I believe Helfgott is a musical genius who is unfortunately marred by
mental illness and at times, sloppy technique.  I've seen footage of him
in the early 80's maybe even as far back as the 70's when he was phenomenal.
His wonderful ideas came through much more clearly and there actually
was a context(a semblance of structure) in his interpretations.  They
interviewed him and you see the reason why.  His speech is also much
clearer and coherent like his music.  Now, he's a mess, even though his
wife claims that he's much better now.  You can still here some wonderful
musical ideas, albeit very localized events like rhythmic pointing and he
does have a knack of drawing some wonderful colors from the instrument.
I have a friend with a severe stutter which unfortunately comes through
in his piano playing.  I suspect that these are related.

No, he's in a different class than Bocelli, et al, but he's exploited in
the same exact way and critics resent that.

Bob Yoon