Role

:

Composer Conductor  

Country

:

Russia

Birth

:

March 27, 1927 in Baku, Azerbaijan

Death

:

April 27, 2007 in Moscow, Russia

Period

:

Contemporary

Genre

:

Chamber

 

 

Concerto

 

 

Symphony

 

Mstislav Rostropovich was a renowned cellist and conductor who was born on March 27, 1927, in Baku, Azerbaijan. He was born into a musical family, with his mother being a pianist and his father being a cellist and conductor. Rostropovich began playing the piano at the age of four and the cello at the age of ten. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory under the tutelage of Dmitri Shostakovich and his father, Leopold Rostropovich. Rostropovich made his debut as a cellist in 1942, at the age of fifteen, with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. He quickly gained recognition for his exceptional talent and was invited to perform with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. In addition to his career as a cellist, Rostropovich was also a highly respected conductor. He made his conducting debut in 1968 with the London Symphony Orchestra and went on to conduct many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic. Throughout his career, Rostropovich was a passionate advocate for new music and was a close friend and collaborator of many of the leading composers of the 20th century, including Shostakovich, Benjamin Britten, and Sergei Prokofiev. He premiered many new works for the cello, including Shostakovich's two cello concertos and Britten's three cello suites. One of the highlights of Rostropovich's career was his performance of Bach's six cello suites in a single evening at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1964. The performance was a landmark event in the history of classical music and cemented Rostropovich's reputation as one of the greatest cellists of all time. Rostropovich was also a passionate advocate for human rights and was a vocal critic of the Soviet government's treatment of artists and intellectuals. He and his wife, the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, were forced to leave the Soviet Union in 1974 after they spoke out against the government's treatment of dissidents. They settled in the United States, where Rostropovich became the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Rostropovich's contributions to classical music were recognized with numerous awards and honors throughout his career. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the highest civilian honor in the Soviet Union, in 1967, and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1968. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, in 1987. Rostropovich continued to perform and conduct well into his later years, despite suffering from cancer. He gave his final public performance in 2006, at the age of 79, at the Kremlin in Moscow. He passed away on April 27, 2007, at the age of 80. Mstislav Rostropovich was a true giant of classical music, whose contributions to the art form will be remembered for generations to come. His exceptional talent as a cellist and conductor, his passion for new music, and his commitment to human rights made him a true icon of the 20th century.

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