Van Cliburn
Van Cliburn was an esteemed American pianist recognized for his extraordinary talent and significant cultural impact during the Cold War era. Born to a musically inclined mother, he showcased exceptional prowess from a young age, debuting at just four years old. Cliburn gained fame after winning the inaugural Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow in 1958, where he delighted audiences and judges alike with his performances, particularly of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. This victory not only established him as a leading classical musician but also made him a symbol of American cultural achievement during a time of geopolitical tension.
Despite facing criticism later in his career for his limited repertoire, Cliburn remained devoted to the Romantic style of music, captivating audiences around the globe with his rich tone and expressive playing. His performances contributed to a greater appreciation of Russian musical traditions in the United States. Cliburn received numerous accolades throughout his life, including the Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, reflecting his status as a cultural ambassador. Even after retiring from regular performances, he continued to play at significant events, underscoring his enduring legacy in the world of classical music and his belief in music's unifying power.
Subject Terms
Van Cliburn
American classical pianist
- Born: July 12, 1934
- Birthplace: Shreveport, Louisiana
- Died: February 27, 2013
An important figure in the cultural landscape of the Cold War, Cliburn won the 1958 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow two months after the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik, reviving American pride and launching his performing career. His performances of Romantic piano works were notable for their warm, spontaneous sound, and his ability to connect with an audience brought new fans to classical music.
The Life
The mother of Harvey Lavan Cliburn, Jr., Rildia Bee, was an aspiring concert pianist who studied with Arthur Friedheim. She immediately recognized her three-year-old son’s musical talent when she discovered him playing by ear a waltz that one of her students had just practiced. She began teaching Cliburn piano immediately, and she remained his principal teacher until he went to college.
The results of his mother’s tutelage were quickly apparent. Cliburn debuted when he was four years old, playing the Prelude in C Major from the first book of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. Through the TexasFederation of Music Clubs, the twelve-year-old Cliburn won an appearance with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, performing Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, a work that became identified with him. On March 12, 1948, he debuted at Carnegie Hall in New York for a National Music Festival Award. He began spending summers in New York City with his mother, and in 1951 he gained admittance to Juilliard and the piano class of Rosina Lhévinne, the Russian-born teacher of John Browning, Garrick Ohlsson, Misha Dichter, and James Levine.
Lhévinne put finishing touches on her student’s formidable technique, and, from 1952 to 1958, Cliburn enjoyed an unprecedented winning streak, taking top honors in every piano competition he entered. In 1952 he won the Dealey Memorial Award and the Kosciuszko Foundation’s Chopin prize. In 1953 he won the Juilliard concerto competition. Significantly, in 1954 Cliburn won the Leventritt Award, the first time that honor had been bestowed since 1951. In the intervening years, no entrant was deemed worthy.
Upon graduation, Cliburn was poised for a performing career, debuting with the New York Philharmonic on November 14, 1954, and even appearing on the Tonight Show with television host Steve Allen. However, in 1957, his draft number was called, and he had to report for military service, canceling his performing dates. Cliburn was not accepted into the Army, so he returned home to Kilgore, Texas, to take care of his parents and run his mother’s piano studio. In 1958, encouraged by his teacher, Cliburn entered the first Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow, winning first prize.
For the next sixteen years, Cliburn enjoyed a career both as a performing musician and as a cultural embassador. He signed with RCA Victor and made more than fifteen records. In 1961 he embarked on a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of Mexico, the first of many such tours. In 1962 the first Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was held in Fort Worth, Texas, offering the largest amount of prize money of any competition.
Then, in 1974, his father and his manager died within two months of each other. Realizing he wanted to spend more time with friends and family, he stopped securing concert dates, and on September 29, 1978, he gave his final performance. Cliburn’s retirement lasted until 1987 when the White House invited him to perform at a state dinner in honor of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Offers poured in after that concert, and Cliburn has performed a few times a year, usually at important events.
The Music
The American Sputnik. On October 4, 1957, a spherical satellite named Sputnik was launched into space by the Soviet Union, a feat at the time that the United States could not match. Two months later, the Soviet Union announced the first Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition. Upon hearing of the competition, Lhévinne urged Cliburn to enter. Cliburn eagerly complied, and on April 2, 1958, the six-foot-four Texan took the stage in Moscow and caused a sensation. By the final round, in which he played Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Dmitri Kabalevsky’s Rondo (written for the competition), and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, even the judges gave Cliburn a standing ovation. After securing Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s permission, the jury awarded him first prize, and Cliburn returned to the United States a hero, greeted with a ticker-tape parade in New York (the first one ever given for a classical musician). A performance at the White House for President Dwight Eisenhower and numerous television appearances followed. He was hailed as the American Sputnik.
Cliburn is associated with the concerti he played in the Tchaikovsky competition: Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmininoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. His recordings of those works on the RCA label made in the years following his win stand as two of the best of their kind, and the Tchaikovsky recording was the first classical record certified platinum.
The Repertoire. Other notable concerti Cliburn frequently performed were Edward MacDowell’s Concerto No. 2, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”), and Sergei Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 3. In the solo repertoire, Cliburn’s rendition of Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 was noted as moving beyond technical virtuosity to plumb the work’s pathos, and his performances of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Sonata in C Major stand out for their original approach to Mozart’s style. Finally, when Cliburn returned to the stage at the White House, he did so with Johannes Brahms’s Intermezzo, Rachmaninoff’s Étude Tableau, Liszt’s transcription of Robert Schumann’s lied “Widmung,” and Claude Debussy’s “L’isle joyeuse,” displaying the melodic focus and the singing tone he always cultivated in his playing.
Musical Legacy
By the time of his retirement in 1978, Cliburn was receiving harsh critical evaluations. Some critics maintained that Cliburn had a limited repertoire and that he lacked musical curiosity, causing his career to stall. Nevertheless, Cliburn never apologized for his focus on the Romantic repertoire, and he enjoyed an active performance career that continually sold out houses as long as he desired it.
His greatest legacy to American musical culture rests in two areas. First, he brought the rich, full, and idiosyncratic Russian style of playing (which originated with Anton Rubinstein) to American pianism and the wider public. Second, as a wholesome American pianist, Cliburn, in winning a Soviet competition in Moscow, reassured a country nervous about Sputnik’s implications. Although the pianist had an enviable warmth of tone and expressive power, making him a classical-music celebrity, it was his role as cultural hero that brought him fame and honor. It was this role that brought him in 2001 the Kennedy Center Honors and in 2003 the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His warm personality and genuine love of his audience made him popular throughout the world, particularly in Russia, where in 2004 he was awarded the Order of Friendship, the country’s highest civilian award. Cliburn was committed to his belief in music’s power to bridge divides and to speak universally.
Principal Recordings
albums:Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1/Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 2, 1958; Brahms: Concerto No. 2/MacDowell: Concerto No. 2, 1961; My Favorite Chopin, 1962; Beethoven: Concerto Nos. 4 and 5, 1988; Beethoven Sonatas, 1989; Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3; Brahms: Rhapsodies; Intermezzo, 1992; Chopin: Sonatas for Piano No. 2; Liszt:Années de Pèlerinage, 2nd Year, 1992; Beethoven: Concerto No. 5/Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 2, 1994; Schumann: Piano Concerto; Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3, 1995; Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1, 2003; Piano Concertos by Beethoven and Schumann, 2007.
Bibliography
Horowitz, Joseph. The Ivory Trade: Music and the Business of Music at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. New York: Summit Books, 1990. An unbiased look at the competition’s history and Cliburn’s role in American culture.
Kenneson, Claude. Musical Prodigies: Perilous Journeys, Remarkable Lives. Portland, Oreg.: Amadeus, 1998. A fascinating look at the childhood lives of numerous musical prodigies, among them Cliburn.
Reich, Howard. Van Cliburn. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1993. A full-length biography of Cliburn, this book is musically knowledgeable and features a useful annotated discography.