Articles
Van Cliburn
At the height of the Cold War, even a piano could be an instrument in the great contest between East and West. That was the lesson of the victory of 23-year-old...
Van Cliburn, American Classical Pianist, Dies
The internationally celebrated pianist's triumph at a 1958 Moscow competition helped thaw the Cold War
MUSIC: Art & Media: The Reluctant Virtuoso
The year was 1958, and the man of the hour was a rangy young pianist from Texas named Van Cliburn. As the winner of the first Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow,...
Music: The Return of Van Cliburn
"I never abandoned the stage, I never left the stage, I only took time," said Van Cliburn, who had not appeared in a public concert or made a recording in nearly...
Pianists: The Artist as Culture Hero
Van Cliburn is not only a major pianist of the younger generation, but a culture hero as wellright up there with the Beatles and Marshall McLuhan. Contrary to...
Music: Cliburn & The Crowds
The melee at the gate to New York's Lewisohn Stadium looked like the running of the bulls at Pamplona. With elbow, knee and hip, the lovers of the arts and the...
Music: American Sputnik
The chandeliered, high-windowed concert hall of Moscow's Tchaikovsky State Conservatory echoed last week to the rubbery beat of Blue Moon and the striding chords...
Music: Hero's Return
While the flashbulbs flared, a reporter asked the question: How did Van Cliburn, hero returned from Moscow, feel about playing in Carnegie Hall before some of...
Music: Texan in Moscow
The rage of Moscow this week was a lanky (6 ft. 4 in.), curly-haired Texan whose long, flashing fingers at the piano keyboard put a rare thaw into the cold...
'Nobu' Fever: Japan Falls for a Blind Piano Prodigy
As Nobuyuki Tsujii finished the last note of Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante by Chopin, the packed audience in Tokyo's Kioi Hall broke into an...
