Moscow Nights: The Van Cliburn Story-How One Man and His Piano Transformed the Cold War (70 page)

178
  
about to be arrested:
Norman Shetler, interview with the author.

178
  
telegrams and letters:
Quoted in “Let the Tchaikovsky Competition Play as a Joyful Anthem of Peace and Friendship,” undated press release, Tchaikovsky Competition Album, F.45, dm4No292/74, SHM.

179
  
piece for
Pravda
:
Published April 20. “Shostakovich Hails Cliburn’s Success,”
NYT
, April 21, 1958.

179
  
workable spin:
See also M. Sokolsky, “Fame That Was Born in Moscow,”
Sovetskaya Rossiya
, May 31, 1958.

179
  
“
better
than Rachmaninoff’s”:
“All-American Virtuoso.”

180
  
“I dwell on these points”:
Simonov, “On the International Piano Competition.”

180
  
leading critic:
Z. Vartanyan, quoted in “Hero’s Return,”
Time
, June 2, 1958. See also Howard Taubman, “Soviet Assesses Cliburn Victory,”
NYT
, May 23, 1958.

180
  
lengthy report:
Mikhailov, “Report from the Ministry of Culture,”
CCCP&C
, 50–57.

180
  
“erroneous behavior”:
Ibid., 52.

180
  
wanting to begin lessons:
Donald J. Raleigh,
Soviet Baby Boomers: An Oral History of Russia’s Cold War Generation
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 124. Some children forced into piano lessons by their parents were none too pleased.

181
  
crowded into the small house:
Annette Morgan, quoted in Brittani Pfau, “Van Cliburn Dies at 78,”
The Flare
(Kilgore College), March 1, 2013. Morgan took piano lessons with Rildia Bee from 1952 to 1962.

181
  
“The best single word . . . lower middle class”:
TM2.

181
  
“so overwhelmed with joy”:
“Word Leaks Out.”

181
  
regular church prayer meeting:
Annette Morgan, quoted in
VC
, 128.

181
  
eighty acres around Moody:
TM2.

181
  
“That’s one of the things”:
Ibid.

182
  
“borrowed from time to time . . . left to be paid”:
Ibid.

182
  
compared Van to Marilyn Monroe:
SH.

182
  
Mrs. Steve Roland:
Donna and Steve married in March 1956 and divorced in 1965. Her stage career, which never progressed beyond a few musicals, in which her husband also had parts, ended at the same time. She remarried and died in 2001.

182
  
nosed around Juilliard:
Mark Schubart to Patricia Berman, May 14, 1958, Folder 5, Box 14, JAD.

182
  
“ALL OF US”:
William Schuman to Van Cliburn, April 15, 1958, Folder 16, Box 2, JAP.

183
  
“The biggest problem”:
William Schuman to Mark Schubart, April 17, 1958, Folder 16, Box 3, The Joseph W. Polisi: William Schuman Research Papers, JA.

183
  
a friend phoned:
VCL
, 119.

183
  
“I am afraid”:
Schuman to Schubart, April 17, 1958. Chasins (
VCL
, 114) suggests that Schuman (and Rosina) got through to Van in Moscow, but this letter makes it clear that they failed to reach him.

183
  
Steve Allen Show
:
Val Adams, “Cliburn Is Signed by Allen TV Show,”
NYT
, April 25, 1958; Jack Gould, “TV: Van Cliburn Plays,”
NYT
, May 26, 1958.

184
  
“Georgie”:
Gary and Naomi Graffman, interview with the author. Judd was sitting on the Graffmans’ floor when he made the call. George Judd Jr. became managing director of the New York Philharmonic in 1959 but died at thirty-six of stomach cancer in 1961.

184
  
“I want Kondrashin”:
VC
, 144.

184
  
booked to tour Bulgaria:
Sound Recording 306-EN-G-T-5781, “Van Cliburn Washington Press Conference,” May 23, 1958, RG 306, NACP.

184
  
Judd called the State Department:
“Proposed United States Tour of Van Cliburn with Soviet Conductor,” Memorandum of Conversation, April 17, 1958, Box 2182, RG 59, NACP.

11: THE LAST ROMANTIC

185
  
flowers arrived from Khrushchev’s wife:
“All-American Virtuoso.”

185
  
confided to an embassy official:
Richard H. Davis to Department of State, “Chaikovsky International Violin and Piano Competition: Success of American Pianist, Van Cliburn,” dispatch, April 24, 1958; Box 4060, RG 59, NACP.

185
  
“PLEASE DELIVER FOLLOWING TO PIANIST”:
Dulles to Moscow embassy, telegram, April 15, 1958, Box 2182, RG 59, NACP.

185
  
“DEAR MR. AMBASSADOR”:
Dulles to Moscow embassy, telegram, April 16, 1958, Box 2182, RG 59, NACP.

186
  
Tommy Thompson . . . wrote:
Thompson to secretary of state, telegram, April 17, 1958, Box 2182, RG59, NACP.

186
  
Van quickly composed a reply:
Thompson cabled the State Department with the text of Van’s letter:

Dear Mr. President:

I am most grateful for the message which you conveyed to me through Ambassador Thompson and it will be with great pleasure that I accept your invitation to call upon you and Mrs. Eisenhower at the White House upon my return to the United States. Signed Van Cliburn.

Thompson to secretary of state, April 18, 1958, Box 2182, RG 59, NACP.

186
  
two hundred rubles a minute:
Davis to State, “Chaikovsky International Violin and Piano Competition.”

186
  
holy relic:
Yuri Okov, “It’s a Pity to Leave Russia . . .”
SK
, May 17, 1958.

186
  
made a pilgrimage:
Davis to State, “Chaikovsky International Violin and Piano Competition.” The trip took place on April 17. The often-repeated story that though Tchaikovsky’s piano was played only on his birthday, the day was exceptionally moved forward several weeks for Van’s benefit is spoiled by the fact that newsreel footage shows Klimov’s accompanist playing it, too. See http://www.britishpathe.com/video/winners-of-tchaikovsky-competition-visit-the-comp/.

187
  
“I really don’t think I’m in a daze”:
Moor, “Sviatoslav Richter: Sequestered Genius.” The concert was on Wednesday, April 16.

187
  
“a word . . . I do not use lightly about performers”:
“All-American Virtuoso.”

187
  
Van cried again:
Ibid.

187
  
“wildly pushing crowd”:
“Moscow Again Hails Cliburn” (AP),
NYT
, April 19, 1958. Van’s performance of the Rachmaninoff is preserved in volume 3 of
Van Cliburn in Moscow
, video recording, Video Artists International, 2008, DVD.

187
  
nearly derailed:
Thompson to secretary of state, telegram, April 16, 1958; Dulles to Moscow embassy, telegram, April 16, 1958, Box 2182, RG 59, NACP. See also Davis to State, “Chaikovsky International Violin and Piano Competition.”

188
  
returning to Vienna:
In October, Pollack was welcomed back to the United States with a draft call; January 1959 found him a private at Fort Dix, New Jersey, serving in the six-month Army Reserve program. Ross Parmenter, “World of Music: Cash and Sherry,”
NYT
, January 11, 1959.

188
  
“I said to Mr. Khrushchev”:
Madigan, “‘The Texan Who Conquered Russia.’”

188
  
“Because of his immaturity”:
Thompson to secretary of state, telegram, April 16, 1958, Box 2182, RG 59, NACP.

188
  
“There are no political barriers”:
Brownsville Herald
, April 18, 1958; et al.

189
  
“Among Moscow teenagers”:
Davis to State, “Chaikovsky International Violin and Piano Competition.”

189
  
schoolgirl who had watched his finals:
Klepikova, “Triumf i molchanie.”

189
  
others openly wept:
“All-American Virtuoso.”

189
  
pilgrimage to Tchaikovsky’s grave:
Ibid.; “Cliburn in Salute to Rachmaninoff,”
NYT
, June 1, 1958. The grave was not at Klin, as Chasins suggests (
VCL
, 121).

189
  
called Rildia Bee:
Fredrickson, “Van Cliburn Remembers His Remarkable Mother.”

190
  
“NEW YORK AGENTS”:
Herter to Moscow embassy, telegram, April 21, 1958, Box 2182, RG 59, NACP.

190
  
he explained:
Thompson to secretary of state, telegram, April 22, 1958, Box 2182, RG 59, NACP.

190
  
“DEPARTMENT HAS RECEIVED REPORT THAT MANAGER”:
Herter to Davis, telegram, May 9, 1958, Box 2182, RG59, NACP.

191
  
J. Edgar Hoover:
R. R. Roach to A. H. Belmont, memorandum, “Van Clibern [
sic
]—Internal Security,” May 8, 1958, FBI (FOIA).

191
  
“would play it very cautiously from now on”:
A. H. Belmont to L. V. Boardman, memorandum, “Van Clibern [
sic
] Internal Security,” May 9, 1958, FBI (FOIA). Hagerty’s identity, redacted from the previous file, is confirmed here.

191
  
his embassy day:
Van explained this sequence of events at a press conference held at Steinway Hall on his return to New York. Sound Recording 306-EN-G-T-5703, “Van Cliburn Press Conference,” May 19, 1958, RG 306, NACP.

191
  
lengthy telegram:
Davis to secretary of state, May 12, 1958, Box 2182, RG 59, NACP.

192
  
pink floral telegrams:
Daily Courier
(Connellsville, PA), June 24, 1958.