Word: cliburn
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Last week Van Cliburn was in the midst of a palimony lawsuit, but in 1958 he was preparing for Carnegie Hall after his triumph at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow: "Deeply religious, and a conscientious teetotaler...he gives 20% of his net earnings to the Baptist Church. During Evangelist Billy Graham's Manhattan crusade last year, Van sang in the Madison Square Garden choir...Buffalo Philharmonic Conductor Josef Krips recalls the time that Van came into his dressing room before a performance and said, 'Maestro, let us pray.' Krips, a Roman Catholic, dropped to his knees with...
...under conductor vassily Sinaisky, will add a few warhorses to the program, including selections from the Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" Suite and the Russian and American national anthems. It appears the Sinaisky and the tour's backers hope to cater to a crowd that might be attracted most by Van Cliburn's mercurial persona...
That crowd may number as many as 20,000 for the open-air concert. Cliburn's New York appearance was staged to the Metropolitan Opera House, whose cavernous hall seems intimate when compared to the expanse of Great Woods. Hopefully, the necessary amplification of the sound will accurately represent the skill and finesse of the musicians...
...Cliburn may have lost a step or two in his more than half-a-century (he first played publicity at age 4) of concertizing. The removal of Rachmaninov's monumental Third Concerto from the planned program for Sunday night may have resulted from a memory loss in an earlier tour stop. However, similar doubts followed Cliburn's almost ten-year hiatus from public playing from 1978 until 1987; they were dispelled upon his return...
...brilliance that put the U.S. on the pianists' map for the first time. Names such as Rubinstein, Sviatoslav Richter and Jan Paderewski had dominated the piano world since the turn of the century, Many such as Rubinstein and Rudolf Serkin, eventually made their homes in this country, but Cliburn was the first native-born American to become a definitive performer of major works. He could have been remembered for his legacy or virtuosity alone, but this tour represents his valuable commitment to bringing classical music into American eyes and ears...