Unrecognized genius

A virtuoso pianist has appeared in the UK, whose identity cannot be established.

UK doctors have been trying for more than a month to establish the identity of the young virtuoso pianist, who apparently lost his memory and was speechless. Everything that he was able to communicate about himself, he did with the help of music - when he found himself at the piano, and even then by accident. He was found in April on a beach in the south of England, near the city of Kent, wearing a tailcoat, soaking wet and shaking from the cold. He was not beaten or sick, and did not at all look like a homeless person, of whom there were a dime a dozen on the deserted beaches at that time. He appears to be about 25 years old and doesn't talk to anyone. Doctors at Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham discovered their patient's passion for music when they gave him a pen and paper for the mute man to write his name. However, instead of detailed passport data, he depicted a piano. Then he was brought to the hospital piano, and he began to play, amazing everyone with his classical repertoire and virtuosity of performance. He played for more than two hours.

While hospital staff and police simply call him Piano Man, British social services are trying in vain to determine the identity of the silent virtuoso pianist. None of the visitors to the Internet site about missing persons, where a photograph and information about this person was posted, recognized him as either a relative or a neighbor. The hotlines have not yet received any calls about the missing orchestra member. The assumption that he was an illegal refugee from Eastern Europe was also not justified - Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish interpreters visited the patient, but he did not respond to their speeches. Most likely, the next interlocutor of the strange unknown will be a translator from the Swedish language, because after the piano the man depicted the Swedish flag on paper.

In general, this whole story is more reminiscent of a Hollywood movie script than a pure coincidence. And the doctors themselves have already remembered in this regard the Australian pianist David Helfgott, who suffered a nervous breakdown, but then nevertheless returned to the piano - his fate formed the basis of the film “Shine”, released in 1996. However, the story of the anonymous musician is still far from a happy ending. Hospital chaplain Alan Amos told British media that "playing the piano is the only way for a patient to control his feelings and emotions and relax." “This is a very sad matter. It is known that the person suffered some kind of injury, and our task is to find out what, and this is very difficult, because we know nothing about his past,” Mr. Amos said. According to hospital social worker Michael Kemp, “When the patient is playing, he is calm, but as soon as he looks up from the keys, he immediately becomes agitated and tries to avoid people.” "He climbs onto his bed and wraps his head in the blanket," Mr. Kemp said. In his last days, the unknown virtuoso was transferred to a mental hospital in Dartford. And, according to the chief physician of the clinic, Ramanah Venkiah, things are getting worse and worse, the patient has stopped drawing and playing. “We cannot communicate with him,” said the doctor. “He no longer gives us signs that he understands anything.”

Everyone who has heard a mute pianist play unanimously assures him that he is a professional. “He can’t be just an amateur, if that’s the case, then he’s a genius,” one of the musicians who came to listen to a strange patient in a psychiatric clinic told the BBC. In addition, during the month spent in the clinic, the unknown person wrote several of his own musical works, which experts also appreciated.

Anna ShPAK