Moscow Nights: The Van Cliburn Story-How One Man and His Piano Transformed the Cold War (81 page)

363
  
failed, and failed again on appeal:
Thomas E. Zaremba v. Harvey Lavan Cliburn, Jr.
, Docket 17–236771–96, Seventeenth District Court, Tarrant County, Texas; COA Docket 02–96–00238-CV, Second Court of Appeals, Fort Worth, Texas.

363
  
blazing rows with old friends:
Van blew up at Susan Tilley after she advertised herself as his manager; he never spoke to her again.

363
  
astrologist . . . horoscopes:
Ed Wierzbowski and Richard Rodzinski, e-mail messages to the author, March 26 and 29, 2016.

363
  
fainted in mid-piece:
Wayne Lee Gay, “Pianist Van Cliburn Collapses Onstage,”
FWS-T
, May 14, 1998. For Van at the turn of the millennium, see Michael Kimmelman, “Playing When He Wants, and Remembering,”
NYT
, July 30, 2000.

364
  
Tommy and Mrs. Putin:
Alann Sampson, interview with the author.

364
  
“Dear President . . . I love Russia”:
“Pianist Is Honored for Charity in Russia” (AP),
Houston Chronicle
, September 21, 2004. During his visit, Van gave a concert dedicated to the victims of the Beslan school siege; see “Van Cliburn Will Give a Concert in Memoriam,”
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
, September 8, 2004; and “Praise the Pianist!”
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
, September 24, 2004.

364
  
climb in through the windows:
Olga Rostropovich, interviewed in
Kultura
, February 21, 2014; “Van Cliburn: One Should Not Worry About Classical Music. It Is Never Going to Die,”
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
, March 1, 2013. For another interview during this trip, see “Classical Music Is Forever,”
Samarskie Izvestiya
, July 18, 2009.

364
  
clutching little cameras:
Richard Rodzinski, interview with the author. See also
Van Cliburn Conference in Moscow 2011
, video recording, youtube.com/watch?v=BZ vBaQ134-Y.

364
  
His fans . . . clung to him in tears:
Barry, “Basking in Russia’s Love.” See also “Moscow Gave Me the Name,”
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
, June 29, 2011.

364
  
fiftieth anniversary:
Media coverage was widespread and included a number of valuable interviews with Van. See Anthony Tommasini, “Cold War, Hot Pianist. Now Add 50 Years,”
NYT
, March 9, 2008; Richard S. Ginsell, “The Buzz Is Just a Little Less Forte Now,”
LA Times
, April 27, 2008; Angela K. Brown, “Cliburn Still an Icon, 50 Years After Winning Moscow Piano Contest” (AP), VCJA; “Van Cliburn: Treasuring Moscow After 50 Years,” audio recording, NPR
Weekend Edition
, March 1, 2008, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=87771963; “‘Russians Conquered My Heart’: Pianist Van Cliburn Reflects on 50 Years of Music Making,” audio recording,
PBS NewsHour
, April 11, 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4Z1e6HWV3Y; “Van Cliburn: The Man and His Music,” audio recording, 2008, http://keranews.org/post/van-cliburn-man-and-his-music.

364
  
Kennedy Center Honors:
Van was honored on December 2, 2001, alongside Julie Andrews, Quincy Jones, Jack Nicholson, and Luciano Pavarotti.

364
  
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award:
At the Forty-Sixth Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, 2004.

364
  
Texas Motor Speedway:
Raad Cawthon, “Track Is a Texas-Size Step Forward,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, April 6, 1997.

365
  
“I feel liberated”:
Yoheved Kaplinsky, interview with the author, October 8, 2014.

365
  
He died on February 27, 2013:
Obituaries and appreciations of Van were valuable starting points for my research. In addition to those already noted, among the most useful were those by Scott Cantrell,
DMN
; Anthony Tommasini,
NYT
; Olin Chism,
FWS-T
; Peter Dobrin,
Philadelphia Inquirer
; Ben Finane,
Listen
; Jeremy Eichler,
Boston Globe
; Terry Ponick,
Washington Times
; Jeremy Siepmann,
Guardian
; Stepan Ivanov,
Russia Beyond the Headlines
; in
The Economist
, March 9, 2013; and in
Clavier Companion
, September/October 2013. Equally revealing and often deeply touching was the outpouring of readers’ comments and personal reminiscences, including Mary Daily, “Van Cliburn and My Two Enchanted Evenings,” August 3, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-daily/van-cliburn_b_2824510.html; Miriam Elder, “Van Cliburn’s Star Never Faded in Russia Even as He Left the World Stage Behind,”
Guardian
, February 27, 2013; Evans Mirageas, “Remembering Van Cliburn,” blog post, http://www.evansmirageas.com/blog; Noel Morris, “Remembering Van Cliburn,” http://blogs.wfmt.com/offmic/2013/02/27/van-cliburn/. Prudence Mackintosh’s elegiac “In Search of Van Cliburn,”
Texas Monthly
, February 2013, poignantly coincided with Van’s death.

365
  
“It is hard . . . their faces”:
Alan Peppard, “Cliburn Eulogized by Presidents, Pals, at Fort Worth Funeral,”
DMN
, March 3, 2013. The statement belies the notorious charge, leveled in the course of an attack on “sissies” in American concert music, that Mstislav Rostropovich told an American colleague, “We knew Cliburn was no great talent, but we thought it would be politically opportune to show that we can be friends.” Anna Frankenheimer, “A Much-Needed Upbraiding of Long-Hair Music,”
Fact
(November–December 1964): 11–17.

365
  
“highlight of my life”:
Aschen Mikoyan, interview with the author.

Index

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.

Abell, Bess, 312

Academy of Music (Philadelphia), 210

Aeroflot Tu-104, 123

Afghanistan, Soviet invasion of, 348, 353

Aki Dining Room, 38

Albert Schweitzer Award, 348

Alexander II, 327

“The All-American Virtuoso” (in
Time
), 198–99

Allen, Mrs. Leo Satterwhite, 36, 199

Allen, Steve, 71–72

Allison, Irl, 225

All-Russia Theatrical Society, 140

Aldrin, Buzz, 325

American music, 221

American Music Day, 209–10

American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park, 237–40

Americans.
See
United States and Americans

Ampex, 238

Anderson, Marian, 256

André Chenier
(opera), 341

Andrews Air Force Base, 241–42, 248

Andropov, Yuri, 350

antiaircraft missiles, 257, 258, 261, 294

antiballistic missile system, 288–89

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, 333

anticommunists, 219, 246

Anti-Party Group, 90

Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign, 349

Arabian Nights,
75

Araneta Coliseum, 337–38

Arizona Daily Star,
227

Armstrong, Louis, 214–15

Armstrong, Neil, 325

“Arpeggio Waltz,” 17

Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts,
74

Ashkenazy, Vladimir

compared to Van, 365

Johannsdottir and, 266, 287

refusal to compete in first Tchaikovsky Competition, 113

second American tour, 298

in second Tchaikovsky Competition, 287

at Van’s performances, 142, 157

Zhivago
affair and, 232

Asti (Greenwich Village), 69, 198

Astounding Science Fiction,
40

astrology, 342, 346, 363

atomic bombs, 26, 39–40, 72–73, 230

Austin, Texas, 224–25

avant-garde art and music, 27, 221, 304

B-52s and B-47s, 299

Babi Yar, massacre of Jews at, 304

Babushkin, Russia, 140

Baby Chops, 343, 346

Bach, Johann Sebastian

back in favor, 30

Concerto in D Minor, 56

Partita in E Minor, 41–42

Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Minor, 136

Tchaikovsky Competition and, 109

Van’s performances of, 69, 72

Bachic-Serbien (sculptor), 186

Baikonur Cosmodrome, 2587

Bailey, Pearl, 336

Balanchine, George, 10–11

ballet, 235–36

Baltic States, 276, 359

Baltika,
SS, 274, 277

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad employees’ club, 72

Barber, Samuel, 146, 147

Bartoli, Cecilia, 344

Bashkirov, Dmitri, 113

Baylor University, 223

Bay of Pigs, 279, 283

Beat Generation of San Francisco, 316, 322

Beatlemania, 313–14

Beatles, 321

Beefburger Hall, 78

Beethoven, Ludwig van

back in favor, 30

Emperor Concerto,
41

Op. 57, 116, 117

Van’s performances of, 72, 284, 324

Van’s practice of, 42

Beijing, China, 230, 253

Beijing Conservatory, 317

Belayeva, Henrietta

death of, 365

Van’s first visit to Russia and, 124–25, 127–29, 144, 166, 189, 195

Van’s second visit to Russia and, 262, 264, 270, 271–72

Van’s third visit to Russia and, 294–95

Van’s visit to Russia in 1989, 361

Belgium, 113, 130–31

Bell Telephone Hour
(radio concert series), 321

Belmont, A. H., 213

Belotserkovney, Mr. (of Culture Ministry), 290, 291

Beltsville, Maryland, experimental farm at, 243

Bennis, Warren, 322

Benny (Carnegie Hall artists’ attendant), 203

Benny, Jack, 219

Bergman, Ingrid, 219

Beria, Lavrenty, 48–50, 51–53, 55, 57, 59–62, 85

Berlin, 233, 242, 250, 251–52, 280–81, 303

Berlin Wall, 281, 283, 359

Berman, Lazar, 113

Berner, Rosalie, 66

Bernstein, Leonard, 28, 67, 68, 80, 183, 237

Bewitched
(TV show), 321

Bezrodny, Igor, 113

Biancolli, Louis, 71

Bierut, Boleslaw, 85

Bikini Atoll, H-bomb detonated at, 72–73

Billboard,
224