My thoughts about Van Cliburn

http://www.npr.org/artists/87774853/van-cliburn

I've been absent from writing blogs for a few days. When I listened to Van Cliburn's performance and saw his noble figure on video, something happened within me. I was very sad. It was too late to know his amazing talent. He'd been already died in 2013. I don't want to write worthless blogs on Steemit anymore.

Van Cliburn was an American concert pianist and won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow during the Cold War.

From Wikipedia

The first International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 was an event designed to demonstrate Soviet cultural superiority during the Cold War, on the heels of that country's technological victory with the Sputnik launch in October 1957. Cliburn's performance at the competition finale of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 on April 13 earned him a standing ovation lasting eight minutes.[3][11] When it was time to announce a winner, the judges were obliged to ask permission of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to give first prize to an American. "Is he the best?" Khrushchev asked. "Then give him the prize!"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Cliburn

His life which was continued to be tossed about by the Cold War and commercialism in the US... but his love for music changed Soviet and U.S. Has he ever played with Berliner Philharmoniker ? Although I searched on the Internet, I couldn't find it. On YouTube, someone said he is very underrated. Debussy's Clair de Lune which he played was beautiful... I rambled on about him.