The Ivory Trade: Music and the Business of Music at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

by Joseph Horowitz

An insider's expose of international piano competitions, providing an anecdotal account of the machinations that take place during competitions

Genres: Music

289 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Joseph Horowitz is an American cultural historian whose seven books mainly deal with the institutional history of classical music in the United States. As a producer of concerts, he has played a pioneering role in promoting thematic programming and new concert formats.

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horowitz's riveting tale of the 1989 Van Cliburn Competition is still relevant more than 20 years later, as even more international piano competitions clutter the globe today. Instigated by the eccentric former virtuoso pianist Van Cliburn and run by cohorts of extremely wealthy, bored society women with the money of their Forth Worth business-titan husbands, the quadrennial Cliburn competition winnows a field of dozens down to one gold medal winner and four or five also-rans in the midst of a media frenzy. As with nearly all piano competitions, juries tend to pick as winners the safest choices, rather than pianists who make radical artistic choices or have idiosyncratic interpretations of the music. Few gold medal winners of the Cliburn have gone on to dramatic career success. (Tragically, the 1989 winner, who won at age 19, died of complications following a series of strokes, at age 35.) Horowitz examines the flaws of the jury process, critiques the maelstrom of concert obligations into which the winner is thrust, usually unprepared, and introduces us to past contestants as well as the finalists of the 1989 competition. He is highly knowledgeable about music, and if you're a musician, either amateur or professional, the book is both a pleasure to read for that reason, and also a horror because the competition world is so depressing.

[Henry Dissell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough, artistic, and fleeting journey through the intersection of modernism, classicism, capitalism, and the piano.

[Stephanie Pieck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book charts the history of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, named for the American man who won the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow in 1958 at the height of the Cold War. The author places the Texas competition in context, illustrating how music competitions have evolved over the centuries.
At the heart of the book is a narration of the eighth edition of the Van Cliburn competition, which took place in 1989. Young pianists from around the world descended on Fort Worth to run the gantlet of competition rounds, alternately practicing long hours, giving make-or-break recitals, attending social every'vents, and enduring the constant attention and intrusions (the media.
Behind competitions are competing motives, for organizers, entrants, audiences, and sponsors. As competitions have proliferated, winning top honors has lost much of its meaning, and musicians on the competition circuit too often must play the same limited repertoire which highlights technical competence at the expense of individual expression.
This book is an excellent addition to any pianist's library. Even if one is not going to compete, the thoughtful comments of a wide range of pianists of the past and present can serve as a sort of Greek chorus for people choosing repertoire, guiding students, or listening to concerts and recordings.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is detailed account of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and it's impact on the careers of top pianists worldwide. I studied piano for 12 years, and was familiar with much of the music discussed, but very few of the pianists named were familiar to me. Still, the difficulty in achieving a high level career in the arts is fascinating to me, and I found Horowitz's discussions very interesting. I was only able to give the book three stars because much of the content had an "insider's appeal."