Happy Birthday, Van Cliburn

Van Cliburn’s first trip concert here was in 1959. Bringing him here was a coup for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. It was just the previous year, that Cliburn won the first Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. Already a considered a prodigy, that prize put Cliburn on a meteoric rise to international fame.

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_{1959 file photo}

_{Van Cliburn during an interview in Tucson}

It was such an important musical happening that three different reporters covered the event for the Star. There was pre-concert coverage of the rehearsal with TSO conductor Frederic Balazs.

Following the rehearsal, Cliburn spent more than an hour talking with reporters who had gathered for the practice session. “He sat on the piano stool in shirts sleeves and immediately put them at ease with his pleasant unassuming manner.” He confessed that although music was his greatest interest he had always been fond of acting and “could be tempted to act later on.”

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_{1959 file photo}

_{Van Cliburn with conductor Frederic Balazs at rehearsal}

The concert received a laudatory review. Vigor, vitality, imaginative, sensitive The sold out crowd heard him play, not only Schumann’s “Concerto In A Minor, Op. 54,” but also four encores including works by Lizst, Ravel and a composition written by himself.

A final piece was a more personal look at the young pianist. He smoked, but less than a pack a day. He liked to dance, but seldom got the chance. He said a personal prayer before each concert, but did not read the Bible everyday. And when it came to his thick, red, curly hair, he was totally opposed to thinning it out. “It would ruin it,” he said. The compromise was axle grease to “plaster it down.”

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_{1959 file photo}

_{Van Cliburn dined with Rev. Newton White at the Cliff House}

Following the concert, Cliburn’s departure was delayed by several days as he needed to have some considerable dental work done. During his extended stay he dined at the Cliff House with his friend, the Rev. Newton White, minister of Tucson’s Northminster Presbyterian Church. For the record, the Star noted that Cliburn had three bowls of turtle soup, beef stroganoff and a filet mignon.

And this was just Van Cliburn’s first trip to Tucson!