When the World Stopped to Listen, Stuart Isacoff
When the World Stopped to Listen, Stuart Isacoff
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When the World Stopped to Listen
Van Cliburn’s Cold War Triumph and Its Aftermath

Author: Stuart Isacoff

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki

Unabridged: 7 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/18/2017

Synopsis

April of 1958—the Iron Curtain was at its heaviest, and the outcome of the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition seemed preordained. Nonetheless, as star musicians from across the globe descended on Moscow, an unlikely favorite emerged: Van Cliburn, a polite, lanky Texan whose passionate virtuosity captured the Russian spirit.This is the story of what unfolded that spring—for Cliburn and the other competitors, jurors, party officials, and citizens of the world who were touched by the outcome. It is a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most remarkable events in musical history, filled with political intrigue and personal struggle as artists strove for self-expression and governments jockeyed for prestige. And, at the core of it all: the value of artistic achievement, the supremacy of the heart, and the transcendent freedom that can be found, through music, even in the darkest moments of human history.

About Stuart Isacoff

Stuart Isacoff is a pianist, writer, and the founder of Piano Today magazine, which he edited for nearly three decades. A winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence in writing about music, he is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal and many other publications. He is also the author of The Natural History of the Piano and Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization. He lives in Closter, New Jersey.

About Claire Bloom

Claire Bloom, CBE, is an English film and stage actress, known for leading roles in plays such as Streetcar Named Desire, A Doll’s House, and Long Day’s Journey into Night, along with nearly sixty films and countless television roles, during a career spanning over six decades. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 Queen’s birthday honors for services to drama.

About Stefan Rudnicki

Stefan Rudnicki is a Grammy-winning audiobook producer and an award-winning narrator who has won several Audie Awards, as well as more than twenty-five Earphones Awards, and been named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices.

Reviews

Goodreads review by David

PRELIMINARY NOTE: In this non-review, I spell the composer's name Chaykovskiy, a more accurate English transliteration of the Russian Чайковский than the French Tchaikovsky or German Tschaikowsky. No, this is not a review. It's a rant. But first, some thanks. I thank the long-serving keyboard accompan......more

Goodreads review by Patrick

For a great many years, the only books written about the pianist were The Van Cliburn Legend by Abram Chasins - a book that took many liberties with facts about Cliburn, and Howard Reigh’s Van Cliburn, which is better researched, but still rather one-sided. Within a year, however, there have two boo......more

Goodreads review by Curtis

Stuart Isacoff’s new book is a biography of pianist Van Cliburn that focuses on his victory at the 1958 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. As the 1958 competition came at the height of the Cold War, Cliburn’s victory was seen as a proxy win for the United States over communism, a......more

Goodreads review by Andrea

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, B-flat minor Conductor - Kiril Kondrashin Moscow State Philharmonic Academy Orchestra Mosca, 1962 List's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C-Sharp Minor The Kennedy Center, 1962 Breve video introduttivo del Cliburn, uno dei più importanti concorsi pianistici del mondo: il Van......more

Quotes

“A tightly focused monograph that profits from the fact that its author is himself a pianist…[revealing] why Cliburn played the way he played—and how his distinctive style helped him win.” Wall Street Journal

“Isacoff compellingly details the various backstage intrigues.” Los Angeles Review of Books

“More than a history of this historic competition, Isacoff’s book is a testament to the power music has to transcend differences.” Durham Herald-Sun

“This was a fascinating and important event…A juicy book.” National Review

“Analyzes Cliburn’s strengths and weaknesses…[and] the particular velvet touch that produced that inimitable Cliburn tone.” Dallas Morning News

“Isacoff pulls aside the curtain on the competition, from the backroom dealings to the (disgusting and dangerous) contents of the drug cocktail that fueled Cliburn to victory.” Book Reporter

“Not only is Isacoff’s prose evocative, he is both a pianist and a historian of the piano. His descriptions are often music lessons in themselves.” New York Review of Books

“Well researched…Assures that [Cliburn] won’t be just a footnote in the annals of piano artistry. New York Journal of Books

“Isacoff brings both a pianist’s insights and a historian’s rigor to an event that shook the musical world—indeed, the world at large—almost six decades ago.” Classical Voice

“A page-turner that resonates long after the final sentence.” American Music Teacher

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