American piano legend Van Cliburn died today. Our homepage has the Associate Press obit, but here is some local info and commentary I have been collecting:

Mr. Cliburn had a extended relationship with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra that began before his Moscow victory. Music director William Steinberg conducted the pianist’s Pittsburgh debut in January 1955. At the concert, at the Syria Mosque he soloed in what would be his signature piece, Tchaikovksy’s Piano Concerto No. 1. He performed on six more subscription weekends, four benefit concerts, the last in May 19, 1973 at Heinz Hall, and was the soloist for a PSO appearance at Carnegie Hall in Nov. 5, 1971. In 1967 Duquesne University presented him with an honorary doctorate.

“The first time I heard him play was in March 1964, when he performed
Brahms’ Piano Concerto No 1 with the Pittsburgh Symphony under
William Steinberg,” said former Post-Gazette classical music critic Robert Croan. “I still remember the singing line and variety of tonal color he brought to the slow movement. Later in his career, he lost some of the accuracy and spontaneity, but for me, no other pianist has ever quite matched him in that particular moment.”
A remarkable vignet about Mr. Cliburn is related in “Play On,” a history of the PSO published in 2011. Only a few months after the first International Tchaikovsky Competition and the ticker tape parade, Steinberg fined Mr. Cliburn $500 for arriving late to a rehearsal ahead of a PSO concert in November 1958.

And some remembrances:

"Winning the Tchaikovsky was very important to American pianists -- we didn't have to feel we were inferior to the Europeans," said David Allen Wehr, concert pianist and the Jack W. Geltz Distinguished Piano Chair at Duquesne University.

Christopher O'Riley, the Squirrel Hill native who hosts NPR's acclaimed classical program "From the Top," remembered a different kind of symbolism with Mr. Cliburn's winning the Tchaikovsky.

"There was just this wonderful boyish giant in the midst of the cold war winning this prize that people wanted to love," he said. "That was a big change from the old version of the venerable artist. There were other great pianists at the time, but you just wanted to root for him."

Seeing Mr. Cliburn in recital in a high school gymnasium in Boise, Idaho, was life-changing to Mr. Wehr, then a sixth-grade student.

"That is what inspired me to be a concert pianist," Mr. Wehr said. "Every American pianist of 1960 and 1970 would have taken their inspiration from him."

"I went backstage to meet him," Mr. Wehr said. "My dentist was there, and he joked that I had good teeth. Cliburn 'inspected' them and agreed. That's the kind of person he was. He cared about people as well as music. That is why he was so beloved. The generosity that characterized him as a person is what made him so irresistible in this romantic repertoire, people felt he was sincere."

—Andrew Druckenbrod, Post-Gazette classical music critic

A solo piano recital by Peter Serkin, the debut of the Parker Quartet and returns by the Emerson and Orion String Quartets highlight the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society's 2013-14 season. The Emerson String Quartet will appear with its new cellist, Paul Watkins.

The presenting organization also has several additional concerts/events planned, including partnering with several local groups for concerts and three TBA summer events "held in more casual venues with food and drink." The main series concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland. Subscriptions range from $60 for students to $200 for the six concerts; www.pittsburghchambermuisc.org or 412-624-4129.

Here's the line-up:

Oct. 1: Emerson String Quartet. Mozart’s Quartet in E-flat major, Bartok’s Quartet No. 2 and Mendelssohn’s Quartet in F minor.

Oct. 28: Orion String Quartet. Haydn’s Quartet in G minor, No. 3, Bartok’s Quartet No. 6, and Schubert’s Quartet in D minor, “Death and the Maiden.”

Nov. 18: Parker Quartet. Beethoven’s Quartet in A major, Op. 18, No. 5, Prokofiev’s Quartet No. 1, and Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 9.

Feb. 3, 2014: Pianist Peter Serkin. Sweelinck’s "Capriccio," Neilsen’s Theme and Variations, Op. 40, Wuorinen’s Scherzo, Reger’s Three Pieces from "Aus Meinem Tagebuch," Crawford’s "Study in Mixed Accents," Stravinsky’s 4 Etudes, Op. 7, and Beethoven’s Sonata, Op. 81a “Les Adieux.”

Feb. 24, 2014: OPUS ONE. Beethoven’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 16b, Stucky’s Rain Shadow, and Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor.

March 24, 2014: Artemis Quartet. Brahms’ Quartet in C minor, No. 1, Kurtag’s "O icium breve, In Memoriam Andreae Szervansky" for String Quartet, and Beethoven’s Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131.

PCMS will co-presenting three non-subscription concerts with:

Dec. 2: Chatham Baroque in a concert featuring four of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos (Nos. 3-6) at the 20th Century Club in Oakland.

April 29, 2014: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in a concert of Mozart’s chamber music as part of its Mozart Festival at Carnegie Music Hall.

May 10, 2014: Pittsburgh Music Alliance for a 12-hour all-Bach marathon at Calvary Episcopal Church.

Emminent German conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch died Friday at 89. He was best known for his Strass and Wagner and as being music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Excellent obit in the Philly Inquirer.

The latest in the Manfred Honeck debut parade takes him to the Philadelphia Orchestra next season (Nov. 14-16). Cleveland Orch is this fall. I believe this is all good for the PSO.. the higher profile a music director has, the better for the main orchestra...and Honeck has not guest conducted much since he came, esp. in America. Good for him and good for the PSO.