music
Van
Cliburn
and
the
Kamikaze
Kids
Many serious musicians I know turn up their
noses at Van Cliburn. I’ve always assumed this)
was from the same motives that I think make
academic anthropologists badmouth Margaret
Mead—the professionals are downright jealous of
the colleague who has won acclaim from the
masses. So I assumed.
I was glad, therefore, to get to bear Van
Cliburn Monday night. It is too bad it had to be in
Mac Court, but that is part of it. Cliburn tours the
Mac Courts of this country and, presumably, other
countries. That’s what he’s chosen for his career.
He’s the guy the parents drag their kids to see, the
guy the non-aficionados give up bowling or a
Bogart flick to hear. If the setting has to be a cow
bam, he can’t let that stand in the way of culture.
My musician acquaintances have said
everything he plays sounds like Tchaikowsky. He
played Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin and Debussy
on Monday evening. I couldn’t get into the first
couple of pieces, Brahms’ Opus 118, Two In
termezzi. It sounded so much like a piano in a
gym. I kept flashing on “Go Ducks” and
“Romania Chevrolet.” Brahms’ Opus 79, Two
Rhapsodies, were familiar and had lovely
passages, but you couldn’t tell if he was playing
loudly or softly, there was such a muddy edge to it.
Either I got used to that acoustic hassle or he
adjusted his relationship to the Steinway — or both
— by the time he played Beethoven’s Sonata in E
flat major, Opus 31, No. 3. The problem now was
what seemed to be too sudden shifts, abrupt leaps.
It’s a playful piece, but Beethoven might not have
meant all of the play to be so rambunctious.
After the intermission the audience had sifted
down: a few hundred virtuous parents had left,
kids in tow. They missed Chopin’s Ballade in F
minor, No. 4, Opus 52 and the E major Nocturne,
No. 2, Opus 62. These even more than the earlier
numbers were a showcase for Cliburn’s incredible
technique. He’s been known from the first for his
“wingspan” of two notes over an octave. These
selections included all sorts of flashy sections,
rolls, runs intricacies, and some enchanting
sec ti wis.
At certain points I thought it bordered on the
schmaltzy — a rush followed by a rapid
deceleration — but again, that could have been my
sublimated resentment at having to sit on the hard
bleacher. Throughout the second portion of the
evening, people surreptitiously walked out, not
always waiting for the end of a number.
Cliburn did not falter. He seemed to be sin
cerely feeling the emotion of the music, in his head
— if not in his heart of hands. Somehow the sight of
the south basket must have inspired him. His neck
swayed with the flexibility of a coiled wire.
In planning the program he seems to have
borne in mind the hani bleachers, or the attention
span of basketball-loving concert-goers. The brief
Chopins were followed by three very brief, vir
tuoso pieces by Debussy — Etude no. 5 Pour les
Octaves, La Terrasse des Audiences au Claire de
Lune, and Feux d’Artifice. All were very broad;
the last was very busy. Afterward, in response to
standing ovations, he granted two encores. For me
these were the most successful numbers of the
evening — Debussy’s “Claire de Lune’’ and
Chopin’s Polonaise in A flat.
His manner was gracious and pleasant,
nothing to suggest the temperament of, say, a
Bobby Fischer^ His hair didn’t seem at all as
extreme as I remember it, in those early photos of
the prodigy who won the competition in the Soviet
Union and brought glory to the State of Texas. It’s
just a modified Afro. Maybe he has trimmed it.
Clearly he likes what he does for a living. His
wide grin after every number confirmed the
boyishness in his gait, which was almost gawky at
times. His grin was the same, or seemed so from
the bleachers, when the audiences gauchely ap
plauded between movements of the Beethoven
sonata.
The prize of the evening for gaucheness,
however, must go to the chairman of the Eugene
and University Music Association, sponsors of the
event. He insisted (Hi giving a pitch for money
before and after the recital and at half-time — er,
intermission. It seems the EUMA wants to have
enough subscriptions guaranteed for next season
so they can sign up a Soviet dance troupe which
has never toured outside Russia before. Mem
bership cards were distributed with the Clibum
program, which was fine, but it did not seem
necessary for the man to hop on the stage after the
pianist’s encore and croon into his hand mike, “If
that wasn’t worth your ten bucks, I don’t know
what is.”
Abbie Ziffren
-COMING SUNDAY, MARCH 25. 1973
MAYNARD FERGUSON
AND HIS 15 -PIECE BAND
FROM ENGLAND
["'THE'WORLD'S MOST EXCITING TRUMPET SOUND I" j
THURSTON HIGH SCHOOL CAFETORIUM
TICKETS AVAILABLE:
U of O School of Music
Eugene Music
Music Wesf
Lighfs for Music
Dolph's Music Mart
Concert - 6 PM
$4"
and/or
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e 4 0A
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MAIL ORDERS
Thurston High School
Music Department
Springfield, Ore. 97477
HOW DO YOU HIM k
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