Before there was Bobby

Bobby Fischer's career was widely seen as a competition between the dedicated American individual against the Soviet machine, and his defeat of Spassky in 1972 as a great American triumph in the Cold War. But America had a similar victory 14 years earlier that few remember today.

The site was the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958. The competition was not chess, but classical music. The Soviet Union organized the event in order to demonstrate its cultural superiority. They didn't reckon on a 23 year old American named Van Cliburn, whose performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 led to an 8 minute standing ovation.

The judges were convinced that Van Cliburn was the best performer, but they felt obliged to ask Premier Nikita Khrushchev if they could award him the prize. To his credit, Khrushchev asked if he was the best, and, when assured that he was, said to give him the prize then.

Cliburn returned to the US to a ticker tape parade in New York and had a long successful career as the greatest pianist of his generation. He always loved the Russian people, and in 2004 was awarded the Russian Order of Friendship, a state decoration of the Russian Federation.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6qROema2MDI

Is this the right piece that Van Cliburn played in Russia in b flat minor?

Yes! I remember that as a kid.....I also had the LP album which RCA sold many copies of.....It was considered a collectors piece.Quite rare today,but should still sound quite good and is not cheap in collectors' circles......The early pressing is what one would want to obtain,for best sound.

Nice thread Mike.......Brings back memories.

Thanks for the link! Based on the comments to the video, it seems that this performance must have taken place some time after the competition. Khrushchev was in the audience here but apparently was not present at the competition itself.

I had nearly forgotten the beauty of classical music. What a joy to sit back and let the music, powered by a consummate artist, fill your soul.

That would be a great piece to have. I've got a little classical music on vinyl, mostly by the Cleveland Orchestra, but nothing by Van Cliburn.

I haven't got a milligram of musical talent, so it always amazes me when musicians magically transform scribbles between lines on a piece of paper into a moving experience.

Btw,if you'd like to hear one of the consummate classical piano/orchestral pieces ever written and performed you "MUST" hear Arthur Rubinstein doing Rachmaninoff's  "Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini".......Gorgeous and spectacular music....He was a far superior pianist as well........Anotyher LP that I was stupid to sell(I got big bucks for it,since it was an early pressing and I was a serious LP collector)......Had to subsidize my business and pay for my daughter's wedding after the recession of 208/9 so all my records and CD's were sold to a rich guy from Ca.

I have desperately missed my music,but have just gotten a wonderful wireless sound system that allows me to get all my music back....Over 60 million titles available to me in high resolution sound....Sheesh! Technology! There's no holding it back.-