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This is a shot I took of the young Van Cliburn at a rehearsal in the Lewissohn Stadiun back on August 4, 1958. He had just returned from the Soviet Union and was at the height of his popularity. Tchaikowsky Concerto of course. That's Thomas Sherman sticking his head over conducting the New York Philharmonic.
A few notes about the Lewissohn Stadium for those who have never heard of the place.
It was an outdoor stadium and located on the campus of CCNY (City College of New York) at 139th Street and Convent Ave in upper Manhattan. It has long ago been demolished and replaced by additional campus buildings. Every summer they held outdoor concerts there with the greatest artists of the time performing. The general admission was 25 cents. Generally speaking the rehearsals weren't open to the public, but if you knew about them, you could find your way in by an entrance from the street in back of the stage. They used to post a college student inside as a guard, but if you got there before he did, you were in. After a while I got to know him and had no trouble. Anyway, I used to wear a raincoat and with cameras hanging all over me I guess he must have thought I was a press photographer.
There were also two large gates on each side of the stage for maintenance trucks to enter and every once in a while when one opened a student would come in. Most of the time no one bothered them except for one lousy bully maintenance guy who was always trying to show more authority than I think he had by kicking people out.
One time the famous violinist Michael Rabin came through that gate and that idiot started to holler at him and throw him out. When Rabin identified himself as the soloist for that evening, I thought that guy was going to have a heart attack. He couldn't stop bowing and apologizing enough. We all got a big kick out of that.
I could never figure it out. It seemed that once you were in, he didn't bother you , but if you tried to sneak in later, you got bounced out. One time a friend of mine that was attending CCNY came late and got kicked out three times by him at the same rehearsal. Boy, was he mad. Luckily, he never bothered me.
A word on Van Cliburn. He was a very obliging, gracious young man and let me photograph him whenever I wanted to during the entire rehearsal, even backstage and outside when he autographed for anyone who asked him.
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Very much unlike Oscar Levant and Heifetz who you couldn't get closer to than a couple hundred feet, forbidding any pictures. Levant was nowhere like he was in the movies. He was serious with no smiles or jokes, and he had a chair next to his piano bench with a coffee pot and cigarettes. I read he was a chain smoker and drank 40 cups of coffee every day. I believe it.
A lady photographer who also always attended regularly started to photograph him. He stopped her and was less than polite.
Heifetz was worse, but I guess you all know about that.
I'm sorry to this day that when I attended a few times I didn't have my camera. When I first started going there it wasn't exactly a very good one to say the least. I used to get there early before the guard. I missed shots of William Kapell and Simon Barere among others.
The latter was a very modest guy always smiling and joking with Mitropoulos. He also played the Tchailowsky concerto, but he had the habit of playing tooo fast with his tremendous technique.. At the end of the last movement of the concerto the orchestra couldn't keep up with him. But Mitropoulos let it pass and at the end everyone including Barere were laughing. They all seemed to have had a great time.
Kapell played the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody and even long after I left I could see him throught a side crack opening, rehearsing a passage over and over and over. Just a few years later came that awful plane crash.
Barere also went about the same time with that heart attack on the stage of Carnegie Hall.
One time when I there the famous singer and actress Jeanette MacDonald sat at the table near to mine. I didn't want to bother her figuring she would like her privacy. She wasn't preforming and was just a spectator like I.
Replies or comments anyone?
Thank you all.
By the way Apple, thanks for your warm reply to my last posting. Was waiting for things to cool down a bit.
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These photographs are subject to copyright and must not be reproduced.
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