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Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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The unhappy Texan

June 1, 2017 by Terry Teachout

In my “Sightings” column, which appears in the online edition of today’s Wall Street Journal, I discuss two new books about Van Cliburn. Here’s an excerpt.

* * *

Van Cliburn isn’t exactly forgotten—not quite. All of his albums remain in print, and he has a permanent place in the history of classical music in America. Moreover, the quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which is currently underway in Fort Worth, continues to keep his name greenish. But Cliburn, who died in 2013, isn’t nearly as well known today as he was a half-century ago, when he was one of the biggest names in music, regardless of genre. Merely to see a photo of the six-foot-four Texan with the baby face and curly hair was to be instantly reminded of how he had traveled to Moscow in 1958, won the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition at the height of the Cold War, and returned in triumph to the U.S., there to be feted with a ticker-tape parade through Manhattan….

So it’s a pleasant surprise, at least for those of us who loved Cliburn’s rich-toned, warmly expansive playing, to learn that a book about his victory in Moscow has recently been published—seven months after another book on the same subject.

Stuart Isacoff’s “When the World Stopped to Listen: Van Cliburn’s Cold War Triumph, and Its Aftermath,” which came out in April, is the more informed of the two volumes, a tightly focused monograph that concentrates on Cliburn’s Tchaikovsky Competition win and profits from the fact that its author is himself a pianist, one who also writes about music for the Journal. If you want to know why Cliburn played the way he played—and how his distinctive style helped him win—then Mr. Isacoff is your man. Nigel Cliff’s “Moscow Nights: The Van Cliburn Story—How One Man and His Piano Transformed the Cold War,” by contrast, is as chattily discursive as its title (it’s 160 pages longer than “When the World Stopped to Listen”). Neither a full-scale biography nor a proper study of Cliburn and the Cold War, it falls awkwardly between two stools…

No matter which book you choose, you’ll profit from the opportunity to learn more about Cliburn’s overnight ascent to worldwide celebrity, and the cracks that it opened up in his already unstable personality….

* * *

Read the whole thing here.

A Russian telecast of Van Cliburn’s prize-winning 1958 Moscow performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, accompanied by Kirill Kondrashin and the Moscow State Philharmonic Academy Orchesetra. Nikita Kruschchev, who attended the performance, can be seen applauding Cliburn’s entrance:

So you want to see a show?

June 1, 2017 by Terry Teachout

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

BROADWAY:
• Dear Evan Hansen (musical, PG-13, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Groundhog Day (musical, G/PG-13, most shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hamilton (musical, PG-13, Broadway transfer of off-Broadway production, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• On Your Feet! (jukebox musical, G, closes August 20, reviewed here)
• Present Laughter (comedy, PG-13, closes July 2, reviewed here)
• Six Degrees of Separation (serious comedy, PG-13/R, closes July 16, reviewed here)
• Sweat (drama, PG-13, Broadway transfer of off-Broadway production, original production reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:
• Pacific Overtures (musical, PG-13, closes June 18, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

Almanac: Jules Renard on truth

June 1, 2017 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“Not the smallest charm of truth is that it scandalizes.”

The Journal of Jules Renard (entry, August 1902)

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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