Moscow Nights: The Van Cliburn Story-How One Man and His Piano Transformed the Cold War (80 page)

344
  
“What do you and that piano player have going”:
Tim Madigan, “Diner Waitress Remembers Years Serving Van Cliburn,”
FWS-T
, July 21, 2013.

345
  
White-gloved valets:
Bob Merrill, interview by Peter Rosen, Reel no. 59,
Van Cliburn—Concert Pianist
elements, VCA.

345
  
Pot roast:
Bernard Holland, “Van Cliburn: Man Behind the Contest,”
NYT
, March 27, 1989.

345
  
Olga Nikolaevna:
“The Van Cliburn Collection.”

345
  
“priceless stories”:
Andrew Marton, “Remembering Van Cliburn,” http://www.dfw.com/2012/09/25/686901/van-cliburn-tribute-fort-worth.html.

345
  
“Mother remembers”:
Shields-Collins Bray, interview with the author, August 17, 2014.

345
  
“In
Te
xas . . . we like to stay
ba
bies”:
Joseph Horowitz,
The Ivory Trade: Music and the Business of Music at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
(New York: Summit, 1990), 35–36.

346
  
“He twists a cigarette”:
Rogers, “Midnight Conversation.”

346
  
commencement at Juilliard:
A copy of the address, given on June 2, 1978, is in the “Commencement 1978” file, JA.

346
  
“just shy of Aunt Rildia Bee’s view”:
Micke Brown,
Salisbury Post
obituary comment, February 27, 2013, http://www.legacy.com/guestbooks/salisburypost/van-cli burn-condolences/163346926?&page=27.

346
  
wrinkles erased:
Horowitz,
Ivory Trade
, 36.

347
  
“Try me”:
Ibid., 32.

348
  
Albert Schweitzer Award:
Bill Zakariasen, “An Award for Cliburn, but Not a Note from Him,”
Daily News
(New York), April 20, 1983; “Suzy,”
Daily News
, April 19, 1983.

348
  “
The march of freedom”:
“Text of Reagan’s Address to Parliament on Promoting Democracy” (AP),
NYT
, June 9, 1982.

348
  
“an evil empire”:
“Excerpts from President’s Speech to National Association of Evangelicals” (AP),
NYT
, March 9, 1983.

349
  
“I felt sad”:
“Cliburn Helped Open Door to Cultural Exchange,”
Odessa American
(Odessa, TX), April 15, 1978.

349
  
first Chinese artist:
Gail Jennes, “Pianist Liu Shih-Kun Wins Bravos in Boston After Years of Forced Silence in a Peking Prison,”
People
, April 16, 1979. The orchestra players nicknamed him “the man who never smiles.”

349
  
smuggling and womanizing:
Kraus,
Pianos and Politics in China
, 187–90. Yet again the accusations appear to have been part of a campaign to discredit Ye Jianying.

349
  
something to do with Russia:
Perlmutter, “Long Road Home.”

350
  
classic Brezhnev joke:
Caroline Brooke,
Moscow: A Cultural History
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 101–2.

21: THE SUMMIT

351
  
Susan Tilley:
Susan Tilley, interview by Peter Rosen;
VC
, 310–11.

351
  
called his friend Franz Mohr:
Franz Mohr with Edith Schaeffer,
My Life with the Great Pianists
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992), 68.

351
  
mysterious disappearance:
Speculation about the reasons and the likelihood of a return were rife during Van’s self-styled “intermission.” See, for example, “Pianist Van Cliburn Plans to Perform Again After Self-Imposed ‘Intermission’ of 4 Years” (AP),
Newark Star-Ledger
, December 11, 1984.

352
  
The elaborately choreographed spectacle:
An essential resource for the Soviet view of the summit is Igor Korchilov,
Translating History: Thirty Years on the Front Lines of Diplomacy with a Top Russian Interpreter
(New York: Scribner, 1997). Korchilov covers the summit in detail on pages 41–140, and Van’s concert on pages 100–101. Also consulted were the relevant Executive Secretariat, NSC files and President’s Daily Diary, both at RRPL.

352
  
talks in the White House Cabinet Room:
Korchilov,
Translating History
, 79; Memorandum of Conversation Between President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev, December 8, 1987, 2:30–3:15 p.m., National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB238/.

353
  
their own Cold War:
Howard Chua-Eoan, “Gorbachev: My Wife Is a Very Independent Lady,”
Time
, June 6, 1988.

353
  
126 stars
: Barbara Gamarekian, “The Summit: A State Dinner for the Gorbachevs: Front-Row Seat on World History,”
NYT
, December 9, 1987.

353
  
Rildia Bee looked on proudly from her wheelchair:
YM.

354
  
Van walks onto the small stage:
My account is from video footage of the event: “Van Cliburn Performance at the White House, December 8, 1987,” Reel no. 112,
Van Cliburn—Concert Pianist
elements, VCA.

358
  
“200 ships”:
Hugh Sidey, “Not Since Jefferson Dined Alone,”
Time
, December 21, 1987.

358
  
“I can get you a few bookings”:
True to his word, Reagan faxed Van to ask him to appear at the opening ceremony for the Bob Hope Cultural Center in Palm Springs, whose producers had been pursuing him, to no effect; he gave in and played for the invited audience, which included the Reagans.

358
  
“I’ve never seen anything like it”:
Korchilov,
Translating History
, 101. As president, Bush invited Van back to play on state occasions and famously nodded off during one concert: see Melinda Bergreen, “Lullaby: If Van Cliburn Puts Bush to Sleep, Who Is Safe?”
Seattle Times
, March 15, 1992.

358
  
noticeably warmer:
Susan Tilley, interview by Peter Rosen.

CODA

360
  
played the Soviet anthem:
VC
, 329.

361
  
swaddled in a fur coat:
Aschen Mikoyan, interview with the author.

361
  
flowers and watermelons:
Alann Sampson, interview with the author.

361
  
“We are friends . . . full my heart is”:
Aschen Mikoyan’s private recording.

361
  
invited Van and Rildia Bee:
“Cliburn Plays in Moscow” (AP),
NYT
, July 3, 1989.

361
  
jogging outfit:
Susan Tilley diary, quoted in
VC
, 333.

361
  
“If you love him, don’t kill him”:
Richard Rodzinski, interview with the author.

361
  
played at the conservatory:
Ed Wierzbowski, e-mail message to author, April 1, 2016. The concert was on July 3.

362
  
“He loves to shop”:
“Nice Guy,”
Orlando Sentinel
, July 13, 1989.

362
  
arrived by bus:
John Giordano, interview with the author.

362
  
Back at the suite:
Ed Wierzbowski, e-mail message to author, July 3, 2016.

362
  
rendition of “Moscow Nights”:
Aschen Mikoyan, interview with the author.

362
  
occasional benefit concert:
Each was accompanied by a flurry of press coverage. See, for example, Donal Henahan, “A Celebrity Returns, Undimmed,”
NYT
, July 2, 1989; and Otto Friedrich, “The Return of Van Cliburn,”
Time
, July 3, 1989.

362
  
flying Roberta Peters down:
For Rildia Bee’s ninety-fourth birthday. David Daniel, “Rildia Bee,”
The New Yorker
, December 17, 1990. Van’s celebrations at home of Rildia Bee’s ninety-fifth birthday are touchingly captured in
My Precious Mother
, video recording, dir. Rick Croft and William Betaille, 1992, youtube.com/watch?v=NXBv8dVSfII.

362
  
Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn Organ:
The organ was dedicated before Rildia Bee’s death; construction began in 1994 and finished in 1996.

362
  
played to 350,000:
John von Rhein, “Cliburn’s Back on Top,”
Chicago Tribune
, June 20, 1994. For further useful coverage of the comeback tour, see Lynette Rice, “The Ultimate Piano Man,”
LA Daily News
, July 11, 1994; Michael Walsh, “The Reluctant Virtuoso,”
Time
, July 25, 1994. See also Mark Stryker, “Cliburn’s Retreat Enhances His Mystique,”
Deseret News
(Salt Lake City), May 19, 1996; Rick Rogers, “Van Cliburn: As Career Intermission Draws to a Close, Legendary Concert Pianist Returns to Spotlight,”
NewsOK
, July 21, 1996, http://newsok.com/article/2544761.

362
  
$125,000:
Donna Perlmutter, “At Home with Van Cliburn: A Little Night Music,”
NYT
, March 3, 1994.

363
  
“pathetic” and a “fiasco”:
Baltimore Sun
, quoted in Stephen Wigler, “Pianist’s Comeback Fails to Strike Right Chord,”
Guardian
, August 23, 1994.

363
  
Rildia Bee was dying:
Terry Teachout, “Cliburn Gives the Met a Show of Virtuoso Reality,”
Daily News
(New York); “Van Cliburn’s Mother Dies,”
ST
; Lawson Taitte, “Rildia Bee Cliburn Dead at 97,”
DMN
; all August 4, 1994.

363
  
sued for palimony:
Kevin O’Hanlon, “Van Cliburn Sued for Palimony” (AP),
Daily Gazette
, May 1, 1996, and widely reprinted; “Former Partner Sues Van Cliburn in AIDS Allegations” (Reuters),
Daily News
(New York), May 1, 1996. For a thorough investigation of sexuality, classical music, and Van, see Joey DiGuglielmo, “Classical Closet?,”
Washington Blade
, March 7, 2013.