Val Cliburn

Deep in the heart of the Cold War, there was once a miracle in Moscow – Texas-based classical pianist Van Cliburn, of whom no one had heard, conquered at the First Tchaikovsky Competition, an event set aside to showcase Soviet talent. Cliburn was warned by his own government not to go, given the tense political relationship between the United States and Soviet Union at the time, and once he arrived he was greeted as a party crasher, subject to hostile stares and animosity of the kind he had never dreamed of back in Texas. And it was Cliburn, at the end, which brought down the house, and held the award. Back in America, he was greeted with a ticker tape parade and was the subject of a best-selling biography by Abram Chasins, The Van Cliburn Story, copies of which continue to clog the shelves of American thrift stores five decades hence. Ultimately, though, Cliburn's celebrity lost its luster. Nerves, ultra-picky perfectionism, and mishandling by management led to his early retirement from the concert scene; his greatest latter-day achievement being the force behind the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, America's most prestigious such event.

Today, it’s hard to fathom the worldwide sensation sparked by Van Cliburn’s victory in the 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. An American pianist winning a prestigious Russian event at the height of the Cold War made headlines everywhere and the two rival superpowers took the young Texan to their hearts, with a tickertape parade in Manhattan and frequent, sold-out tours of the Soviet Union by Cliburn during the following years. VAI has secured the original Russian television tapes of some of those concerts; this first of the series is from the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 1962, with the excellent Kirill Kondrashin leading the Moscow Philharmonic. The formal program was made up of two of the most popular concertos in the repertory. The Beethoven Emperor Concerto features Cliburn’s big, bold tone and exquisite phrasing; his magisterial entrance is riveting and the meaningful trills Beethoven sprinkled throughout the work are done with pristine exactitude. The Tchaikovsky Concerto–Cliburn’s signature piece–is even better; the massive opening chords thrilling, ample poetry in the slow movement and, as in the Beethoven, truly stunning legato playing. Also worthy are the two encores–Chopin’s Fantasy in F minor, given with a mixture of power and poetry, and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12, brimming with excitement and pianistic mastery.

Van Cliburn: Tchaikovsky - Concertos No. 1 / Rachmaninoff - Concerto No. 2
Kondrashin, RCA Symphony / Reiner, Chigaco Symphony
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,23 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,26 GB | Full Artwork: 26 MB
Label/Cat#: RCA Red Seal "Living Stereo" # 82876-61392-2 | Country/Year: US 2004
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Early 20th Century

Two complete Living Stereo LPs on a single disc! Van Cliburn's history-making gold medal at the 1st Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the height of the cold war helped his Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 to become classical music's 1st platinum record.

Van Cliburn: Tchaikovsky - Concertos No. 1 / Rachmaninoff - Concerto No. 2
Kondrashin, RCA Symphony / Reiner, Chigaco Symphony
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,23 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,26 GB | Full Artwork: 26 MB
Label/Cat#: RCA Red Seal "Living Stereo" # 82876-61392-2 | Country/Year: US 2004
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Early 20th Century

Two complete Living Stereo LPs on a single disc! Van Cliburn's history-making gold medal at the 1st Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the height of the cold war helped his Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 to become classical music's 1st platinum record.

Van Cliburn’s legendary 1958 performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no.1 with Kirill Kondrashin conducting the RCA Symphony Orchestra (New York Philharmonic Orchestra?) still remains remarkably fresh as if it had only just recently been recorded live in concert. This was his first recording on returning to the US from winning the first Moscow Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in March 1958 and it became the first classical record ever to sell over a million copies.