Mstislav Rostropovich
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Artist's top tracks
| Bach, JS: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prelude | Mstislav Rostropovich | 02:04 | |
| Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99: IV. Allegro molto | Mstislav Rostropovich, Alexander Dedyukhin | 04:55 | |
| Sonata For Arpeggione And Piano In A Minor, D. 821 : Schubert: Sonata For Arpeggione And Piano In A Minor, D. 821 - 1. Allegro moderato | Mstislav Rostropovich, Benjamin Britten | 13:30 | |
| Beethoven: Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano in C Major, Op. 56: II. Largo (Recorded 1969) | David Oistrakh, Herbert von Karajan, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sviatoslav Richter | 05:36 | |
| Swan Lake (Suite), Op. 20a, TH. 219 : Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (Suite), Op. 20a, TH. 219 - I. Scene - Swan Theme | Berliner Philharmoniker, Mstislav Rostropovich | 03:02 | |
| Bach, JS: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: II. Allemande | Mstislav Rostropovich | 03:20 | |
| Bach, JS: Cello Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1010: IV. Sarabande | Mstislav Rostropovich | 05:09 | |
| Bach, JS: Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: I. Prelude | Mstislav Rostropovich | 07:23 | |
| Bach, JS: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: VII. Gigue | Mstislav Rostropovich | 01:36 | |
| Brahms: Double Concerto for Violin and Cello in A Minor, Op. 102: III. Vivace non troppo | David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell | 08:53 |
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Ballet Highlights - The Nutcracker, Romeo & Juliet, Swan Lake
by Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Mstislav Rostropovich...
Dvorák: Cello Concerto / Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme
by Mstislav Rostropovich, Antonín Dvořák, Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan...
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1; Variations on a Rococo Theme
by Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Wiener Symphoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker...
Schnittke: Concerto for Three, String Trio & Minuet (Live)
by Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Mstislav Rostropovich, Moscow Soloists
Brahms: Double Concerto, Op. 102
by Itzhak Perlman, Mstislav Rostropovich, Concertgebouworkest, Bernard Haitink
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Biography
Described by Julian Lloyd Webber as "probably the greatest cellist of all time", Mstislav Rostropovich's playing was celebrated all over the world. Credited with broadening the cello's popularity while expanding its range, he also made a significant mark as a conductor.
Born into a musical family in Azerbaijan (his father was also a well-known cellist and his mother a respected soprano), he played piano and cello and went on to study at Moscow Conservatory, where he later became professor of cello. He played his first cello concert in 1942, quickly becoming acknowledged as a groundbreaking master of the instrument. Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, among other leading composers, wrote concertos specifically for him. A lifelong human rights campaigner, he supported the dissident Soviet writer Alexandr Soltzhenitsyn and, in regular conflict with the Soviet authorities, left to settle in the USA and was stripped of his Soviet citizenship (it was restored in 1994). In America he became director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington between 1977 and 1994 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
On the day Russia invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, he performed at the Proms in London with the Soviet State Symphony Orchestra, playing Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B Minor, waving the conductor's score above his head at the end as a gesture of solidarity with the Czechs. He played an impromptu concert in Berlin in 1989 to mark the fall of the Wall and was welcomed back to Russia, where he became friends with Boris Yeltsin. He also performed regularly with his wife, the opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya, as well as his pianist daughter Elena, and the breadth of his work was acclaimed all over the world and he is said to have premiered 117 new compositions. Living in Paris, he died of cancer in 2007.