ABSTRACT
The Cleveland Orchestra's tour of the Soviet Union in 1965 – five and a half gruelling, exhilarating weeks – is a landmark in Cold War cultural diplomacy. Time called it 'one of the biggest successes in the history of the cultural exchange program'. The orchestra appeared not only in the obligatory metropolises of Moscow and Leningrad but also ventured to Kiev, Tbilisi, Sochi and Yerevan. Dwight D. Eisenhower believed that music would help counter the perception of Americans as 'bombastic, jingoistic, and totally devoted to the theories of force and power'. For the orchestra, the tour enhanced its international reputation and conferred the elusive cultural patina that Americans still thought European acclaim bestowed. Most reviews were glowing, and tended to be warmer in the USSR, Finland and Poland than in Western Europe. Critics heralded the technique and precision that was the trademark of Szell's orchestra. The Leningrad edition of Pravda praised the orchestra's 'inner culture' and homogeneity of sound.
