Inland Empire Symphony Gold Medal Concert Turns to Silver

The Inland Empire Symphony went for the gold--but is going to have to settle for the silver.

Instead of the top prize-winner of last year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the San Bernardino organization will be presenting the runner-up at its concert Saturday night at California Theatre for the Performing Arts.

Similar fates befell the Atlanta Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic, but not at Ambassador Auditorium last year or at Carmel, where the gold medalist is scheduled to play on Sunday.

The Van Cliburn Foundation Inc. says that because a winner may have conflicting engagements, a key provision in its letters of agreement and application book allows for substitutions.

Last April, the Inland Empire Symphony reached an agreement in principle with the Van Cliburn Foundation to present the first-place winner, said the symphony’s executive director Susan Feller. Inland Empire has in the past presented three gold medalists shortly after their triumphs at the prestigious competition, held every four years.

Brochures announcing the orchestra’s five-concert subscription series heralded the appearance of Aleksei Sultanov, the 19-year-old Russian who emerged victorious over a field of 38 pianists last June at the eighth Van Cliburn contest in Fort Worth. He headed back to Moscow with $15,000, a gold medal and a guarantee of concert dates for two years.

But in a phone call June 29 after the contest, the Inland Empire Symphony was notified by the Van Cliburn Foundation, which administers the tours of the winners, that Sultanov would not be available. Sultanov, continuing his studies at the Moscow Conservatory, would be replaced by second-placed Jose Carlos Cocarelli, 30.

“This put us in a very bad light with our subscribers,” Feller says. “We publicized the concert a lot. We were promised the gold (medalist); otherwise we would have never printed our brochures like this. I did hear Cocarelli at the competition and we are very happy to have him. But had we known earlier that we would get the silver (medalist), we would never have agreed to present the concert.”

Previously, the Inland Symphony has presented Van Cliburn laureates Ralph Votapek, Steven de Groote and Jose Feghali. “Any time we present one of the Van Cliburn winners it’s a big success,” Feller says. “A piano sells more than any other instrument, especially when a popular concerto is being presented.”

Ticket prices for the orchestra’s subscription series--budgeted around $525,00--range from $25-$125. More than 75% of the 1,700-seat house has been sold.

The Van Cliburn Foundation “retains some flexibility” in booking engagements for its medalists, said executive director Richard Rodzinski. He says presenters can accept substitutions or withdraw from the arrangement.

Also a consideration are the performers’ capabilities, Rodzinski says. In Sultanov’s case, he explains, the foundation spread his 65 appearances (an unusually low number for a gold medalist) over two years to allow the teen-ager to study new repertory and avoid “exploitation.” Rodzinski says Van Cliburn officials worked out a plan with the Soviet state agency Gosconcert that allowed the pianist to cancel some American dates and remain in Moscow to take exams in January and June.

In a May 23, 1987, letter of agreement, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, the Van Cliburn Competition “invites” the Inland Empire Symphony to “engage a winner” at reduced rates in advance of the 1989 competition. A gold medalist for the 1989/90 season could be obtained at a $500 discount for $2,500; the silver and bronze medalist at a $250 reduction ($2,250).

In addition, a paragraph stipulates that “ . . . final approval of artists, dates and repertoire rests with artistic and administrative directors,” and that “The Van Cliburn Foundation, Inc. will coordinate dates to accommodate the schedules of the artists and auspices concerned.”

Sultanov returns to the United States Sunday for an afternoon recital at the Keyboard Artists Series in Carmel. He embarks Feb. 2 on a tour of Hawaii, and has a date at Carnegie Hall on May 3.

The Ambassador Foundation in Pasadena presented Sultanov last summer just after his win. Ambassador has a longstanding arrangement with the Van Cliburn Foundation that calls for the gold medalist to appear at Ambassador Auditorium within 10 days after the competition.

“Our deal is to present the gold medalist in the first concert,” says Sam Lurie, director of press relations. “We advertise in advance a concert by the winner. We could not take a second-place winner as a substitute once we have advertised because our subscribers have been told they are getting the winner.”

Sultanov’s six-city tour of Florida with the Atlanta Symphony in early January also fell through. Again, Cocarelli was called to fill in.

Nancy Chalifour, artistic administrator for the Atlanta Symphony, says that “no one was particularly happy” at Sultanov’s cancellation. However, the orchestra accepted Cocarelli after hearing a tape of his playing and viewing his biography, which lists wins at the Busoni and Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud international competitions.

“Some of our presenters and subscribers were upset,” Chalifour recalls. “But the same thing happened to us before with (1985 gold medalist) Feghali. In our brochures we put we will have ‘the Van Cliburn winner.’ We were not trying to be deceptive, but we just presumed (from negotiations) that we would get the first-prize winner.”