Word: leventritt
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Pianist Cliburn's great talent is nothing new to knowing U.S. musicians and critics; for all the fanfare, the Russians did not "discover" him. In 1954 he won the Leventritt Award for young pianists and string players-a far tougher prize than the Tchaikovsky Gold Medal. Although the Leventritt competition is held annually, no prize had been awarded for five years because no entrant was judged up to it. Playing to some of the keenest musical ears in the world, Van took the prize hands down. After that, he was known as a comer in musical circles from...
...World War II, and this summer, with a record number of American musicians touring, they will dominate the European musical scene. In 1952 Pianist Fleisher won first place at Belgium's Queen Elisabeth Concours against far tougher competition than Cliburn faced in Russia. In 1956 Pianist Browning (a Leventritt Award winner in 1955) came within a sixteenth note of taking first in the same competition, finally took second to Russia's Ashkenazy. This summer there are even two other Texas pianists-Ivan Davis, 25, who won first place at last month's Naples competition, and James Mathis...
Break. Cliburn's big break came when he won the Leventritt Award. "We were sitting there," recalls one Leventritt judge, "when in walks this tall, mad-looking fellow, sits down and plays-of all things-Liszt's Twelfth Rhapsody. He bowled us right over. Ordinarily, the judges would not even seriously consider anyone who played a spectacular piece like that. But it was obvious that this was an enormous raw talent; they don't come any bigger." His playing of a far more demanding repertory clinched his victory. When it was announced, he grabbed the daughter...
...debut with the New York Philharmonic and four other major orchestras. Raved Louis Biancolli of the New York World-Telegram & Sun: "This is one of the most genuine and refreshing keyboard talents to come out of the West-or anywhere else-in a long time." In his first post-Leventritt season (1955-56) Van played 30 concerts, appeared with such major orchestras as the Cleveland, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Denver Symphony and the Detroit Symphony...
...executive, Cliburn grew up in Kilgore, Texas, studied the piano with his mother, a onetime concert pianist named Rilda Bee. He had no other training until he enrolled at Manhattan's Juilliard School of Music in 1951 to study with Russian-born Teacher Rosina Lhevinne. He won the Leventritt Award for young pianists in 1954, and as a result made his debut with the New York Philharmonic to glowing reviews. But like many another promising young U.S. instrumentalist, he promptly dropped out of sight on the smalltime recital circuit, found himself playing successful but unheralded recitals in places from...