Van Cliburn

My oldest was shocked when he heard that Van Cliburn had passed away.His first impulse was to share the bad news with his piano teacher!
She is Ukrainian and generally tends to pick East European composers when it comes to recital music-my son played a duet with another kid last summer and it was Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto number one.The music is very moving and the boys played it well and Vincent, in his never ending quest to have atleast one other person in the house like the kind of music he likes, took him to the Oregon Symphony's performance of the same.
And they come home with aVan Cliburn CD of the same concerto, which ended up in the car and was listened to a few hundred times and then was relegated to the glove compartment and resided there -until Wednesday when the news hits the airwaves.
When you know that the remarkable fingers that danced over the piano keys and produced those breathtaking notes will play no more, it adds a certain poignancy to the music and makes it sound better.So even without my son in the car,I listen to it-the third movement is short,fast and ironically, is foot tapping kind of music and the pianist's skill and grace are on full display.

Check it out on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7MAriotZyE&feature=youtu.be

I know,I know,you might not be into classical music,but watch it for the sheer pace and versatility of the music-notice Cliburn's hands-the mastery is obvious and at the end,he leads the conductor out in front of the audience right along with him to drive home the point that the credit goes to him,the conductor, for making the performance a huge success.Also note the Hitler-looking guy in the audience! I went,"Whoa there!!Wasn't this after the guy died?". Incorrigible me,eh?
I listened to NPR's requiem for Van Cliburn and his self-effacement was refreshing.When he won the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958,the decision was run past Premier Khrushchev who apparently asked if he was the best and when the answer was yes,said,"Then give him the prize!". Emmy's teacher proudly told me that most Russians do not think anybody else capable of playing Tchaikovsky the way they could and it was a complete surprise when a Texan kid nailed it. But she proudly added,"His teacher was Russian!!"
So I think picking a Russian teacher for Emmy was good! His previous teacher wasn't and seemed a little unsteady on his feet most of the time, asked for advance payment a few months, did not make it to some classes on time, sometimes not at all, and finally disappeared altogether without a word and we later found out it was into goal for a DUII  or something!
Anyway, I digress.
When Cliburn went back to Russia a few years back, he apparently wondered if people would remember him.But the reaction to his return was electric-tickets sold out way in advance and he received thunderous applause at his performance.
Back to my son's teacher-She is so severe with him. Every time I pick him up, she will go into this long litany of things he should know by now but doesn't, things he should do by now but doesn't, and listening to her with her thick accent is very entertaining, because after that tirade, she will smother him with hugs and kisses and say she is enormously proud of him and such endearments, that you will rub your eyes and go,"Did I dream the whole thing or what?"All the yelling seems to be for my benefit-she knows he will come home to a good hiding from me(I exaggerate,obviously,it's more like a tongue- lashing), but she also needs to keep him happy right?
I am just kidding-she is really good with him-she will spend an entire hour yelling at him for wrong fingering and obviously I will hear about it when I pick him up. I, in my tin eared capability, used to wonder why it mattered-until I listened to a complicated piece of music and understood the need to optimize the movement of your fingers so as not to fatigue them.
Right now he is preparing for his syllabus test and she is stretching him to his limits and still in an aside to me, informed me that he will ace it!!
Oddly(or not!), she remind me of me-doling out credit in ounces and criticism by the pound.