ArtsBeat

How's this for a thrill: Last week, my cell phone rings, and I don't recognize the number. So, "Hello?" I say. And this deep Southern baritone voice drawls: "Is this Mary? Ah'm looking for Mary."

Van Cliburn!

I was expecting a call from the great pianist -- we'd set up an interview -- but it was supposed to come through on my office phone, not my cell. There had been all kinds of confusion, and Cliburn must have known this, because without bothering to introduce himself, he began laughing and apologizing. And here is high praise I cannot apply to every artist I have interviewed. I felt completely comfortable with him. I started laughing too. "This must be Mr. Cliburn," I said. "Mr. Cliburn, can I call you back on the office phone?"

He said sure. And it was done. What a prince this man is. What a dream. I knew that back in 1999, when I was a contestant in the first Van Cliburn Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs (not that I was all that outstanding, maybe, but I got in). Cliburn had us all back to his house for an impromptu party. It was a wonderful experience, the best part of which, hands down, was hugging Van Cliburn, which I am afraid I did multiple times.

Pause to gaze out over the Skyway, remembering.

OK, where was I?

When I talked to Cliburn last week, I didn't presume to ask him if he remembered me, but he remembered the party, and he was laughing about how unplanned it was. He also remembered vividly the first concert he gave in Buffalo, with Josef Krips conducting the BPO. I will write about that in the story (see the Life & Arts section in Sept. 11's Buffalo News).

Anyway, I was smiling like an idiot. I have to admit the shameful truth, that I just adore Van Cliburn. On Sept. 15, when he comes to the Buffalo Philharmonic Gala (get details at www.bpo.org), and he plays Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, and I have to review him, I am afraid it will be hard to be objective. I know he'll be great. He was great when he played that same concerto with the BPO a few years back. It's his trademark concerto, the one he played in Moscow when he won the Tchaikovsky Competition at the height of the Cold War. He knows it inside out. But face it. He could be hammering out "Heart and Soul" and I would sure as I am sitting here look googly-eyed at him and say, "Mr. Cliburn, how wonderful you are. Now, will you give me a hug?"

Isn't it funny how a certain artist can charm you?

Here he is, the man himself, back in 1950-something. Playing Liszt. Check him out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAqA2E5D0lI Watch his hands -- the video gives you a good view -- and notice how all through this difficult music he doesn't seem to be expending any effort. Listen to the way he plays those slow, sensuous passages. Then tell me I'm crazy. See y'all on the 15th.

-- Mary Kunz Goldman