The Nation - News from June 20, 1989

After an 11-year hiatus, pianist Van Cliburn resumed his public performances to thunderous applause with a Philadelphia concert dedicated to two late friends. Before performing his first selection, Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Cliburn told the audience of 12,000 that “this is a very sentimental evening for me.” The pianist dedicated the concert at the Mann Music Center to conductor Eugene Ormandy and Fredric R. Mann, a former U.S. ambassador who headed the concert festival there from 1949 until his death in 1987.