Van Cliburn - Hardcover

Reich, Howard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0840776810 ISBN 13: 9780840776815

Publisher: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1993

Synopsis

Traces the life of the American pianist, who, at the height of the cold war, won the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition

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Reviews

Numerous myths surround the pianist Van Cliburn, who, in 1958, at the age of 24, won the first Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. After this stunning victory (at the time, relations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were so tense that the jury needed Khrushchev's permission to award the prize to an American), the Texan became a major concert and recording artist. Then, in 1978, he stopped performing, apparently a victim of his own success. In this admirable bigoraphy, Reich, arts critic for the Chicago Tribune , disputes the claim advanced by skeptics that Cliburn's talent was overrated, his repertory limited and his artistry not taken seriously by the music estabishment. Telling much of the compelling story in the words of musicians, critics, friends and Cliburn himself, Reich shows why burnout, not failure, caused Cliburn to stop performing publicly until 1987, when he charmed Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev in a concert at the White House. Cliburn emerges as likable and unassuming, dedicated to helping other musicians and devoted to his mother, who was his first teacher and a major influence on his career. The most moving part of the book, however, is the account of Cliburn's love affair with the Russian people at the height of the Cold War. Photos not seen by PW. 75,000 first printing; $130,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The noted American pianist receives an overlong popular biography, stuffed with irritating detail on virtually every page. Cliburn (b. 1934 as Harvey Lavan, Jr.), a wonderful talent in his chosen repertoire, is by all accounts a genuinely attractive character as well. Unfortunately, by page one hundred, Reich (an arts critic for the Chicago Tribune), has crossed so far over the line from legitimate admiration into hagiography that he risks making the reader despise his subject. Reich has apparently read every newspaper and magazine article about Cliburn and has interviewed everyone who's ever known him. Seemingly few have had anything unflattering to say about the man, and their fond remembrances and musical tributes are quoted at interminable length. From Cliburn's high-school high jinks to his wonder years at Juilliard, his early concert successes, his fabled first prize in the 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the height of the cold war (an event that Reich sees as the beginning of the end of Communism 30-some years later), his subsequent international celebrity, his decade-long retirement from the concert stage, and his triumphant return--it's all here in suffocating detail. The names of judges and contestants at many competitions; the history of the teachers of his teachers. Where's the real person here? And if Cliburn finished second in a competition, the first prize winner and the competition are not-so-subtly trashed. Fortunately, the pianist is still alive, or the book would have to detail his resurrection. Even the annotated discography--probably the best thing here--is so uncritical (cf. John Ardoin's The Callas Legacy, 1977) that many music lovers will dissent from Reich's reverent appraisals of most every record. There's a legitimately interesting history here somewhere but, as written, it's strictly for the People crowd. Prospective Cliburnites are better advised to invest in the CD re-release of his legendary performances of Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto and Rachmaninoff's second. (Illustrations--16 pp. color & b&w--not seen) (First printing of 35,000) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

It has been 35 years since this native of Kilgore, Texas, rose to instant world prominence by winning the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. In an undisguised and unrelievedly adulatory biography, Reich gives a play-by-play description of all the events leading to the competition, as well as to the other triumphs in Cliburn's life. The clearest indication that this monograph is hardly impartial can be found in the foreword, where the author suggests that the 1991 Moscow uprising had its origins in Cliburn's victory at the Tchaikovsky Competition, when the citizens had a "vicarious taste of Western-style freedom and openness." The writing is clear and breezy and presents an interesting behind-the-scenes view of music competitions. Still, the overall tone recommendes this book for exhaustive music collections only.
- Timothy J. McGee, Univ. of Toronto
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Thomas Nelson Publishers
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0840776810
• ISBN 13: 9780840776815
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 428