People have been asking questions about Caroline’s forthcoming book, Khrushchev’s Piano!
“How did you come up with the idea for a book centred on a piano?”
Around a decade ago, I attended a piano auction in London. Surrounded by more than a hundred pianos – each with its own history, some spanning generations – I became fascinated by the idea that one instrument might have witnessed a family history, and carry the imprint of the lives that had touched it. The instrument in my story plays a pivotal role for three generations of pianists.
“Every chapter of the book takes a piece of piano music as the theme. How did you select the music?”
Some of the music is taken from the original compulsory repertoire from the “real” inaugural Tchaikovsky competition in 1958. Much (although by no means all) is Russian or Soviet. ) Some is simply music I have played myself, and love. Most of the choices are from mainstream classical repertoire, but there are also a few lighter pieces, including a jazz classic, and a piano version of Moscow Nights. (A popular Russian pop song from the nineteen sixties)
“You “reinvent” the 1958 inaugural Tchaikovsky competition as the fictional “Rubinstein Brothers” piano competition. Why? Surely the “real” competition holds enough drama?”
Of course, the original competition was an incredible story, and a wonderful starting point for my novel! The International Tchaikovsky Competition was staged in Moscow at the height of the Cold War, and widely expected to be won by a Soviet. But the young American pianist Van Cliburn was so outstanding that they had to give him the prize. (It was rumoured that the Soviet leader was directly consulted.)
But that’s fact, and I was writing fiction. The “real” competition set my imagination going, and I wondered how it would have been if the protagonist had been a glamourous British woman, rather than an American man. I set the event a couple of years later in 1960 (to tie in with some historical events). I renamed the “Rubinstein Brothers” competition, with Van Cliburn reinvented as Evie Mason.
“Why is the book called Khrushchev’s Piano?”
Evie’s (fictional) prize in the competition is a top-rate Steinway piano which was (in my reimagining) a gift to Khrushchev when he toured the US in 1959. (In fact, although Khrushchev’s US tour did take place, as part of the “thaw” in US-Soviet relations, and the Soviet premier was given many presents, he was not in fact given a piano. However, my research revealed that it was historically possible that he might have been! So, in my story, Khrushchev admits that the Steinway is a wonderful instrument, but claims that “the Americans may make the best pianos, but it’s the Soviets who have the best pianists” – and he announces a competition designed to “prove” that this is the case.