The Good Show

[video from 1962 performance, with Kirill Kondrashin]

From a distance, Van Cliburn may have appeared as another lanky 23-year-old artist from Fort Worth, Texas. But then he won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow on April 14, 1958.

For a moment, classical music transcended the boundaries of the political impasses of two Super Powers. It was at the height of the Cold War, the competition’s judges reportedly asked Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev if they could really give first place to an American.

Khrushchev replied, “Is he the best piano player? Then give it to him.”