Mapsforus

The first disc presents an hour long documentary on Van Cliburn, while the second is a 52 minute recital of breath taking expressive and technical scope. The documentary is riveting from beginning to end, including many clips of Cliburn, plus a fair amount of big names revealing their feelings about him. Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne and pianist Alexander Toradze to name just a few. It is the clips of Van Cliburn the pianist that make this DVD special, though. As one watches him create a marvelously singing tone in Liszt’s first Mephisto Waltz, one is simultaneously mesmerized by his hands. This is one of several extended excerpts that further add to the documentary value of this release. The importance of Cliburn as a cultural diplomat who showed that the power of music is much stronger then over politics in the wake of his Moscow triumph of 1958 is also shown. Cliburn played for every President of the United States in his lifetime since Eisenhower, a measure of the recognition accorded to his art. His nine year absence from the concert stage is mentioned, as is his eighteen city tour of the United States late in his life. The documentary is always gripping and one feels, at the end, deeply moved.

The complete works on disc 2 are:

1) Schumann-Liszt Widmung
2) Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 3
3) Rachmaninoff Etude Tableau Op. 39 No. 5
4) Debussy L’ lsle joyeuse
5) Brahms Intermezzo Op. 118 No. 2
6) Chopin Scherzo No. 3 Op. 39
7) Rachmaninoff Prelude in C Sharp Minor Op. 3 No. 2 Brahms Waltz Op. 39 No. 15
9) Liszt Mephisto Waltz

The second disc confirms the impressions we get of Van Cliburn after watching the documentary. Every single piece generates its own superlative, from the loving flow of Brahms’ Op. 118 No. 2 to the impossibly beautiful Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 3. Cliburn’s huge tone is fully in evidence in the Rachmaninov Etude Tableau and contrasts superbly with his L lsle joyeuse. This Debussy is a marvelous invocation, and listening to Van Cliburn is like
Van Cliburn Concert Pianist

Comments are closed.