Rostropovich, Mstislav Leopoldovich

▪ 2008

 Russian cellist and conductor

born March 27, 1927 , Baku, Azerbaijan, U.S.S.R. [now Azerbaijan]

died April 27, 2007 , Moscow, Russia

was one of the 20th century's finest cellists as well as an outspoken defender of artistic freedom and human rights. Although sometimes criticized for occasional overromanticism, Rostropovich was admired for his keen musicianship, both in contemporary works and in the established concert repertoire. His exploitation of the tonal resources of the cello was considered exceptional. He was born into a musical family and trained with his mother (a pianist) and his father (a cellist who had studied under Pablo Casals) before entering the Moscow Conservatory in 1943. Rostropovich resigned in 1948 when two of his teachers, composers Sergey Prokofiev and Dmitry Shostakovich, were censured, but he later (1956) returned to become a professor of cello at the conservatory. He began touring abroad as a cellist in the 1950s, though he also performed as a pianist in recitals with his wife, the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. In 1968 he made his debut as a conductor. When in 1970 Rostropovich made clear his support of the dissident Soviet writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the government sharply curtailed his ability to travel. In 1974, however, Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya were permitted to leave the country, and the next year they announced their decision not to return to the Soviet Union. In 1977 Rostropovich became music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., a post he held until 1994. The Soviet government deprived the couple of their citizenship in 1978 but reversed that decision in 1990. Composers who wrote works for him include Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, Benjamin Britten, and Witold Lutoslawski. Rostropovich, the recipient of numerous awards, was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1987.

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