Mstislav Rostropovich in childhood with parents and elder sister Veronica. Around 1930.
Gallery of Mstislav Rostropovich
1940
Soviet Union
Little Mstislav Rostropovich in his childhood.
College/University
Gallery of Mstislav Rostropovich
1974
Harvard University's 323rd Commencement 6/13,Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Six of the seven honorary degree recipients at Harvard University's 323rd Commencement 6/13, meet in front of President Bok's home prior to receiving their degrees. Left to right are: Ralph Ellison, Doctor of Letters; Clifford Geertz of Princeton University, Doctor of Laws; Beverly Sills (rear center), Doctor of Music; Mstislav Rostropovich, Doctor of Music; Jerome Weisner (right), President of M.I.T.; and Chien-Shiung Wu (front center), Professor at Columbia University, Doctor of Science.
Career
Achievements
TIME Magazine Cover: Mstislav Rostropovich - Oct. 24, 1977.
Membership
Royal Academy of Music
Académie des Beaux-Arts
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Awards
Polar Music Prize
1995
Stockholm Concert Hall, Stockholm, Sweden
The 1995 Polar Music Prize has been awarded to the Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich for a unique artistic achievement distinguished by originality, independence, fluency, and vigour of interpretation and instrumental mastery. Reception on stage with Elton John, another laureate of the year.
Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III
2004
Zarzuela Palace, Madrid, Spain
King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain Decorate Mstislav Rostropovich with the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III. Photo by Lalo Yasky.
Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"
2007
Kremlin, Moscow, Moscow City, Russian Federation
A reception was held at the Kremlin to celebrate Mstislav Rostropovich's 80th birthday where he is awarded the 1st class Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" by President Putin.
Tanglewood Music Center, Lenox, Massachusets, United States
Mstislav Rostropovich, left, gives Leonard Bernstein, right, a hug following Rostropovich's performance during the 70th birthday party for Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusets. August 25, 1988. Photo by Suzanne Kreiter.
Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, Moscow, Soviet Union
Russian cellist and post-graduate of the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory of Moscow, Mstislav Rostropovich (left), giving instruction to V. Alabin, a conservatory student, October 1951.
Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya with her husband the Russian cellist, conductor and composer Mstislav Rostropovich at the piano. Photo by Erich Auerbach.
Soviet musicians, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and pianist Emil Gilels with a chauffeur (right) and his Rolls-Royce outside Hampton Court Palace, London, 19th February 1959. Behind the chauffeur is violinist Leonid Kogan. Photo by Erich Auerbach.
The Russian pianist Emil Gilels, is at the piano, while Leonid Kogan (right) and the Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich play chess in their London hotel. Photo by Erich Auerbach.
Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Aldeburgh Suffolk, United Kingdom
English tenor Sir Peter Pears (in background), with the English composer Benjamin Britten (Baron Edward Benjamin Britten of Aldeburgh) and Galina Vishnevskaya, the wife of cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich (back of the car), at the Aldeburgh Festival (founded by Britten and Pears). Photo by Erich Auerbach.
Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter (1915 - 1997, left) listening to a Beethoven playback with cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich (1927 - 2007), 24th July 1961. Photo by Erich Auerbach.
Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971), left, and Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, at the Royal College of Music, London. Photo by Erich Auerbach.
Cellist, pianist, and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich (right) talking to violinist and conductor David Oistrakh during a rehearsal of Brahms' Double Concerto. Photo by Erich Auerbach.
Russian-born cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, born in Azerbaijan in 1927. A student and teacher at the Moscow Conservatory, he became conductor of Washington's National Symphony Orchestra in 1977. Photo by Erich Auerbach.
Harvard University's 323rd Commencement 6/13,Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Six of the seven honorary degree recipients at Harvard University's 323rd Commencement 6/13, meet in front of President Bok's home prior to receiving their degrees. Left to right are: Ralph Ellison, Doctor of Letters; Clifford Geertz of Princeton University, Doctor of Laws; Beverly Sills (rear center), Doctor of Music; Mstislav Rostropovich, Doctor of Music; Jerome Weisner (right), President of M.I.T.; and Chien-Shiung Wu (front center), Professor at Columbia University, Doctor of Science.
Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and Russian painter Mikhail Chemiakin at a Russian art exhibition in Paris, France, on 11th March 1977. Photo by Wojtek Laski.
Artist Marc Chagall (centre) with the cellist, Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, the singer Galina Vishnevskaya, in Nice, before they were stripped of their Soviet citizenship for alleged acts that were prejudicial to the Soviet Union.
The time of the Mstislav Rostropovich for in his Paris apartment. Pooks his dachshund, very curious, has settled on his shoulder. October 1982. Photo by Manuel Litran.
Soviet-born American cellist and conductor Slava Rostropovich (Mstislav Rostropovich) watching a shop window with his wife, Soviet soprano Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya. Slava Rostropovich has been holding the role of artistic director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington for seven years. Venice, 1984. Photo by Nino Leto.
Soviet-born American cellist and conductor Slava Rostropovich (Mstislav Rostropovich) conducting an orchestra gesticulating and clenching his fist. Slava Rostropovich has been holding the role of artistic director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington for seven years. 1984. Photo by Nino Leto.
Soviet-born American cellist and conductor Slava Rostropovich (Mstislav Rostropovich) conducting an orchestra opening his arms. Slava Rostropovich has been holding the role of artistic director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington for seven years. 1984. Photo by Nino Leto.
Mstislav Rostropovich, a foreign member of the Academy of Fine Arts, at home, at the Trocadero in Paris. The cello lesson 'Slava' has grandchildren Ivan son (5 years) and Sergei (2 years). October 1988. Photo by Manuel Litran.
The 1995 Polar Music Prize has been awarded to the Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich for a unique artistic achievement distinguished by originality, independence, fluency, and vigour of interpretation and instrumental mastery. Reception on stage with Elton John, another laureate of the year.
Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York, United States
Boston Symphony Orchestra performing at Carnegie Hall, April 9, 2002. It was the first of the last three Carnegie Hall concerts of Seiji Ozawa as the music director of Boston Symphony. This image: Mstislav Rostropovich, left, and Seiji Ozawa in curtain call. Photo by Hiroyuki Ito.
King Juan Carlos and Mstislav Rostropovich during King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain Decorate Mstislav Rostropovich with the Real Orden de Carlos III at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid, Spain.
King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain Decorate Mstislav Rostropovich with the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III. Photo by Lalo Yasky.
Mstislav Rostropovich plays the cello as Prince Rainier lies in state, in the presence of Prince Albert II, Princess of Hanover, her son Andrea Casiraghi and Princess Stephanie at Chapel Palatine on April 13, 2005, in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
A reception was held at the Kremlin to celebrate Mstislav Rostropovich's 80th birthday where he is awarded the 1st class Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" by President Putin.
Mstislav Leopoldovich "Slava" Rostropovich was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered to be one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century.
Background
Ethnicity:
Mstislav Rostropovich has multiethnic ancestry including Polish, Russian, German, Czech, and others.
Mstislav Rostropovich was born in Baku, the capital of the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, on March 27, 1927, to the family of Leopold Rostropovich and Sofia Fedotova. His father was from Polish nobility. The family was musical, his father being a professional cellist, his mother an accomplished pianist, and his sister a violinist with the Moscow Philharmonic.
Education
Mstislav Rostropovich received his first lessons on both the cello and piano from his parents while quite young and, when the family moved to Moscow, he attended the Gnessin State Musical College where his father taught.
In 1943 Rostropovich entered the Moscow Conservatory, studying with Semyon Kozolupov (cello) and Dmitri Shostakovich and Vissaryon Shebalin (composition), among others. He graduated with the highest distinction in 1946. He received honorary doctorates from Harvard (1974) and Cambridge (1975) universities.
Rostropovich had won competitions for his cello playing in Moscow, Prague, and Budapest by the late 1940s. In 1956 he received a post as cello professorship at the Moscow Conservatory. By now an international career was well established, documented by numerous prizes and tours of Europe and the United States. His American debut took place at Carnegie Hall, New York, in April 1956.
Rostropovich brought to his performances a complete command of the cello and a display of emotional intensity that were at once apparent to the audience. His technique maintained both accuracy of pitch and fullness of tone through the entire range of the instrument, and he excelled in producing a wide variety of tone colors. Flaws in his playing were more often of a musical, rather than technical, nature, such as his occasional tendency to overplay and his lapses in phrasing continuity. His repertoire extended from Bach to the moderns, several of whom wrote works for him. The list includes Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Penderecki, Lutoslawski, and Britten.
Beginning in 1975 Rostropovich played a cello, the "Duport," created by Antonio Stradivari in 1711. The instrument was in perfect condition except for a mark on its lower body, said to have been put there by Napoleon who, after hearing Duport play, asked to examine the instrument and accidentally bumped it with his spur.
Although Rostropovich had been interested in conducting since childhood, his career in this art did not pick up until after 1968, when he made his debut at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow with Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. He credited much of his ability to the observations he was able to make while performing as a soloist under various conductors. While he once made the statement that "no performer's identity is as important as the composer's," he was criticized for exaggerated and sometimes sentimental interpretations, tendencies also found in his cello playing. He was, therefore, most comfortable with music where these qualities are more appropriate - emotional works of the Romantic and Post-Romantic periods. He had, though, surprising success with some of the more "difficult" moderns, including Penderecki, Lutoslawski, and C. Halffter.
A defender of personal freedoms, Rostropovich ran afoul of the Soviet State for coming to the aid of his friend Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who was refused admittance into Moscow after the publication in the West of The First Circle and Cancer Ward. Rostropovich first allowed the writer to stay with him for an extended period and then, when Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970 and was still not allowed to publish in Russia, wrote a letter to the press on his friend's behalf. The letter, which attacked Soviet censorship of the arts, the suppression of human rights, and the incompetence of those in administrative positions in the arts, remained unpublished in Russia but was picked up by foreign presses. Then began official harassment of the careers of both Rostropovich and his wife. Their passports were confiscated and all tours outside the country canceled. At home, they were limited to lesser engagements in remote places and when performances were broadcast their names were removed from the list of credits. A letter from Rostropovich to Brezhnev went unanswered. Finally, the intercession of several prominent people in the United States, including Leonard Bernstein and Senator Edward Kennedy, persuaded officials to allow Rostropovich and his family a two-year absence from the country during which they would be based in Britain. Both he and his wife were stripped of their Soviet citizenship in March 1978.
A successful concert he had given in Washington, D.C., with the National Symphony Orchestra led to a post as music director with that orchestra beginning in 1977. He was also a regular guest conductor with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for several years and it was with this orchestra that he made the first recording of Shostakovich's opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, his wife singing the role of Katerina. While with the London Philharmonic Orchestra he recorded the complete symphonies of Tchaikovsky, a composer he regarded more highly than do most musicians.
When he heard of the right-wing coup in the Soviet Union on August 19, 1991, Rostropovich flew immediately to Moscow. Continuing his dedication to freedom, he spent the next three days in the Russian parliament building while the coup collapsed around him. He called this time "the best days of my life." Those types of days became even more frequent. In May 1997, wrapped in an emotional visit to his native Azerbaijan he offered his music or even his life to prevent new fighting in the region. During his five-day stay, he offered to play for the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan for as long as it took to settle the long dispute over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Leaving for Moscow, he said, "If there is a new outbreak of hostilities in the conflict zone, I will go there, stand between the forces and say: Better kill me."
Although not originally known as a composer, Rostropovich retained an active interest in writing music throughout his career. He dismissed his student works as "bad imitations of Prokofiev," but occasionally included some later pieces in his own cello recitals. His compositions include two piano concertos, work for a string quartet, various piano and cello pieces, and a satirical cantata.
His composing career has given him several widely acclaimed distinctions. In June 1994, he conducted his last subscription concert as music director at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The program, Verdi Requiem, more or less personified its leader: big, impassioned and extroverted and topped off his 17 seasons as the conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra.
In October 1995, he returned to Russia to fight for a new cause-the costly and controversial reconstruction of Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. It was said, that hundreds of wealthy and well-dressed Russians paid $1,000 apiece to hear Rostropovich conduct and play cello in the Moscow Conservatory.
April, 1997 gave Rostropovich the distinction of being the last conductor to play the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Hall before the $105 million renovation and expansion transformed the Orchestra Hall into Symphony Center.
Rostropovich did not give up his cello. In March of 1997, he, at age 70, played works by Marcello, Beethoven, Bach, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich at the music festival in Monaco, dedicated to the memory of Princess Grace. Became a household name in the West. Lives in London. Has homes in the United States, Paris, Aldeburgh, and Lausanne. Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him an honorary knighthood in 1987 on his 60th birthday.
Rostropovich's health declined in 2006, with the Chicago Tribune reporting rumours of unspecified surgery in Geneva and later treatment for what was reported as an aggravated ulcer. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Rostropovich to discuss details of a celebration the Kremlin was planning for 27 March 2007, Rostropovich's 80th birthday. Rostropovich attended the celebration but was reportedly in frail health.
Though Rostropovich's last home was in Paris, he maintained residences in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, London, Lausanne, and Jordanville, New York. Rostropovich was admitted to a Paris hospital at the end of January 2007 but then decided to fly to Moscow, where he had been receiving care. On 6 February 2007, the 79-year-old Rostropovich was admitted to a hospital in Moscow. "He is just feeling unwell", Natalya Dolezhale, Rostropovich's secretary in Moscow, said. Asked if there was a serious cause for concern about his health she said: "No, right now there is no cause whatsoever." She refused to specify the nature of his illness. The Kremlin said that President Putin had visited the musician on Monday in the hospital, which prompted speculation that he was in a serious condition. Dolezhale said the visit was to discuss arrangements for marking Rostropovich's 80th birthday. On 27 March 2007, Putin issued a statement praising Rostropovich.
Rostropovich re-entered the Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Centre on 7 April 2007, where he was treated for intestinal cancer. He died on 27 April.
Mstislav Rostropovich's father was Catholic and his mother was Orthodox. He was baptized Orthodox and was deeply religious throughout his whole life. Nevertheless, he felt a strong connection with Roman catholicism and during his immigrant years, he sent his daughter Olga to study at catholic schools.
Politics
Rostropovich fought for art without borders, freedom of speech, and democratic values, resulting in harassment from the Soviet regime. An early example was in 1948 when he was a student at the Moscow Conservatory. In response to the 10 February 1948 decree on so-called 'formalist' composers, his teacher Dmitri Shostakovich was dismissed from his professorships in Leningrad and Moscow; the 21-year-old Rostropovich quit the conservatory, dropping out in protest. In 1970, Rostropovich sheltered Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who otherwise would have had nowhere to go, in his own home. His friendship with Solzhenitsyn and his support for dissidents led to official disgrace in the early 1970s. As a result, Rostropovich was restricted from foreign touring, as was his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, and his appearances performing in Moscow were curtailed, as increasingly were his appearances in such major cities as Leningrad and Kiev.
Views
Rostropovich was internationally recognized as a staunch advocate of human rights and was awarded the 1974 Award of the International League of Human Rights.
Membership
Royal Academy of Music
,
United Kingdom
Académie des Beaux-Arts
,
France
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
,
United States
Personality
Mstislav Rostropovich had a versatile and brilliantly creative personality and was an artist of an inexhaustibly creative spirit. His interest in innovation of image, emotional content, technique in composition and performance in the various facets of his art continued throughout his life. This inspired the creation of works (mainly dedicated to him) by various of his contemporary composers: Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Shebalin, Paart, Jolivet, Britten, and others. He was tireless in his efforts to modernize and expand the cello repertoire. He was the only cellist to organise series of concerts, festivals, and competitions for the instrument. The maestro was, then, a reformer of his art.
Rostropovich was an easy-going person and preferred to be called by the shortened version of his name - Slava. He was rather popular with famous figures and royals. Salvador Dali painted his portrait. Elton John flew to Paris to play and sing for Rostropovich. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom arranged an anniversary for him at Buckingham Palace, while Queen Sofia of Spain came to him in St. Petersburg for a private visit. He had an extraordinary sense of humor, could laughing out loud to the King of Spain, Juan Carlos, a rather bold story about the dog Puxi, who had got off on the plane, and invite his stove-maker Vasily to Buckingham Palace for an appointment with Elizabeth II. Nobody allowed such a thing. And all this led the royals to rapture.
Interests
collecting antiques
Politicians
Boris Yeltsin
Writers
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Artists
Boris Grigoriev, Nicholas Roerich, Alexei Savrasov
Sport & Clubs
soccer
Music & Bands
Dmitri Shostakovich
Connections
Mstislav Rostropovich was married to Galina Vishnevskaya and had two daughters, Olga and Elena.
Mstislav Rostropovich
Published to coincide with Rostropovich's 80th birthday celebrations Mstislav Rostropovich, internationally recognised as one of the world's finest cellists and musicians, has always maintained that teaching is an important responsibility for great artists.
2007
Rostropovich: The Musical Life of the Great Cellist, Teacher, and Legend
When renowned cellist Mstislav Rostropovich died less than a year ago at the age of eighty, the world lost not only an extraordinary musician but an accomplished conductor, an outsize personality, and a courageous human being.