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Deeply religious, and a conscientious teetotaler, he is a twice-over tither; i.e., he gives 20% of his net earnings to the Baptist Church. During Evangelist Billy Graham's Manhattan crusade last year, Van sang in the Madison Square Garden choir alongside Ethel Waters. He once skipped a $500 concert date so that he could play for a church banquet in Paramus, NJ. Buffalo Philharmonic Conductor Josef Krips recalls the time that Van came into his dressing room before a performance and said, "Maestro, let us pray." Krips, a Roman Catholic, dropped to his knees with the pianist. Said Van: "God give us his grace and power to make good music together."
"Genius." Irreverent sophisticates of the concert halls may laugh at Van—but not when he sits down to play. Pianist Sviatoslav Richter, whom the Russians regard as their best, dubbed Van "a genius —a word I do not use lightly about performers." In tears of emotion Pianist Emil Gilels grabbed Van as he came off the stage after playing Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto, bussed him soundly on both cheeks. To Composer Aram Khachaturian, Van was "better than Rachmaninoff; you find a virtuoso like this only once or twice in a century." France's Marquis de Gontaut-Biron, a frequent judge of piano contests, found that Van had "almost the technique of Horowitz during his prime, and he has everything Horowitz always lacked." Raved Britain's Sir Arthur Bliss: "He plays with fire and poetry, and gives vitality to every phrase." More cautious, U.S. Conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos feels that Van "could rise to Rubinstein's stature, but at the moment it's not fair to compare them." Says Piano Critic Abram (Speaking of Pianists) Chasins: "Van is a born flaming virtuoso."
Pianist Cliburn's great talent is nothing new to knowing U.S. musicians and critics; for all the fanfare, the Russians did not "discover" him. In 1954 he won the Leventritt Award for young pianists and string players—a far tougher prize than the Tchaikovsky Gold Medal. Although the Leventritt competition is held annually, no prize had been awarded for five years because no entrant was judged up to it. Playing to some of the keenest musical ears in the world, Van took the prize hands down. After that, he was known as a comer in musical circles from one end of the country to the other.