Moscow Nights
Page 49
21: THE SUMMIT
351Susan Tilley: Susan Tilley, interview by Peter Rosen; VC, 310–11.
351called his friend Franz Mohr: Franz Mohr with Edith Schaeffer, My Life with the Great Pianists (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992), 68.
351mysterious disappearance: Speculation about the reasons and the likelihood of a return were rife during Van’s self-styled “intermission.” See, for example, “Pianist Van Cliburn Plans to Perform Again After Self-Imposed ‘Intermission’ of 4 Years” (AP), Newark Star-Ledger, December 11, 1984.
352The elaborately choreographed spectacle: An essential resource for the Soviet view of the summit is Igor Korchilov, Translating History: Thirty Years on the Front Lines of Diplomacy with a Top Russian Interpreter (New York: Scribner, 1997). Korchilov covers the summit in detail on pages 41–140, and Van’s concert on pages 100–101. Also consulted were the relevant Executive Secretariat, NSC files and President’s Daily Diary, both at RRPL.
352talks in the White House Cabinet Room: Korchilov, Translating History, 79; Memorandum of Conversation Between President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev, December 8, 1987, 2:30–3:15 p.m., National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB238/.
353their own Cold War: Howard Chua-Eoan, “Gorbachev: My Wife Is a Very Independent Lady,” Time, June 6, 1988.
353126 stars: Barbara Gamarekian, “The Summit: A State Dinner for the Gorbachevs: Front-Row Seat on World History,” NYT, December 9, 1987.
353Rildia Bee looked on proudly from her wheelchair: YM.
354Van walks onto the small stage: My account is from video footage of the event: “Van Cliburn Performance at the White House, December 8, 1987,” Reel no. 112, Van Cliburn—Concert Pianist elements, VCA.
358“200 ships”: Hugh Sidey, “Not Since Jefferson Dined Alone,” Time, December 21, 1987.
358“I can get you a few bookings”: True to his word, Reagan faxed Van to ask him to appear at the opening ceremony for the Bob Hope Cultural Center in Palm Springs, whose producers had been pursuing him, to no effect; he gave in and played for the invited audience, which included the Reagans.
358“I’ve never seen anything like it”: Korchilov, Translating History, 101. As president, Bush invited Van back to play on state occasions and famously nodded off during one concert: see Melinda Bergreen, “Lullaby: If Van Cliburn Puts Bush to Sleep, Who Is Safe?” Seattle Times, March 15, 1992.
358noticeably warmer: Susan Tilley, interview by Peter Rosen.
CODA
360played the Soviet anthem: VC, 329.
361swaddled in a fur coat: Aschen Mikoyan, interview with the author.
361flowers and watermelons: Alann Sampson, interview with the author.
361“We are friends . . . full my heart is”: Aschen Mikoyan’s private recording.
361invited Van and Rildia Bee: “Cliburn Plays in Moscow” (AP), NYT, July 3, 1989.
361jogging outfit: Susan Tilley diary, quoted in VC, 333.
361“If you love him, don’t kill him”: Richard Rodzinski, interview with the author.
361played at the conservatory: Ed Wierzbowski, e-mail message to author, April 1, 2016. The concert was on July 3.
362“He loves to shop”: “Nice Guy,” Orlando Sentinel, July 13, 1989.
362arrived by bus: John Giordano, interview with the author.
362Back at the suite: Ed Wierzbowski, e-mail message to author, July 3, 2016.
362rendition of “Moscow Nights”: Aschen Mikoyan, interview with the author.
362occasional benefit concert: Each was accompanied by a flurry of press coverage. See, for example, Donal Henahan, “A Celebrity Returns, Undimmed,” NYT, July 2, 1989; and Otto Friedrich, “The Return of Van Cliburn,” Time, July 3, 1989.
362flying Roberta Peters down: For Rildia Bee’s ninety-fourth birthday. David Daniel, “Rildia Bee,” The New Yorker, December 17, 1990. Van’s celebrations at home of Rildia Bee’s ninety-fifth birthday are touchingly captured in My Precious Mother, video recording, dir. Rick Croft and William Betaille, 1992, youtube.com/watch?v=NXBv8dVSfII.
362Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn Organ: The organ was dedicated before Rildia Bee’s death; construction began in 1994 and finished in 1996.
362played to 350,000: John von Rhein, “Cliburn’s Back on Top,” Chicago Tribune, June 20, 1994. For further useful coverage of the comeback tour, see Lynette Rice, “The Ultimate Piano Man,” LA Daily News, July 11, 1994; Michael Walsh, “The Reluctant Virtuoso,” Time, July 25, 1994. See also Mark Stryker, “Cliburn’s Retreat Enhances His Mystique,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 19, 1996; Rick Rogers, “Van Cliburn: As Career Intermission Draws to a Close, Legendary Concert Pianist Returns to Spotlight,” NewsOK, July 21, 1996, http://newsok.com/article/2544761.
362$125,000: Donna Perlmutter, “At Home with Van Cliburn: A Little Night Music,” NYT, March 3, 1994.
363“pathetic” and a “fiasco”: Baltimore Sun, quoted in Stephen Wigler, “Pianist’s Comeback Fails to Strike Right Chord,” Guardian, August 23, 1994.
363Rildia Bee was dying: Terry Teachout, “Cliburn Gives the Met a Show of Virtuoso Reality,” Daily News (New York); “Van Cliburn’s Mother Dies,” ST; Lawson Taitte, “Rildia Bee Cliburn Dead at 97,” DMN; all August 4, 1994.
363sued for palimony: Kevin O’Hanlon, “Van Cliburn Sued for Palimony” (AP), Daily Gazette, May 1, 1996, and widely reprinted; “Former Partner Sues Van Cliburn in AIDS Allegations” (Reuters), Daily News (New York), May 1, 1996. For a thorough investigation of sexuality, classical music, and Van, see Joey DiGuglielmo, “Classical Closet?,” Washington Blade, March 7, 2013.
363failed, 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.
363blazing rows with old friends: Van blew up at Susan Tilley after she advertised herself as his manager; he never spoke to her again.
363astrologist . . . horoscopes: Ed Wierzbowski and Richard Rodzinski, e-mail messages to the author, March 26 and 29, 2016.
363fainted 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.
364Tommy 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.
364climb 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.
364clutching 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.
364His fans . . . clung to him in tears: Barry, “Basking in Russia’s Love.” See also “Moscow Gave Me the Name,” Rossiiskaya Gazeta, June 29, 2011.
364fiftieth 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 V
an 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.
364Kennedy Center Honors: Van was honored on December 2, 2001, alongside Julie Andrews, Quincy Jones, Jack Nicholson, and Luciano Pavarotti.
364Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award: At the Forty-Sixth Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, 2004.
364Texas 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.
365He 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
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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
Billy Graham’s Crusade, 104
Black Sea, 55, 120, 222, 257, 271–72, 288–89
Blair House, 243, 248–49
Bliss, Arthur, 133, 156, 163
Bogoslovsky, Nikita, 138–39
Boland, Frederick, 276, 277
Bolsheviks and Bolshevism, 10, 55, 89, 132, 212
Bolshoi Ballet, 235–36, 298, 303
Bolshoi Opera, 298
Bolshoi Theatre, 127, 144, 193, 298
Bonapartism, 91
Borge, Victor, 315
Boris Godunov (opera), 298
> Boston Symphony, 86
Boutry, Roger, 114
Bradford, Q. L., 23–24
Brahms, Johannes
Concerto, B-flat, 68
Intermezzo, op. 118, no. 6., 354
Piano Concerto no. 2, 267
Rhapsody in G Minor, 336
Rosalie Leventritt and, 71
Van’s performances of, 69, 72, 324
Brahms-Handel Variations, 116
Brezhnev, Leonid
arms control treaty, 348
death of, 350
joke about, 350
Khrushchev replaced by, 306–7
Nixon and, 332, 333
support of other leaders, 316
Van and, 314, 333, 336–37
Voroshilov replaced by, 259
Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin (Wagner), 21
Bridges, Styles, 99
Britain, 87, 91
The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky), 245
Browning, John, 68, 76, 102, 104, 113, 129
Brown v. Board of Education, 81
Brubeck, Dave, 353
Brussels World’s Fair, 108, 173, 217–18, 220–22, 231
Buckingham Hotel, 75
Budapest, Hungary, 111, 112, 113
Bulganin, Nikolai
demotion of, 131
plot against Khrushchev and, 89–90, 91, 178
removed from Central Committee, 230–31
Stalin’s death and, 51
on Stalin’s dinners, 49
Van’s socializing with, 209
Bülow, Hans von, 6–7
Bundy, McGeorge, 323
Bush, George H. W., 353, 358
Bush, George W., 363
Bush, Laura, 353
Butts, Rosemary, 63
Callas, Maria, 224
Calvary Baptist Church, 37–38, 67, 75, 78, 207, 285
CAMI (Columbia Artists Management, Inc.)
business model of, 101–2
Judd and, 64–65
Judson and, 67
Van and secretaries at, 78
Van’s performance fee and, 77
Van’s schedule and, 255
Van’s signing with, 71
Van’s slump and, 103
Van’s win and, 184
Camp David, 249–52
Can-Can (film), 247, 253
capitalism, Khrushchev on, 279
Capitol Theatre, 65
Carmen (opera), 23, 218
Carnegie Hall
Albert Schweitzer Award at, 348