Mstislav Leopoldovich "Slava" Rostropovich (Russian: Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, March 27, 1927 - April 27, 2007) Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretation and technique, he was well known as the author of new compositions that broadened the cello's repertoire more than any cellist before or after.
Young years
Mstislav Rostropovich was born in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, into a family of musicians who moved from Orenburg: Leopold Rostropovich, the famous cellist and former student of Pablo Casals, and Sofia Nikolaevna Fedotova-Rostropovich, a talented pianist.
Rostropovich grew up and spent his childhood and youth in Baku. During the Second World War, his family returned to Orenburg, and then in 1943 to Moscow. At the age of four, Rostropovich begins studying piano with his mother. And at the age of 10, under the guidance of his father, he began his acquaintance with the cello.
In 1943, at the age of 16, he entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied cello and piano with his uncle Semyon Kozolupov, and the art of using a conductor's baton and composition with Vissarion Shebalin. Also one of his teachers was Dmitry Shostakovich. In 1945 he won a gold medal in the first competition for young musicians in the history of the Soviet Union. In 1948 he graduated from the conservatory, and already in 1956 he became professor of cello there.
First concerts
Rostropovich gave his first cello concert in 1942. He won first prize at the international music awards in Prague and Budapest in 1947, 1949 and 1950. In 1950, at the age of 23, he became the winner of the Stalin Prize. At that time, Rostropovich was already well known in his country and at that time was actively pursuing a solo career, teaching at the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and Moscow Conservatories. In 1955 he married Galina Vishnevskaya, the leading soprano of the Bolshoi Theater. In 1956, they had a daughter, Olga, and in 1958, their daughter, Elena.
Rostropovich collaborated a lot with Soviet composers of that era. In 1949, Sergei Prokofiev wrote his sonata for cello for the 22-year-old Rostropovich, and the next year he gave a concert based on the works of Svyatoslav Richter. In 1952, Prokofiev dedicated his symphony-concert to him, which Mstislav performed masterly in 1952. He worked no less fruitfully with Dmitry Kabalevsky and Dmitry Shostakovich.
His international career began in 1963 at the Liege Conservatory (with Kirill Kondrashin) and in 1964 in West Germany.
Abroad, he actively collaborates with world-class composers such as Benjamin Britten, Henri Dutille, Witold Lutoslawski, Krzysztof Penderecki, as well as Olivier Messiaen.
Rostropovich took private conducting lessons from Leo Ginzburg, and in November 1962 in Gorky he first took the conductor's stand, performing four excerpts from Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district and Shostakovich, orchestration of the Mussorgsky song and the dance of death. In 1967, at the invitation of the Bolshoi Theater, he conducted Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin.
Exile
Rostropovich fought for art without borders, freedom of speech and democratic values. The first example was his departure from the conservatory after his teacher Dmitry Shostakovich was removed from the professorship in Leningrad and Moscow on February 10, 1948. In 1970, Rostropovich sheltered Alexander Solzhenitsyn when he found himself homeless. His friendship with Solzhenitsyn and his support for dissidents led to official persecution and harassment of the composer. He and his wife were banned from giving concerts in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev, and also severely limited foreign tours.
In 1974, he and Galina Vishnevskaya were allowed to leave the country, and in 1975 they announced their decision not to return to the Soviet Union.
From 1977 to 1994, he was Music Director and Conductor of the American National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC.
He warmly welcomes perestroika in the USSR and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In 1990, he was returned to Soviet citizenship.
When in August 1991, Moscow residents rebelled against the Emergency Committee, Rostropovich bought a plane ticket to Japan for a flight that stopped in Moscow, according to rumors Boris Yeltsin met him at the gangway.
In 1993, he was instrumental in the founding of the Kronberg Academy and was its patron until his death. In collaboration with Rodion Shchedrin, he writes the opera Lolita, which premiered in 1994 at the Royal Swedish Opera.
Rostropovich has received many international awards, including the French Order of the Legion of Honor and honorary doctorates from many foreign universities. He was an activist fighting for free speech in art and politics. Ambassador to UNESCO, where he supports many educational and cultural projects. Rostropovich performed several times in Madrid and was a close friend of Queen Sophia of Spain.
He and his wife put together a unique art collection. In September 2007, when it was slated to sell it off at Sotheby's in London, Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov stepped forward and negotiated the purchase of all 450 lots in order to preserve the collection and leave it in Russia as a monument to the great cellist.
In 2006, a documentary film by Alexander Sokurov - "Elegy of Life: Rostropovich, Vishnevskaya" was shot.
In 2006, Rostropovich's ulcer sharply aggravated and his health condition deteriorated. Rostropovich was admitted to the Paris hospital at the end of January 2007, but then decided to fly to Moscow.
On February 6, 2007, 79-year-old Rostropovich was hospitalized in Moscow. "He just feels bad," said Natalya Dolezhali, Rostropovich's secretary in Moscow. When asked if there is a serious reason for concern about his health, she replied: "No, there is no reason now." “She declined to elaborate on the nature of her illness. The Kremlin said that President Putin visited the musician at the hospital on Monday, prompting speculation that he was in serious condition. Dolezhali said the visit was to discuss events to celebrate Rostropovich’s 80th birthday.
On March 27, 2007, Putin issued a statement in which he praised Rostropovich. Rostropovich attended the celebration, but reportedly felt unwell.
On April 7, 2007, he was admitted to the Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center. He died on April 27, 2007.
On April 28, the coffin with Rostropovich's body was delivered to the Moscow Conservatory, where he once studied and taught, after the civil funeral service, the funeral cortege transports him to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Tens of thousands of fans of his talent came to say goodbye to the great musician. Officials include Vladimir Putin, Queen Sofia of Spain, French First Lady Bernadette Chirac, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Naina Yeltsina, Boris Yeltsin's widow. Rostropovich was buried on April 29 at the Novodevichy cemetery, where his friend Boris Yeltsin had been buried four days earlier.
