By his 23rd year, Van Cliburn had gained the world's attention. His victory in Moscow at the quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition coincided with the crescendo of the Cold War. The subsequent RCA recording of Cliburn playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 proved the first classical album to go platinum. It was also my favorite recording as a young girl. Yesterday, President Obama awarded Van Cliburn the National Medal of Arts.
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is an English composer, honored with the position of Master of the Queen's Music. In the late 1970s, Stromness, a village in Scotland, learned that mining companies had received approval to open a uranium mine two miles from the center of their town. The public protest grew as residents feared the pollution would eventually lead to a small apocalypse for Scotland's Orkney Islands.
As part of a fundraiser effort for the protests, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, a resident, composed and performed Farewell to Stromness. And the cabaret-style piano interlude has continued to inspire musicians. Its bittersweet elegance and "slow, walking bass line...[is meant to portray] the residents of the village of Stromness having to leave their homes as a result of uranium contamination." At the Stromness Hotel, Davies first performed it in June 1980 during the St. Magnus Festival. The uranium mine was eventually canceled and Stromness, despite its small size, still thrives.
