Review: Piano Man, TVOne, 9.30pm Sat 10 June 2006 Michael Houston Michael Houstoun, our 'premier concert pianist', wasted no time coming out in the documentary about him, seen on TV1 on last night. Almost as soon as the doco - Piano Man - began (well, after a memory of his mum and her love of music) we were introduced to his long-time partner Mike at the country cottage they share in Feilding. And the last shot in the doco was of a wonderful photo of the two of them, looking a little younger and hairier than they do now. In between we met his mum, his influential school teacher Ian Dando, his first piano teacher Sister Eulalie and his second teacher Maurice Till. There was time-warp footage of Auckland in the 70s, when Michael went there (and stayed at the YWCA with his mum and sister) to try his hand at the big challenge of the big city competitions. He won, of course, and then went on to meet some of the locals (including the charismatic Ivan Wirepa). As a result he 'grew up in one week' and his wise old mum left a window open at the YWCA so he could sneak back in after the main doors were firmly closed for the night. After Auckland there was no stopping this ivory-tickling talent from Timaru! Off he went to the Van Cliburn comp, the Leeds comp and at the grand old age of thirty he entered what turned out to be for all involved a disappointing Tchaikovsky comp in Moscow. The guts of Piano Man concerns Mr Houstoun's battle with a nerve condition called 'focal distonia'. For you and I, that means he lost the use of his right hand - not an option for a piano player of any ability and for one who had just completed playing all of Beethoven's sonatas in a spectacular series of seven day concerts, it seemed a particularly cruel blow. There is fascinating footage of him practising to overcome this, helped by fellow pianist Rae De l'isle. One wishes the doco had covered his overseas career with the same thoroughness - I mean , what was that footage of Mr Houstoun tooling around in a convertible, showing two chicks the town, all about?! At the time Houstoun is captured in an interview saying bluntly he didn't want to be treated like a pound of butter. In hindsight, grand poohbah Ian Fraser opines that Houstoun's management didn't know how to package and sell him... well, not in a convertible they didn't! Anyhow, it didn't matter because he came back home and for anyone who is lucky enough to see him on his current tour with violinist Feng Ning (as I did at an exhilarating house-full show in Auckland), we're bloody lucky he did! On the whole, despite the occasional visual cliche (don't be put off by a torrent of these at the beginning) and a climax that centres on a piece of contemporary music that sounds like Martin Denny and his orchestra having a bad day, this was a satisfying and honest look at a man whose gently piercing gaze and quiet strength made me think of him as the musical equivalent of our mountain climbing bloke, Sir Edmund H. John Curry - 11th June 2006