Can this record save lives?

What you see here is a photograph that cannot be printed in any self-respecting newspaper in the year of our enlightenment 2010.

It shows a man smoking a cigarette. Everyone knows that smoking kills. Depicting a man in the act of lighting a fag amounts to an inducement to homicide. That’s why no newspaper editor will permit it.

So what is it doing on the cover of a classical record?

My first response, when I reviewed the record here and here, was that the German producers had erred against current codes of public decency and should, perhaps, have chosen another photo. On second thoughts, I think they were right.

Nine months after this photo was taken, the pianist in the picture, known as Solomon, suffered a paralysing stroke and never played again. Once you know this, the picture and its story constitute a subtle but highly effective health advertising campaign.  Don’t you think?