Rilda Bee O’Bryan was a piano teacher who taught to youngsters in the neighborhood "What you are is your gift from God. What you become is your gift to him." Learn what one young pupil became in this episode of Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story."
Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWPGsuNGixtOKEcfCaQ2ZuQ/join
Links that I mentioned in the video:
1. Moscow Nights - https://youtu.be/vkxSgmoqpTs
2. Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 - https://youtu.be/qsb1GIhhJfg
3. Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No 3 - https://youtu.be/QZNfCiIlVok
Harvey Lavan “Van” Cliburn Jr. was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1934. Mr. Harvey told us the amazing story of how he began taking piano lessons from his mother, Rilda Bee O’Bryan Cliburn. Rilda Bee had a musical lineage of her own. She was taught by Arthur Friedheim, who was one of Franz Liszt's foremost pupils. Now, Franz Liszt is considered to be one of the most prolific and influential composers of his era and remains one of the most popular composers in modern concert piano repertoire.
In 1946, 12-year-old Van Cliburn entered the statewide piano competition in Texas. The other competitors were certainly talented, but Van Cliburn blew them all away. With this win, he began playing with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. In 1951, the 17-year-old entered the Julliard School in New York City. In the following year, Van Cliburn won the International Chopin Competition in New York City. In 1954, he won the Leventritt Award, a highly prestigious international competition for classical pianists and violinists, and made his debut at Carnegie Hall. He was 20 years old.
In 1958, the International Tchaikovsky Competition was held in Moscow. The United States and the USSR was in the midst of the Cold War. The Soviets designed the event to show their cultural superiority. In the previous year, the Soviets had a victory in the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik. On April 13, 1958, Van Cliburn played Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 followed by Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 for the judges and audience. He received an 8-minute standing ovation.
Every eye in the room was on him. After the standing ovation, Van Cliburn gave a short speech in Russian, and returned to the piano to play one last tune. He played his own arrangement of a song that everyone in the audience instantly recognized, Moscow Nights.
Remember that this competition was designed to show Soviet cultural superiority. The judges agreed that Van Cilburn was the clear winner, but he was not a Soviet, he was an American. Before the judges announced the winners in the competition, they asked Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev for his permission to award the first prize to an American. Khrushchev purportedly asked, “Is he the best?” “Yes,” the judges replied.” “Then give him the prize.” Due to his win, Van Cilburn rose to international prominence.
Van Cilburn returned home a hero. In New York City, he received the ticker-tape parade as Mr. Harvey explained. At city hall following the parade, Van Cilburn gave a short speech. He said, “I appreciate more than you will ever know that you are honoring me, but the thing that thrills me the most is that you are honoring classical music. Because I’m only one of many. I’m only a witness and a messenger. Because I believe so much in the beauty, the construction, the architecture invisible, the importance for all generations, for young people to come that it will help their minds, develop their attitudes, and give them values. That is why I’m so grateful that you have honored me in that spirit.”
He made the cover of Time magazine, the title of which was “The Texan Who Conquered Russia.” Later that same year, Van Cliborn won the 1958 Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance with his recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Three years later, his version was certified as a gold record. The album which included this song became the first classical album in history to reach platinum status. It was the best-selling classical album in the world for more than a decade, and eventually went to triple-platinum.
Van Cliburn's 1958 piano performance in Moscow, when he won the prestigious Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, has been added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress for long-term preservation.
Van Cliburn played for royalty, heads of state, and presidents of the United States including Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. That’s right. He played for every US president from Harry Truman to Barack Obama. That certainly must be a record in itself.