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Van Cliburn's Tchaikovsky - A Million Seller Reconsidered · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Dissler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings.
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  I recently presented an episode of my weekly classical network radio show Between the Keys
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  on WWFM.org that coincided with what would have been the late American pianist Van Clyburn's
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  90th birthday.
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  He passed away at the age of 78 in 2013.
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  Of all the recordings that Clyburn made, there's no question that his very first release for
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  RCA Victor remains his best known and most iconic recording, which is the Concerto No.
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  1 in B-flat minor, opus 23 by Tchaikovsky.
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  Clyburn was identified with this work throughout his career, even when he no longer played
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  regularly in public.
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  And in fact, Van Clyburn had been playing the Tchaikovsky for quite a while.
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  He made his New York debut in 1954 after winning the coveted Leventritt Award.
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  And as part of the award, he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic under the direction
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  of Dimitri Mitropoulos, who was the music director at the time.
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  And for that performance, he played the Tchaikovsky Concerto.
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  The concert was broadcast and you can still hear the air check of that performance.
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  It's not a bad performance at all.
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  The story about how the 23-year-old Van Clyburn captured the gold medal in Moscow is part
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  of American folklore.
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  It was the height of the Cold War and the Soviet Union was hoping that their new Tchaikovsky
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  competition would showcase just how great their young pianists were.
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  And there were indeed many, many excellent young Soviet pianists.
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  Yet, it was the tall and affable Van Clyburn from Texas who dazzled the Russian public
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  and captured their hearts and who clearly stood out among the competitors.
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  When the jury, who was mainly made up of Russian musicians, asked Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev
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  if it would be politically correct to give the first prize to an American, Khrushchev
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  simply asked, is Clyburn the best?
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  The jury said, yes, he is.
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  And then Khrushchev said, so give him the first prize.
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  Clyburn returned back home to America, a hero, and he had a ticker tape parade in New York
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  and his concerts began selling out all over the United States.
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  And it was his performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 that heavily factored
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  into his victory.
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  Of course, the RCA Victor label immediately signed Clyburn to an exclusive contract and
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  naturally he had to record the Tchaikovsky for his debut.
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  And it was due to Clyburn's insistence that his conductor from the Moscow competition
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  Kirill Kondrashin be specially flown over to New York to record with him and the RCA
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  Victor Symphony Orchestra, which essentially was a pickup orchestra made up of New York's
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  top freelancers.
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  The Clyburn-Tchaikovsky recording became a best seller and in fact it was the first classical
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  recording to sell one million copies.
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  So given that it's the Van Clyburn 90th birthday anniversary, I thought it would be fitting
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  to reconsider this million seller and ask just how has the Van Clyburn-Tchaikovsky recording
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  stood the test of time, more than 66 years after it first appeared.
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  Let's zero in on the piano soloist first.
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  Clyburn is basically a lyrical and rather sober interpreter, although he has a big and
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  warm and communicative sound.
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  You're not going to find the fire and brimstone approach of pianists like Vladimir Horowitz
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  or Martha Argerich in the outer movements, but the slow movement features wonderful give
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  and take between Clyburn and the RCA Orchestra's first desk soloists.
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  And Clyburn is not afraid to accompany the orchestra when he does not have the big tunes.
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  And the bracing rhythm and feeling of a ballet orchestra in the pit is really due to Kiro
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  Kondraschian's wonderful phrasing and excellent choices of tempos.
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  And the tempos really seem rooted in dance.
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  In fact, I've always felt that the best Tchaikovsky concerto accompaniments have come from conductors
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  with serious theater experience, like Toscanini, George Sell, Claudio Abbato, and George Sholdy,
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  although not Herbert von Karajan, interestingly enough, in his various recordings of the Tchaikovsky
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  concerto.
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  Now, there may be more excitement and sense of occasion in the live recording of the Tchaikovsky
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  made during the Moscow competition with Clyburn and Kondraschian.
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  And also in the studio recording, there are tiny ensemble imprecisions that would have
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  benefited from retakes.
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  But I suspect that RCA wanted to rush this recording onto the market.
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  Still, the singing eloquence of Clyburn's phrasing and his gorgeous long trills cannot
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  be denied.
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  And I suspect that this vocally oriented attitude is what made pianists on the Moscow jury,
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  like Emil Gielels and Sveta Savv-Richter and Lev Oberon, Heinrich Neuhaus, and the composer
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  Shostakovich and Kabalevsky take notice.
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  All of these people were on the jury, and they all recognized Clyburn's special qualities.
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  So by and large, Van Clyburn's iconic Tchaikovsky concerto recording has held up pretty well
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  for more than 66 years.
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  Although I am sorry that he did not remake it under more relaxed conditions when he was
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  still playing at full capacity, perhaps, say, around the mid-60s when Clyburn had reached
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  his early 30s.
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  Even among Clyburn's contemporaries, his slightly older Juilliard rival, John Browning,
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  made a recording of the Tchaikovsky for RCA with Seji Ozawa that basically beats Clyburn
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  at his own game.
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  But the Clyburn-Kondraschen Tchaikovsky concerto still offers a lot to enjoy on a musical level,
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  apart from the recording's historic and political significance, which is a matter of record,
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  all puns intended.
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  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings.
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  Thank you for listening, and please spread the good word about this podcast to all of
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  your Piano Maven friends.
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  Take good care.