Van Cliburn in Moscow, Seeks <i> Pied-a-Terre </i> for Future Visits

American pianist Van Cliburn, expansive and ebullient, fielded questions Tuesday from Soviet journalists about what he called his sentimental journey back to the Soviet Union and said he had noticed few changes in the 31 years since he was here last.

“I don’t notice if there are one car or two cars or three cars on the street,” he said, gesturing broadly and grinning. “I care about friendships and art. There is a constancy about great art, and that’s what I see here. Great art is an incredible buoy to hang onto in a turbulent sea.”

The 54-year-old Texan also said his nearly decade-long break in performing was over and added that he had asked Soviet authorities to find him “a little pied-a - terre “ so he could come back more often to perform in the Soviet Union.

“I knew I would have to work very hard in the first part of my life and then I wanted to take an intermission, just as if it were a concert, because I feel I will have to work very hard in the last part of my life. And now, I guess, I’m in the last part of my life,” the lanky Cliburn said with a laugh to journalists assembled in the Foreign Ministry press center.

Cliburn, who won the first Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow in 1958, came out of retirement in 1987 to play for Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, during their visit to the White House.

Gorbachev invited him to Moscow, and he arrived last week. He has played charity concerts in both the capital city and Leningrad, and donated $10,000 and 10,000 rubles to Soviet music conservatories and programs.

Cliburn’s audiences in the Soviet Union have been warm and the high recognition factor he enjoys here also was apparent at Tuesday’s news conference. Soviet journalists, in their questions, praised repeatedly both his performances and his genial manner. “You are a great friend of our country,” one said, while another mentioned his “charming smile.”

For his part, Cliburn applauded the Gorbachevs for supporting the arts. He said he was not only flattered that the couple attended a concert he gave last week in Moscow, but also was impressed to see “the leader of a great country give himself or herself over to a night of classical music. . . . You have to have vision from the top for the arts to proceed and preserve.”

Because of its musical history, he said, visiting the Soviet Union is “somewhat like going to Mecca for a musician.”

Cliburn and his 92-year-old mother, who is traveling with him, met the Gorbachevs last week for 35 minutes backstage after he performed at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall. “I expressed a desire to have a pied-a-terre here because I will be coming more often and it might save me money if I have my own pied-a-terre ,” the pianist, who now lives in Fort Worth, said.

Although there is a housing shortage in Moscow, Cliburn said he expects he will be supplied with an apartment. “They were very gracious,” he said.