One very famous musician and one not quite so famous, but the more influential have died in the last 24 hours.
Van Cliburn has died age 78. He won first-place award at the 1958 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. He was age 23. This was a landmark event in the real politic of the cold war.
Although famous and has the Van Cliburn competition named after him, his career was short and in musical terms not highly influential.
I suspect most of you have heard of Van Cliburn, but I suspect few have heard of the great and highly influential French Organist,
Marie-Claire Alain. She died yesterday age 86. She had a long and productive career and leaves a huge discography. She recorded all the organ works of J.S. Bach three times. She gave stellar performance of early French organ music as well as the great romantic work for organ, being able to play whole organ symphonies of Widor and Vierne from memory. She promoted the works of her brother Jehan, killed in 1940 in WW II.
She was also a great teacher and leaves a legacy of pupils around the world.
Michael Barone, MPR host and Twin Cities organist came in to the studios to give a touching illustrated farewell last night.
