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Title: Pitiful
Review: It's hard to find words to explain how awful this recording is. Obviously one has to feel tremendous sympathy and admiration for Mr. Helfgott as a person and for his courage. Unfortunately his fingers are not up to the music. There are heaps and heaps of missed or wrong notes and a great deal of bizarre sforzandos and tempo changes. At some point in his life he was obviously an excellent pianist and his musicality is good. He actually plays the opening page of the Rach 3 quite beautifully, but the rest of it is best forgotten.It's a very sad recording. Mr. Helfgott is not the first pianist to have had psychiatric problems, nor will he be the last. He sounds like he is playing under the influence of anti-depressants or sedatives, nor is he the first pianist to do that in public. Listening to this is not life-affirming or uplifting. It's depressing and embarrassing.
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