my father had “refused” David permission to go to the States, and to hint that it was what his family had been
through during the Holocaust that had led him to make this irrational and unfair decision—one that would ultimately lead to
David’s breakdown and institutionalization—is not only a terrible slur on my father but also indirectly on all Holocaust survivors
and their descendants.
The whole thing was all in fact a case of misinterpretation. The media, taking their cue from the
Sunday Times
, wrongly reported or implied that Stern and Simon had actually made a concrete offer to David to study in the United States.
In reality, they had merely praised his playing and suggested, in an off-the-cuff kind of way, that he should consider going
abroad to study.
Isaac Stern was furious at the way
Shine
misrepresented what
stated: “David Helfgott is already being hailed as a coming genius who could bring great credit to Australia. Two world-famous
artists, Isaac Stern and Abbey Simon, have declared that David displays great promise and should go abroad to study.”
Another paper reported Simon as saying, “David should go to one of the great schools of music such as the Curtis Institute
in America”—a reference to the famous Philadelphia music school founded in 1924 by Mary Bok in memory of her father Cyrus
Curtis. Simon, who had also been a child prodigy, had himself studied at the Curtis Institute.
An especially glowing article appeared in
Woman’s Day
in July 1961. Entitled “Little Boy on Way to Fame,” it began: “Children, housewives, old people on an evening stroll often
pause a little awed, outside a modest home in Highgate, Perth. From the home tumbles a tempestuous stream of music played
with an intensity that moves everyone who hears. They are listening to a young pianist who could one day be one of Australia’s
greatest musicians—fourteen-year-old David Helfgott … He is believed to be the youngest pianist ever to reach the finals of
the ABC competition … David squirms with embarrassment when the conversation turns to him … He would have been horrified to
know that after he appeared on TV many Perth housewives phoned the station to describe David’s hands as the most beautiful
they had ever seen.”
The article by James Penberthy in the Perth
Sunday Times
, which started the whole ball rolling, also included a feature about the family. “The Helfgott family is rich in pride, talent,
and happiness,” Penberthy wrote, “but they have barely enough money for the necessities of life. Proud papa, Peter Helfgott,
a State Electricity Commission fitter, has a wife and five young children to support. Margaret, sixteen, who plays the piano
with great dash, passed the Junior Certificate with nine subjects. Leslie, ten, plays Paganini on the violin without any teaching.
Eight-year-old Susanna, also untaught, played some Rimsky-Korsakov on the piano. Baby Louisa, just nineteen months, only listens
with interest to the others.
“How Polish-born Peter and Rae Helfgott keep their family happy, well-fed, dressed, and educated in their humble home, is
quite beyond me,” Penberthy added. “Peter Helfgott told me: ‘We wanted to maintain some [musical] life in the house so we
managed to keep up payments on the piano.’ The Helfgotts are with justification a proud family—they ask help from no one.”
After a while, my father went to the Perth
Sunday Times
office to find out how much money had been raised to send David to the United States. But hardly anything had come in. Although
a donation had been sent from as far away as Canberra, and a prominent Perth businessman, Alec Breckler, had generously offered
to help, the sum raised was far short of that needed. David’s move to America was therefore not a realistic option.
To suggest, as
Shine
does, that my father had “refused” David permission to go to the States, and to hint that it was what his family had been
through during the Holocaust that had led him to make this irrational and unfair decision—one that would ultimately lead to
David’s breakdown and institutionalization—is not only a terrible slur on my father but also indirectly on all Holocaust survivors
and their descendants.
The whole thing was all in fact a case of misinterpretation. The media, taking their cue from the
Sunday Times
, wrongly reported or implied that Stern and Simon had actually made a concrete offer to David to study in the United States.
In reality, they had merely praised his playing and suggested, in an off-the-cuff kind of way, that he should consider going
abroad to study.
Isaac Stern was furious at the way
Shine
misrepresented what
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