Van Cliburn
by
Lyn Bronson
In the classical music world, pianist Van Cliburn is a
living legend. He is an icon bearing witness to a significant event that
occurred during the height of the cold war at the time the Soviet Union was
reaping an enormous propaganda victory from the launch of its ground-breaking
satellite, Sputnik. Van Cliburn, a young Juilliard graduate, age 23 from
Kilgore, Texas, (a town most people had never heard of before) went to Moscow in
1958 to compete in an international piano competition whose outcome was rigged
in favor of Soviet and Warsaw block participants and won the gold medal. He
became an instant cold war hero who restored American prestige internationally,
and his victory proved to the world that one of our young musicians, nurtured in
a privately funded institution of higher learning could hold his own in
competition with hothouse-grown, state-supported Soviet musicians.
After his victory, Van Cliburn toured extensively and made
new fans everywhere. His recordings made shortly after his win in Moscow sold
millions of copies and are still available today. However, in the 1970s Van
Cliburn began to retire from the concert stage, which was quite understandable
in the light of the over bookings in the early years of his enormous popular
success. He simply had committed himself to too many performances and needed a
rest.
In his retirement he entered a new phase of his life in
which he wanted to encourage young musicians. First we saw in his new hometown
of Ft. Worth, the establishment of the Van Cliburn Foundation, and shortly
thereafter, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which in a few
short years became one of the most important piano competitions in the world.
Van Cliburn in recent years has occasionally been coming
out of retirement to make guest appearances for charities, or even more rarely,
give a public concert to benefit some worthy cause. And this week he came to
California’s central valley, to California State University Stanislaus, to play
a benefit piano recital at the official opening of the new Bernell and Flora
Snider Music Recital Hall. Just how unusual this occasion was can be gauged by
the audience and media reaction to this event. This was a gala affair, and it
attracted a lot of attention and support from the community.
Last night, Saturday, March 8, was the big event, and after
a pre-concert reception, the capacity audience filed in to fill the 312 seat
hall and wait in eager anticipation of hearing Mr. Cliburn. The evening began
with introductory remarks by Dr. Marvalene Hughes, President of California State
University Stanislaus, who graciously gave kudos to Mr. & Mrs. Snider and all
the other special people who had made it possible for the recital hall’s
construction and the bringing of Van Cliburn to Turlock.
When Mr. Cliburn walked out on stage he received a
tumultuous acclaim. Elegant does not do justice to describe his appearance. We
all know that he is six feet four inches tall, but as he stepped out into the
limelight, he looked more like seven feet tall, and never did anyone looked more
impressive in a set of concert full dress tails.
When he finally sat down to play, the first thing we heard
was Van Cliburn’s own arrangement of “The Star Spangled Banner.” It was a
magnificently stirring performance, with the audience standing in rapt
attention. Then, we heard a program of many of his old favorites six
selections by Brahms, a Debussy group and after intermission three Chopin
selections.
How do you describe his playing? Well, it was larger than
life and not for the faint of heart. While it was big, bold, and authoritative,
effects were often exaggerated, so that soft dynamics were loud, and loud
dynamics were louder, with the overall impression being of extremely percussive
pounding (the piano needed and received retuning during the intermission). But,
always it was clear that Van Cliburn was in command of enormous technical and
expressive resources, so that whether it conformed or not to your own personal
tastes, by any standard, this was totally masterful playing.
At the end of the program, the three Chopin selections made
the most moving impression during the evening. The large scaled performance of
the popular “Military” Polonaise had a proper majesty about it, the Ballade in F
Minor had many lovely moments, and the Scherzo in C-sharp Minor really blew us
away. During the chorale section of the Scherzo, the descending broken chord
patterns achieved a shimmering, magical quality that one rarely ever hears in
the concert hall today.
After the final applause, Van Cliburn moved to the edge of
the stage and addressed the audience. This was an opportunity for everyone in
the audience to hear him speak and observe how gracious and gentlemanly he can be
in acknowledging the wonderful efforts of the community and the University in
making it possible for this new recital hall to be built. His second encore (the
first was the Rachmaninoff Prelude in G# Minor, Op. 32, No. 12) was Schumann’s
Widmung, (Dedication), which he played to honor the commitment and
dedication of this great community effort.
Mr. Cliburn received a long and grateful standing ovation.
