Van Cliburn
Van Cliburn (* 12 July 1934 as the Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr., in Shreveport , Louisiana ; † 27. February 2013 in Fort Worth , Texas ) was an American pianist .
Life
Van Cliburn was already playing the piano at the age of four. When he was 13, he won a local competition in Texas , and the following year he won first prize at the National Music Festival in New York's Carnegie Hall . Up to the age of 17 the “child prodigy” was tutored by his mother Rildia Bee Cliburn . From 1951 he attended Rosina Lhévinne's courses at the Juilliard School .
The 23-year-old Texan won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958, during the Cold War , and became world famous overnight. Photos of his triumphal procession through New York in an open car appeared in all the newspapers. From then on he made guest appearances in concert halls all over the world, devoted himself briefly to conducting and withdrew from concert life in 1978.
On the occasion of a dinner in the White House in honor of Mikhail Gorbachev , Van Cliburn played again in public for the first time in December 1987. After that he gave concerts sporadically; it followed u. a. a performance at the “Mann Music Center” in Philadelphia , celebrated concerts in Moscow and Saint Petersburg and the opening of the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas . The New York Times then noted: "A Celebrity Returns, Undimmed." ("A celebrity returns, untroubled."). It was also said: "It is reassuring ... to know after all these silent years that he is not deficient in the mysterious impulses that keep gifted artists active after the fires of youth burn low." ("It is reassuring ... to know that after all these silent years he is not lacking those mysterious impulses that make talented artists carry on after the fires of youth."). Cliburn later withdrew from the music business.
His most famous recording was Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto . The recording sold more than a million copies in 1961, something that had not been achieved with any other work from the field of classical music .
“That what unites people is more intrinsic than the walls of separation built up by the narrow-minded power-hungry politicians who are not afraid of bloodbaths, the young American from Texas had already seen in Moscow when he played Tchaikovsky's B minor concerto, the most Russian of all Russian ones Music, proven. […] In Riga, people stood in line from 2 a.m. to get a concert ticket. 'This artist lifts us from misery, brings us light and freedom', reported a letter from my hometown. "
Since 1962, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition has been held in his honor every four years in Fort Worth .
"There are only two irreplaceable things", Cliburn had said shortly before his death in one of his last interviews: "Great music and wonderful memories".
Honors
2003 gave US President George W. Bush Cliburn, the Medal of Freedom (Presidential Medal of Freedom), the highest civilian award of the United States.
literature
Zenta Maurina : An Ambassador of Good Will - Van Cliburn. In: A day can be a pearl. Reminder sheets. Hyperion-Verlag, Freiburg [1973], pp. 47-55.
Web links
- Works by and about Van Cliburn in the catalog of the German National Library
- Van Cliburn in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Van Cliburn in the nndb (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Scott Cantrell: Pianist Van Cliburn dies at age 78. In: Dallas News , February 27, 2013 (English).
- ↑ Zenta Maurina: An Ambassador of Good Will - Van Cliburn. In: A day can be a pearl. Reminder sheets. Hyperion-Verlag, Freiburg [1973], p. 51 u. 53.
- ↑ The piano pop star Van Cliburn is dead. In: Friday , February 28, 2013.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cliburn, Van |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cliburn Jr., Harvey Lavan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American pianist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 12, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Shreveport , Louisiana |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 27, 2013 |
| Place of death | Fort Worth |