At the age of 23 in 1958, American pianist Van Cliburn became a national hero when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold War (performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3). He came home literally to a ticker-tape parade in New York City for being the young Texan who went to Russia and beat the Russians at their own game.
About six years earlier, in 1952 at the age of 18, Cliburn made his professional debut with an orchestra playing the Piano Concerto #2 by Edward MacDowell, which is also considered the first great American piano concerto. In a performance recorded in 1960 WITH Van Cliburn as the soloist, the 1885 Piano Concerto #2 by Edward MacDowell is today’s Midday Masterpiece.
