Many subsequent pianists tried to emulate Mr. Cliburn’s path to success through international competition victories. But a significant number of critics and teachers took to castigating the premise and value of competitions as an encouragement of faceless virtuosity, superficial brilliance and inoffensive interpretations. Nevertheless, in 1962, some arts patrons and business leaders in the Fort Worth area, to honor their hometown hero, inaugurated the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. It remains the most lucrative and visible of these contests.
*****
Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn, Jr., (
//; July 12, 1934 – February 27, 2013) was an
American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at the age of 23, when he won the first quadrennial
International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in
Moscow at the height of the
Cold War.
[1][2]
His mother, an accomplished pianist who had studied under a student of
Franz Liszt, discovered him playing at age three and mimicking one of her students. She began his own lessons.
[1] He developed a rich, round tone and a singing voice-like phrasing, having been taught from the start to sing each piece.
[1]
Van Cliburn toured domestically and overseas. He played for royalty, heads of state, and every
U.S. president from
Harry S. Truman to
Barack Obama.
[3]
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Cliburn was born in
Shreveport in northwestern
Louisiana, and at age three began taking piano lessons from his mother, the former Rildia Bee O'Bryan, who had studied under
Arthur Friedheim,
[4] a pupil of
Franz Liszt.
[1] When Cliburn was six, his father, who worked in the oil industry,
[5] moved the family to
Kilgore near
Longview in east
Texas. At the age of twelve, Cliburn won a statewide piano competition, which enabled him to debut with the
Houston Symphony Orchestra.
[6] He entered the
Juilliard School in
New York City at the age of seventeen
[6] and studied under
Rosina Lhévinne,
[6] who trained him in the tradition of the great Russian
romantics. At twenty, Cliburn won the
Leventritt Award[6] and made his
Carnegie Hall debut.
It was his recognition in Moscow that propelled Cliburn to international prominence.
[7] The first
International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 was an event designed to demonstrate Soviet cultural superiority during the
Cold War, on the heels of that country's technological victory with the
Sputnik launch in October 1957. Cliburn's performance at the competition finale of
Tchaikovsky's
Piano Concerto No. 1 and
Rachmaninoff's
Piano Concerto No. 3 on April 13 earned him a standing ovation lasting eight minutes.
[2][8] When it was time to announce a winner, the judges were obliged to ask permission of the Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev to give first prize to an American. "Is he the best?" Khrushchev asked. "Then give him the prize!"
[2][9] Cliburn returned home to a
ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only time the honor has been accorded a classical musician. His cover story in
Time magazine proclaimed him "The Texan Who Conquered Russia".
[10]
Honored in New York City, Cliburn told the audience:
I appreciate more than you will ever know that you are honoring me, but the thing that thrills me the most is that you are honoring classical music. Because I'm only one of many. I'm only a witness and a messenger. Because I believe so much in the beauty, the construction, the architecture invisible, the importance for all generations, for young people to come that it will help their minds, develop their attitudes, and give them values. That is why I'm so grateful that you have honored me in that spirit.[11]
Success[edit]
Upon returning to the United States, Cliburn appeared in a Carnegie Hall concert with the
Symphony of the Air, conducted by
Kirill Kondrashin, who had led the
Moscow Philharmonic in the prize-winning performances in Moscow.
[6] The performance of the Rachmaninoff 3rd Piano Concerto at this concert was subsequently released by
RCA Victor on LP. Cliburn was also invited by
Steve Allen to play a solo during Allen's prime time
NBC television series on May 25, 1958.
[12]
RCA Victor signed him to an exclusive contract, and his subsequent recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 became the first classical album to go
platinum.
[13] It was the best-selling classical album in the world for more than a decade, eventually going triple-platinum. Cliburn won the 1958
Grammy Award for
Best Classical Performance for this recording. In 2004, this recording was re-mastered from the original studio analogue tapes, and released on a
Super Audio CD.
Other standard repertoire Cliburn recorded include the
Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor,
Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor,
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2,
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 and
No. 5 "Emperor", and the
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3.
In 1958, during a dinner hosted by the National Guild of Piano Teachers,
[14] President and Founder Dr. Irl Allison announced a cash prize of $10,000 to be used for a piano competition named in Van Cliburn’s honor. Under the leadership of Grace Ward Lankford and with the dedicated efforts of local music teachers and volunteers, the First
Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was held from September 24 to October 7, 1962, at
Texas Christian University in
Fort Worth.
[6] Until his death, Cliburn continued to serve as Director Emeritus for the
Van Cliburn Foundation, as host of the quadrennial competition and host of other programs honoring his legacy.
In 1961 he first performed at the
Interlochen Center for the Arts during its summer camp. He went on to do so for eighteen more years, his last visit to the school being in 2006.
Cliburn returned to the former Soviet Union on several occasions.
[6] His performances were usually recorded and even televised. In a 1962 Moscow appearance, Nikita Khrushchev, who met Van Cliburn again on this visit,
[9] and
Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet Foreign Minister, were "spotted in the audience applauding enthusiastically".
[15] According to
The Wall Street Journal, "Mr. Cliburn's affection for the Soviet people—and theirs for him—was notable in its warmth during a prolonged period of superpower strain."
[1] A 1972 concert performance of the
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with Kondrashin and the Moscow orchestra, as well as a studio recording of Rachmaninoff's
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, were later issued on CD by RCA Victor.
[16]
On May 26, 1972, Cliburn gave a concert at
Spaso House, the residence of the
United States Ambassador to Russia, for an audience that included President
Richard Nixon, Secretary of State
William P. Rogers, and Soviet government officials.
Comeback[edit]
Cliburn performed and recorded through the 1970s, but in 1978, after the deaths of his father and manager, began a hiatus from public life. In 1987, he was invited to perform at the
White House for President
Ronald Reagan and Soviet president
Mikhail Gorbachev,
[1] and afterward was invited to open the 100th anniversary season of
Carnegie Hall. He embarked on a 16-city tour in 1994, commencing with a performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto at the
Hollywood Bowl. Also in 1994, Cliburn made a guest appearance in the cartoon
Iron Man, playing himself in the episode "Silence My Companion, Death My Destination". In his late seventies, he gave a limited number of performances to critical and popular acclaim. Cliburn appeared as a
Pennington Great Performers series artist with the
Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra in 2006. In 2006 he performed at
Interlochen Center for the Arts, spending two hours talking to the students afterwards and signing their programs while many waited at a reception at the schools' presidents' house.
He played for royalty and heads of state from dozens of countries and for every U.S. president since 1958.
[17]
Van Cliburn Way in the
Fort Worth Cultural District
Cliburn received the
Kennedy Center Honors in 2001. He was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003 by then President
George W. Bush, and, in October 2004, the Russian
Order of Friendship, the highest civilian awards of the two countries. He was also awarded the
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award the same year and played at a surprise 50th birthday party for
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He was a member of the Alpha Chi Chapter of
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and was awarded the fraternity's
Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award in 1962. He was presented a 2010
National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.
[17]
Cliburn's 1958 piano performance in
Moscow when he won the prestigious
Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition has been added to the
National Recording Registry in the
Library of Congress on March 21, 2013 for long-term preservation.
[18]
Personal life and death[edit]
In 1998, Cliburn was named in a lawsuit by his
domestic partner of seventeen years,
mortician Thomas Zaremba.
[19] In the suit, Zaremba claimed entitlement to a portion of Cliburn's income and assets and asserted that he may have been exposed to
HIV, causing emotional distress. The claims were rebutted by a trial court and upheld by an appellate court,
[20] on the basis that
palimony suits are not permitted in the state of Texas unless the relationship is based on a
written agreement.
Cliburn was known as a
night owl. He often practiced until 4:30 or 5 a.m., waking around 1:30 p.m.
[21] "You feel like you're alone and the world's asleep, and it's very inspiring."
[22]
On August 27, 2012, Cliburn's publicist announced that the pianist had advanced bone cancer. He underwent treatment and was "resting comfortably at home" in Fort Worth, where he received around-the-clock care.
[23][24] Cliburn died on February 27, 2013, at the age of seventy-eight.
[25]
Cliburn was a member of Broadway
Baptist Church in Fort Worth and attended regularly when he was in town.
[26] His services were held on March 3, 2013, at the Broadway Baptist Church with entombment at
Greenwood Memorial Park Mausoleum in Fort Worth.
[11] His obituary lists as his only survivor his "friend of longstanding", Thomas J. Smith.
[11]
The Wall Street Journal said on his death that Cliburn was a "cultural hero" who "rocketed to unheard-of stardom for a classical musician in the U.S."
[1] Calling him "the rare classical musician to enjoy rock star status", the
Associated Press on his death noted the 1958
Time magazine cover story that likened him to "
Horowitz,
Liberace and
Presley all rolled into one".
[7]
*****
