P.I.Tchaikovsky - The Seasons, B.Douglas, Concerto No.1, V.Cliburn

Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky
The Seasons
1. May
2. June
3. August
4. September
5. October
Romance
6. 6 Pieces in F major
Play Barry Douglas, piano
7-9. Concerto No.1 for piano & orchestra
Play Van Cliburn, piano
Carnrgie Hall & RCA Symphony Orchestra

(born April 23, 1960 in Belfast) is an Irish classical pianist. For all further information you can check out his web page at www.barry-douglas.com He studied piano, cello, clarinet and organ whilst growing up in Belfast. Barry Douglas first studied in Belfast and at 16 had lessons with Felicitas LeWinter, a pupil of Emil von Sauer - a pupil of Liszt. In London he studied with John Barstow for four years and then studied privately with Maria Curcio, herself a pupil of Austrian pianist Arthur Schnabel, going on to study with the Russian pianist Yevgeny Malinin in Paris. He won the gold medal, outright in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1986, the first non-Russian pianist to do so since Van Cliburn in 1958. Barry Douglas received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year's Honours List for services to music. He also received a Fellowship of the Royal College of Music where he is Prince Consort Professor of Piano and an Hon. Doctorate of Music from Queens University Belfast. He is Visiting Prince Consort professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music. He received an honorary Doctorate of Music from the National University of Ireland in September 2007. His debut album was a recording of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, in the original piano version. He has made many recordings since then and has recently (2007) completed (with Camerata Ireland) recording the five Beethoven piano concertos plus Beethoven's Triple Concerto (with Chee-Yun Kim and Andrés Díaz). He is Artistic Director of the International Piano Festival in Manchester, England and the Clandeboye Festival in Clandeboye, Bangor, County Down. He founded Camerata Ireland in 1998 which has Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Mary McAleese the President of Ireland as Joint Patrons. He had previously won the Bronze Medal at the Van Cliburn Competition in Texas in 1985 and the top prize in the Santander Paloma O'Shea competition in Spain. Barry Douglas increasingly devotes part of his time to conducting the Camerata Ireland orchestra. He has directed cycles of the complete Beethoven symphonies (in November 2002) and Mozart and Schubert symphonies and Mozart concertos in 2000 and 2001. He has recorded on the RCA and Satirino France labels.


Jr. (b. July 12, 1934), is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958, when at age 23, he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War. Cliburn was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and began taking piano lessons at the age of three from his mother, Rildia Bee O'Bryan Cliburn. O'Bryan was taught by Arthur Friedheim,[1] a pupil of Franz Liszt. At six years old, Cliburn moved with his family to Kilgore, Texas, and at twelve he won a statewide piano competition which enabled him to debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He entered The Juilliard School at age 17, and studied under Rosina Lhévinne, who trained him in the tradition of the great Russian romantics. At age 20, Cliburn won the Leventritt Award, and made his Carnegie Hall debut. It was his recognition in Moscow that propelled Cliburn to international fame. The first International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 was an event designed to demonstrate Soviet cultural superiority during the Cold War, on the heels of their 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 earned him a standing ovation lasting eight minutes. When it was time to announce a winner, the judges were obliged to ask permission of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to give first prize to an American. "Is he the best?" Khrushchev asked, "Then give him the prize!" Cliburn returned home to a ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only time the honor has been accorded a classical musician. His cover story in Time proclaimed him "The Texan Who Conquered Russia." RCA Victor signed him to an exclusive contract, and his subsequent recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 became the first classical album to go platinum. It was the best-selling classical album in the world for more than a decade, eventually going triple-platinum. Cliburn won the 1958 Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance for this recording. Other famous concerti Van Cliburn has recorded include the Grieg Piano Concerto, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 and No. 5 (Emperor), and the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3. In 1962, Cliburn became the artistic advisor for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The competition was founded by a group of Fort Worth, Texas music teachers and volunteers, and its prestige now rivals that of the Tchaikovsky Competition. Cliburn performed and recorded through the 1970s, but in 1978, after the deaths of his father and manager, began a hiatus from public life. In 1987, he was invited to perform at the White House for President Ronald Reagan and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, and afterwards was invited to open the 100th anniversary season of Carnegie Hall. In 1994, Cliburn made a guest appearance in the cartoon Iron Man, playing himself in the episode "Silence My Companion, Death My Destination". Now over 70, he still gives a limited number of performances every year, to critical and popular acclaim. He has played for royalty and heads of state from dozens of countries, and for every President of the United States since Harry Truman.