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Musical embassadors
Left: Leonard Bernstein leads the nascent Israel Philharmonic from the piano during “Rhapsody in Blue” in the Negev Desert during wartime, 1948. Right: Eugene Ormandy of the Philadelphia Orchestra walks with Chinese officials at the Great Wall of China, 1973.
The New York Philharmonic, the oldest orchestra in the, United States, has announced plans to play U.S.-themed music in North Korea.
The works performed will be Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World,” which includes themes based on Negro spirituals and Native American music, as well as George Gershwin’s exuberant “Rhapsody in Blue” and the national anthems of both countries.
Read the full Guardian article.
Ticker tape parade for a pianist
Van Cliburn at the piano in a packed Moscow concert hall in 1958. Click the image for a video link.
Hearing this recent news calls to mind when American pianist Van Cliburn won the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, USSR at the height of the Cold War in 1958.
Dubbed “Vanya” by Muscovites, the 6’-4” curly-haired Texan performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, resulting in a standing ovation (rare for a foreign performer) by a packed house, including Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (click the image link above and watch the video… you’ll see him smiling and clapping at the end).
Cliburn returned triumphantly to the U.S., and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only such honor ever bestowed upon a classical musician.
The event proved so popular, that Kiril Kondrashin, the conductor during the original performance, was brought to the U.S. to lead a recording of the piece with the RCA Symphony which topped the charts for months. My Mom bought the record in Cuba, her home at the time, and saw him perform nearly 50 years later in our hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Whenever I heard the piece at home growing up as a kid, it was this record.
Sometimes, it seems, time, place, and circumstance drop away and what is left is simply… music.
I hope for the same in North Korea, and whenever and wherever great musicians meet to play great music.
Related media
The Era of Van Cliburn: Musical Phenomenon in the Midst of Cold War
The Van Cliburn Foundation - includes information on the Van Cliburn Piano International Piano Competiton
Accessible Contemporary Music Composer Alive! - Chicago-based nonprofit’s innovative web-based collaboration with a composer in a different geographical region
Daniel Barenboim - A Builder of Musical Bridges - former Chicago Symphony musical director’s website includes information on the West-Eastern Divan Workshop, which brings together young musicians from Middle Eastern regions in conflict.
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