# 1956 Tchaikovsky Competition



## Aurelian (Sep 9, 2011)

A bit of history from the 1956 Tchaikovsky Competition that made Van Cliburn world famous.

The only highlighted row is for Richter's votes. The 6th column from the left is for Cliburn. As you see, he got a majority 25.

Can somebody confirm or refute what I heard: the judges were afraid to give a Westerner, especially an American, first prize and called Khrushchev in the middle of the night to get his permission to make Cliburn the winner?

https://e2876b7a1f8af272056a.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/richters-vote.jpg


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Saw the same on Slipdedisc. Don't know what to make of it.

https://slippedisc.com/2021/12/revealed-how-richter-voted-when-van-cliburn-won/


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I'm guessing that Khrushchev didn't care that much. I was going to say that he probably didn't know a Piano from a Pickle Barrel, but then I remembered that in the movie The Death of Stalin, K. had hired Maria Yudina to give Piano lessons to a family member, so perhaps I'm wrong. If he was called in the middle of the night that was probably a holdover from the apparatchik's habits of dealing with Stalin, who fancied himself a music critic .


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