Moscow Nights: The Van Cliburn Story-How One Man and His Piano Transformed the Cold War (86 page)

Medtner, Nikolai, 72

Mehle, Aileen “Suzy,” 339

Mehta, Zubin, 353

Meir, Golda, 336

Menshikov, Mikhail, 203, 212–13, 234, 236, 250–51, 275

Metro at Mayakovskaya station (Moscow), 144

Metropolitan Opera, 38, 223, 235–36, 338, 341

Mexico, 283

MGM, 219

Miansarov, Eduard

ex-wife Tamara, 144, 266

history of, 144

in Tchaikovsky Competition, 146, 149, 156, 163

Van’s friendship with, 130, 189, 195, 266

Van’s request that he visit America, 194

Van’s win and, 164–65, 171

Middle East, 87

MiG warplanes, 234, 258, 294, 296, 301–2

Mikhailov, Nikolai, 152, 164, 175, 180

Mikoyan, Anastas

Beria and, 60

Cuban Missile Crisis aftermath and, 302–3

at Kennedy’s funeral, 306

Khrushchev and, 90, 259, 307

praise for, 233

Stalin’s death and, 51, 53, 54–55

U.S. visit, 233–35

Van’s cable to, 289

Van’s second visit to Russia and, 269, 270–71, 272

Van’s win and, 173, 178

wife’s death, 303

Mikoyan, Artem, 234

Mikoyan, Aschen, 270, 272, 331, 361, 362, 365

Mikoyan, Ella, 269–70, 271–72, 361

Mikoyan, Stepan, 269

Ming Tombs reservoir, 229

missile gap, 278

Mississippi University for Women, 341

Mitropoulos, Dimitri, 67, 70, 145

Mohr, Franz, 351

Moiseyev Dance Company, 86

Mollova, Milena, 149, 163

Molotov, Vyacheslav “Iron Butt”

Beria and, 59–60

Bulganin mistaken for, 178

Khrushchev plotted against by, 89, 90, 91

Khrushchev’s power and, 62, 85

Stalin’s death and, 51–52, 54–55, 57

Momism, 76

Monroe, Marilyn, 79, 180, 245, 247, 321

Monroe, Vaughn, 222

Moolah Temple brass band, 218

moon landing, 325

Moor, Paul

fear of arrest, 178

at Richter’s recital with Van, 187

at Tchaikovsky Competition finals, 152

Van’s commonalities with, 151

Van’s confession to, 193, 199

as Van’s unofficial manager, 171

on Van’s victory tour, 189

Moscow, Russia

Chinese pianists sent to, 112

descriptions of, 125–28, 143–44

landscape, 123

music competition in (
See
First International Tchaikovsky Competition)

Prokofiev’s funeral in, 58

Stalin’s death and, 53, 55–58, 60

Van’s arrival in, 123–26

of Van’s imagination, 153

Van’s visits to, 1–3

World Festival of Youth and Students in, 91–94

Moscow Conservatory

Feinberg at, 112

gay witch hunt at, 232–33

graduates of, 33, 107, 108

Great Hall of, 106, 130, 134, 146, 165, 290, 331

Richter at, 57

Rubinstein brothers and, 45

Russia’s pride in, 106

Tchaikovsky as professor at, 5, 95, 108, 128

Van’s arrival at, 128

Vlassenko’s career at, 360

Moscow Kremlin

aged leaders in, 350

artists hauled into, 304

fronts for, 91

Hurok’s plan for recital at, 256

Khrushchev’s rocket program and, 88

meeting before Stalin’s death at, 51–52

Palace of Congresses, 172–73, 282, 292

reconstruction of cities and, 59

Stalin at, 26

telephone hotline with White House, 305

Truman and, 39

Van investigated in, 167

Van’s first view of, 126

Van’s reception at, 172–74

Van’s wish to see, 18–19, 26, 119

Vietnam War and, 315

White House relations with, 288

“Moscow Nights” (song)

on hotel balcony, 362

at Mikoyans’ apartment, 269

played at Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 339

played at Soviet Embassy reception, 234

played at Soviet exhibition, 236

played at the White House, 357, 358

played at Van’s funeral, 365

played in Great Hall, 267–68

Teatr
journalist and, 264

Van’s improvised version of, 194–95

as winner of festival song contest, 93

Moscow Olympics (1980), 348

Moscow Philharmonic, 361, 362

Moscow Radio, 186, 326

Moscow River, 292

Moscow State Symphony, 150–51, 176, 194, 255

Moscow State University, 192

Moscow University, 93

Moskva,
289

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

back in favor, 30

Liu Shikun’s performance of, 111

Requiem Mass, 103

Sonata in C Major, K. 330, 136

Sonata in E-flat Major, 41–42

Tchaikovsky Competition and, 109

Van’s performances of, 65, 67, 69, 136, 139, 324

Munger, Mrs. Stephen I., 64

Murrow, Edward R., 216

music as common ground, 4, 11

Music Panel, 80–81, 105, 108–9, 182, 218

mutual assured destruction (MAD), 305

My Favorite Chopin,
322

Nabokov, Nicolas, 28–29

Nagy, Imre, 196

NASA, 100, 259

Nasser, Gamal Abdel, 87, 196

National Defense Education Act, 100

National Guild of Piano Teachers, 225

National Hotel, 289, 290, 294, 316, 331, 361

National Symphony, 300

NATO, 87, 230, 250

Neuhaus, Heinrich, 57, 133, 138, 155, 158, 176, 265

Neuhaus, Zinaida, 265

New Haven, Connecticut, 224

Newsome, C. L., 24

New York City

in 1951, 37–39

conductors’ battle in, 11

Khrushchev’s visits to, 244–45, 274–77

parade for Van (1958), 1

Rachmaninoff in, 8–10

Tchaikovsky’s visit to, 7–8

Van’s arrival from Russia, 199–202

New York City Ballet, 298

New York City Fire Department, 206, 207

New York Coliseum, 236, 237

The New Yorker,
208–9, 236–37

New York Herald Tribune,
210

New York Philharmonic

Leventritt Competition and, 66

Lewisohn Stadium, 219

State Department-sponsored tour, 237

Van as conductor for, 283–84

Van’s performances with, 70–71, 101, 183, 341

New York Police Department (NYPD), 220, 274

New York Times

Arts as Bridges editorial, 167

on Bolshoi Ballet in America, 298

on Boston Symphony in Russia, 86

Johnson and, 323

at Khrushchev’s death, 328

on Mikoyan’s reception at Soviet embassy, 234

on Nixon’s trip to Soviet Union, 332

Robert Lowell’s invitation decline, 313

Secret Speech published in, 85

on Soviet youth apathy, 316

on spring thaw in Moscow, 231

Tchaikovsky Competition publicized in, 117

Van in Brussels and, 221–22

Van’s Leventritt victory and, 161

on Van’s patriotism, 324

Van’s return to U.S. and, 200–201

on Van’s second visit to Russia, 268

Van’s Tchaikovsky Competition win and, 166

New York World-Telegram and Sun, 71

Nikolaevna, Olga, 345

1960 presidential election, 278

Niven, David, 246

Nixon, Richard

at American National Exhibition, 237–40

Kennedy’s victory over, 278

Khrushchev’s U.S. visit and, 241

Kitchen Debate, 239–40, 250, 329

Republican nomination clinched by, 323

Van and, 211, 336–37

visits to Soviet Union, 329–33, 336–37

visit to China, 329

Watergate and resignation, 339

“Nostalgia” (Cliburn), 187, 216

Novak, Kim, 246–47

Novodevichy Cemetery (Moscow), 58, 326

nuclear arms race, 260, 305, 325, 333, 348, 351–52, 358

nuclear weapons.
See also
atomic bombs; Cuban Missile Crisis; hydrogen bombs

Eisenhower and, 252, 278–79

Gorbachev and, 358

Khrushchev and, 196, 245, 252, 281–83, 288–89, 352

Reagan and, 352, 358

USSR detonation of, 98

Nureyev, Rudolf, 280

Nurmukhamedova, Saida, 192

Oborin, Lev, 133, 139, 166

O’Bryan, Sirrildia, 15

O’Bryan, Solomon, 19

O’Bryan, William Carey, 15

Ogdon, John, 287, 347

Ogonyok,
204

Oistrakh, David, 56, 79, 132

Oldham, Denver, 133

Operation Mongoose, 296

Order of Friendship, 364

Ormandy, Eugene, 79, 335

Osborne Apartment House, 77–78, 217, 223, 254–55, 285

Ostankino Television Technical Center, 272

Outstanding Young American Pianists (OYAPs), 102

Paganini, Niccolò, 324

Palace of Culture, 289

Pale of Settlement, 44–45

Palisades Park, 75

parade for Van in NYC, 1, 206–10

Paris Summit, 250, 251–52, 258, 260–61, 262

Partita in E Minor (Bach), 42