Acts 11; Proverbs 15:1-11

Saturday's Bible Reading: Acts 11; Proverbs 15:1-11

The thirty-second day of summer.

Van Cliburn concert at Interlochen with the Larsens. (See below.)

The First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition was an event designed to demonstrate Soviet cultural superiority during the Cold War, on the heels of their technological victory of the Sputnik launch only weeks before. Cliburn's luminous virtuosity in his competition finale performances of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 earned him a standing ovation which lasted a full eight minutes. The Soviet judges were compelled to ask Premier Nikita Khrushchev for permission to give the first prize to an American. "Is he the best?" Khrushchev asked them. "Then give him the prize!" Cliburn returned home to a ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only time that honour has been accorded a classical musician. TIME put him on their cover, proclaiming him as "The Texan Who Conquered Russia." —http://www.answers.com/topic/van-cliburn