Orenburg Theater Institute. Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich. Biographical information. Under the tutelage of Rostropovich

Mstislav Rostropovich photography

From 1932 to 1937, Rostropovich studied in Moscow at the Gnessin Music School. In 1941, his family was evacuated to the city of Chkalov (Orenburg). Already at the age of fourteen (according to other sources - at fifteen) Rostropovich began teaching at the local music school– after the death of his father, he became the head of the family and replaced him in teaching. During the evacuation, he created a piano concerto, a poem for cello, and a prelude for piano; he performed a lot, including with the Maly Theater orchestra, performing “Variation on a Rococo Theme” by Tchaikovsky. Being an artist of the concert and pop bureau, he also gave concerts in hospitals, military units, collective farms, and regional centers.

At the age of 16, Rostropovich entered the Moscow Conservatory, ending up in two faculties at once - composition and cello class, with cellist teacher Semyon Kozolupov. Rostropovich showed another conservatory teacher outstanding composer Dmitry Shostakovich the score of his first piano concerto, and then played it masterfully. Shostakovich invited Rostropovich to study with him “in an instrumentation class,” but Rostropovich never became a composer. The cellist himself said that after the first rehearsal, Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony made such an impression on him that he stopped composing music: “Since then, thank God, I haven’t composed a single note.” In 1945, Rostropovich received 1st prize at the All-Union Competition for Young Musicians, and in 1950 he won the Hanus Vigan Competition in Prague. In 1945, after winning the all-Union competition, student Rostropovich was transferred from the second year straight to the fifth.

After graduating from the conservatory in 1946, Rostropovich entered graduate school, where he studied until 1948, after which he became a teacher: for 26 years he taught at the Moscow Conservatory, 7 years at the Leningrad Conservatory. Among his students were: famous performers, like Natalia Gutman, Sergei Roldugin, Joseph Feigelson, Natalya Shakhovskaya, David Geringas, Ivan Monighetti, Eleonora Testelets, Maris Villerush, Misha Maisky. As noted in the press, many of Rostropovich’s students subsequently became professors at the world’s leading music academies.

The work of Rostropovich as a musician can be divided into two directions: cellist (soloist and ensemble player) and conductor - opera and symphony. He performed almost the entire repertoire of classical cello music. In addition, about 60 major composers of the 20th century wrote works for him. He performed 117 works for cello for the first time and gave 70 orchestral premieres. In 1967, Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" at the Bolshoi Theater became his conducting debut, and subsequently at the Bolshoi Theater he took part in the production of the operas "Semyon Kotko" and "War and Peace" by Prokofiev.

During the Soviet period, Rostropovich gave many concerts in the USSR and other countries of the world. As a chamber musician, he played in an ensemble with Svyatoslav Richter and David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels and Leonid Kogan. He often accompanied his wife, opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya. In 1951, Rostropovich became a laureate of the Stalin Prize in 1965 - the Lenin Prize in 1966 and was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR.

Since 1969 (according to other sources, since 1970), Rostropovich has been persecuted by the authorities. The reason for this was the musician’s speeches in defense of the disgraced writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The cellist wrote an open letter to the Pravda newspaper in defense of his friend (“I know Solzhenitsyn’s works, love them and believe that he suffered for the right to write the truth,” Rostropovich argued), and later he and his wife sheltered Solzhenitsyn in their home. dacha. After this, Rostropovich was not given the opportunity to perform with large orchestras and was not allowed to tour abroad, and in 1974, Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya were expelled from the USSR for dissident activities. In 1978 they were deprived of Soviet citizenship. After his return to Russia, the maestro said in an interview: “The best thing I did in my life was probably not even music, but a letter to Pravda - from that moment my conscience was clear.”

After leaving the USSR, Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya lived in the USA (according to other sources, in France). From 1977 to 1994, the musician led the Washington National Symphony Orchestra. In addition, during these years he repeatedly performed at the invitation of the most famous orchestras in Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, the USA, Japan and other countries.

Best of the day

The media have repeatedly written about Rostropovich as a human rights activist and champion of democracy. In 1974, Rostropovich received the annual award of the League of Human Rights for his efforts to protect human rights. A highlight was the maestro’s performance in Germany in 1989 at the Berlin Wall, where he played Bach’s cello suite.

In 1990, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, by his decree, annulled the resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to deprive Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya of citizenship and restored the honorary titles removed from them. Subsequently, many countries offered Rostropovich to accept their citizenship, but he refused and remained a “citizen of the world” until the end of his life. During the GKChP putsch in August 1991, Rostropovich specially flew to Moscow from Paris and joined the defenders of the Russian White House.

In subsequent years, Rostropovich continued to be active as a performer and conductor. In San Francisco he conducted Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades", in Monte Carlo - Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Tsar's Bride", and took part in a number of world opera premieres - "Life with an Idiot" (1992, Amsterdam), "Gesualdo" (1995, Vienna ) Schnittke, "Lolita" by Shchedrin (at the Stockholm Opera), productions of "Lady Macbeth" Mtsensk district"Shostakovich (in the first edition) in Munich, Paris, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Aldborough, Moscow and other cities of the world. In Russia, Rostropovich conducted Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina in Shostakovich's edition at the Bolshoi Theater (1996), in Paris with the French Radio Orchestra recorded the operas "War and Peace", "Eugene Onegin" (Tchaikovsky), "Boris Godunov" (Mussorgsky), "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk". In 2003, he became the first Russian musician and the seventh in the world to be awarded a Grammy Award. for an extraordinary career as a musician, for a life in recordings" and in 2004 Rostropovich received a Grammy in the category "Best Performance of an Instrumental Solo Accompanied by an Orchestra." Critics noted the impeccable technical skill of the musician, the inherent beauty of sound, artistry, stylistic culture, dramatic precision of his performing nature , infectious emotionality and inspiration. Rostropovich himself said: “Everything I play, I love until I faint.”

Rostropovich, in addition to performing concerts, was also involved in teaching, opened music schools, taught master classes. In 2004, Rostropovich headed the School of Higher Musical Excellence in Valencia (Spain). He not only took part in various types of music festivals, but also acted as an organizer of his own. Rostropovich was the president of a fund for helping gifted music students named after him, and also founded a fund for helping young musicians in Germany and a scholarship fund for talented children in Russia. In addition, the musician's charitable activities became widely known: he was the president of the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Charitable Foundation, which provided assistance to children's medical institutions Russian Federation(for example, in 2000, the foundation began to implement a program in Russia for childhood vaccination against viral hepatitis B, which became the largest program in this area since the collapse of the USSR) and other countries.

In 2006, the media wrote about the deterioration of the musician’s condition. According to some reports, this summer Rostropovich underwent a complex nine-hour operation in Geneva. It was reported that after a trip to Voronezh in December 2006, he was hospitalized at the Moscow cancer center and was discharged from there only in early March of the following year. In April he was hospitalized again. On April 27, 2007, Rostropovich's press service announced his death.

Rostropovich's name was included among the "Forty Immortals" - honorary members of the French Academy of Arts. Rostropovich was a member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts (USA), the Academy of Santa Cecilia (Rome), the Royal Academy of Music of England, the Royal Academy of Sweden, the Bavarian Academy fine arts, winner of the Imperial Prize of the Japan Arts Association and many other awards. Rostropovich was awarded honorary doctorates by more than 50 universities in various countries and became an honorary citizen of many cities around the world. Rostropovich was a commander of the Legion of Honor (France, 1981, 1987), an honorary knight commander of the Most Serene Order of the British Empire. He was awarded state awards from 29 countries, including the highest: the Presidential Medal of Freedom (USA), the Legion of Honor (France), the Order of the Knight of the British Empire, and the Order of the Polar Star (Sweden). Among his other foreign awards are the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society of London (1970), the Japanese Order of Rising Sun(2003), Order of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, II degree (1995) and a number of others. Rostropovich was also awarded domestic state awards: medals “For valiant labor in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945", "Defender of Free Russia" (1993). In March 2007, on the eve of his anniversary, Rostropovich was awarded the Russian Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st degree.

Noting the uniqueness of Rostropovich’s personality and activities, the media wrote: “With his magical musical talent and fantastic social temperament, he embraced the entire civilized world, creating a kind of new circle of “blood circulation” of culture and connections between people.”

Rostropovich was married to the outstanding opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya. The marriage took place in 1959 (according to Rostropovich himself, he married Galina in 1955 - four days after they met). Rostropovich is survived by two daughters - the eldest Olga and the youngest Elena, and six grandchildren - Oleg, Mstislav, Ivan, Sergei, Anastasia and Alexandra.

MSTISLAV ROSTROPOVICH – CITIZEN OF THE WORLD

“Everything I play, I love to the point of fainting.”

The greatest academic musician of the last century not only had a unique performing talent, but was also a very principled person. He was not afraid to speak out against the totalitarian system of the Soviet Union, and for this he was expelled from the country and was also deprived of citizenship. Abroad Mstislav Leopoldovich became a global figure, occupying one of the most significant places in the world of music.

Music from the cradle

Hometown for Mstislav Rostropovich became Baku, where he was born in 1927. His parents were musicians; they moved from Orenburg at the invitation of the founder of the professional musical art Azerbaijan Uzeyir Hajibeyov. From the first days of his life, Mstislav was involved in music. And from the age of five he Already studied in Moscow at a music college. When the war began, the Rostropovichs again left for Orenburg. In 1942, Mstislav had to take responsibility for the family - his father died of a heart attack. The future outstanding cellist and conductor at a young age became a teacher at a music school in order to support his mother and sister.

During this period, he began to compose music on his own. He created a poem for cello, a piano concerto and a prelude for piano. During the war years, he also became a touring artist. performed with the Maly Theater orchestra, gave numerous concerts in hospitals, military units and collective farms.

Before choosing

Not only gifted, but also already experienced, Mstislav at the age of 16 became a student at the Moscow Conservatory in order to improve the art of playing the cello and acquire the skills of a composer. Rostropovich was lucky; teacher Semyon Kozolupov immediately saw his enormous potential. The wisdom of composing trained and Mstislav showed the latter the score of his piano concerto and performed it for clarity. Dmitry Dmitrievich appreciated the efforts of the young man and suggested that he take individual lessons to improve his level. But in the future, Rostropovich never became a composer. The reason turned out to be simple. When Mstislav first heard Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No. 8, the impression was so great that Rostropovich decided to give up on his prospects as a composer. He realized that he could never reach the level of the great Shostakovich. And time has shown what the cellist did right choice, because the world recognized an inimitable performer.

First awards

He earned his first professional award in 1945 at the All-Union competition for young performers. He was awarded first prize Such success turned a second-year student into a fifth-year student. And 5 years later he became the winner of an international competition in Prague. By that time, he already had a conservatory and graduate school behind him. Mstislav Rostropovich very quickly became one of the prominent teachers. For more than a quarter of a century he worked at the capital's conservatory and for several more years in Leningrad. During this time, he trained more than a dozen world-famous professionals. His students were Natalia Shakhovskaya, David Geringas, Natalia Gutman, Maris Villerush and others.

Record-breaking musician

The creative life of Mstislav Leopoldovich had two clear directions. On the one hand, he was a great cellist with an impressive repertoire of works, and on the other, a brilliant symphony and opera conductor. To understand the full power of his talent, one need only mention that more than fifty famous composers created music specifically for Rostropovich. He became the first performer of over a hundred works for cello and gave premieres with orchestra about 70 times.

Rostropovich's debut as a conductor took place in 1957. They presented it to the movements of his magic wand at the Bolshoi Theater. Resounding success was not long in coming.

The conductor toured all over Soviet Union, and he also played in the same ensemble with Svyatoslav Richter and David Oistrakh.

He often performed on the same stage with his wife, an opera singer. They met in 1955 at the Prague Spring festival and have never been apart since that day.

Disgraced Mstislav Rostropovich

Being a comprehensively developed person, Mstislav Leopoldovich communicated with people from different fields of activity. For example, he had warm friendly relations with Alexander Solzhenitsyn. When the Khrushchev Thaw was a thing of the past, and Leonid Brezhnev came to power, the state machine tried to persecute the author famous works. Then Rostropovich settled Solzhenitsyn at his dacha and spoke in his defense with an open letter through the Pravda newspaper. The reaction of the authorities immediately followed. Mstislav Leopoldovich became restricted from traveling, and working with major orchestras was prohibited for him. The press immediately turned away from the cellist. At home, he became an enemy and a marginal figure.

The world is at the feet of the maestro

In 1974, the disgraced Rostropovich, his wife and two daughters received an exit visa and left the USSR. In fact, they were expelled from the Union, and over time they were also deprived of citizenship. Many years later, answering a question from journalists, he said that he had done the best thing in his life when he came out in defense of Solzhenitsyn and his conscience was absolutely clear.

After leaving the USSR, the musician spent most of his time in the United States of America. For many years he was the director of the Washington National Symphony Orchestra. The conductor has toured all over the world. He was invited to work with the main orchestras of Great Britain, Austria, France, Japan and Germany. Without a single hint of pathos, he was called a world-class star.

60th anniversary Mstislav Leopoldovich met in Washington. On this occasion, the first world cellist congress was organized in the US capital. On this day, President Ronald Reagan awarded the conductor the highest state award - the Medal of Freedom. For the celebration even Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain arrived.

Rostropovich's career in the West was dizzying. He made so many high-ranking friends that the entire world elite came to celebrate the anniversary. He was friends with Picasso and Chagall, Dali and Brodsky, and when Mstislav Leopoldovich announced the end of cooperation with the capital symphony orchestra, he was sent letters of gratitude by all the US presidents whom he met while holding such a high position as the head of the orchestra.

Extraordinary career

In the United States he was not only a famous conductor and cellist, but also an active fighter for human rights. He was not afraid to come with concerts to regions where conflicts occurred. And in 1989, right next to the Berlin Wall, he performed a cello suite.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the USSR also changed, announcing plans to reform society. Mikhail Gorbachev revoked the decree depriving him of citizenship in 1990 Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya. But the musician did not accept Soviet citizenship again, remaining a cosmopolitan. He also did not become a citizen of Russia after the collapse of the USSR.

For the first time after a long break, he performed in 1996 at the Bolshoi Theater, where he presented the opera “Khovanshchina”. The conductor and musician continued to tour, his cello sounded on the largest stages in the world - in San Francisco, Munich, Monte Carlo.

He often recorded concerts for radio. For this, he was even awarded an honorary Grammy Award with the original wording - for “an extraordinary career and life in recordings.” He was the first Russian musician and the seventh in the whole world to receive a Grammy in such an unusual category. In total, Mstislav Leopoldovich was a laureate of this prize five times. And his emotionality and artistry, the filigree beauty of his acting and inspiration have always delighted critics.

Under the tutelage of Rostropovich

Rostropovich continued his teaching activities in Valencia, where he opened a school of higher musical excellence in 2004. He showed remarkable organizational skills and held festivals at which he revealed new talents to the world. In addition, the conductor created a fund to help gifted students, and child musicians received grants and scholarships from him.

Rostropovich also paid attention to medical institutions. Together with Galina Vishnevskaya he implemented more than one project to help sick children. Also, for the first time since the collapse of the USSR, the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation vaccinated children against hepatitis B.

In 2006, Mstislav Leopoldovich’s health deteriorated sharply. He was diagnosed with liver cancer. Rostropovich underwent two operations. After several months spent in the hospital, the musician celebrated his 80th birthday. The most famous colleagues, long-time friends, and public figures came to congratulate him. But soon the cellist’s condition worsened again, and in 2007 he passed away. In memory of the legendary Mstislav Rostropovich A festival named after him is held annually.

FACTS

Confession Mstislav Rostropovich in the world was colossal. He was a member of the Academies of Arts in several countries, a professor at 50 universities, an honorary citizen of dozens of cities, and a holder of the French Legion of Honor. and winner of the Japanese Imperial Prize, and Great Britain dedicated him to an honorary knight.

One day, after another tour in the USA, Rostropovich was invited to the USSR Embassy and was informed that he had to hand over the bulk of the fee he received. The musician did not object, asking his impresario to buy an expensive porcelain vase for the entire amount of the fee. At a reception at the embassy, ​​Rostropovich picked up an incredibly beautiful vase, admired it, and then spread his arms. The porcelain hit the marble floor and shattered into pieces. Mstislav Leopoldovich picked one of them up and slowly wrapped it in a handkerchief with the words: “This is mine, and the rest is yours.”

Updated: April 7, 2019 by: Elena

Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (March 27, 1927, Baku - April 27, 2007, Moscow) - Soviet and Russian cellist, pianist and conductor, public figure, defender of human rights and spiritual freedom, teacher. People's Artist USSR (1966). Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1964), Stalin Prize of the second degree (1951) and two State Prizes of Russia (1991, 1995). Five-time Grammy Award winner.

Mstislav Rostropovich was born into a family professional musicians- cellist Leopold Rostropovich, son of pianist and composer Vitold Rostropovich, and pianist Sofia Fedotova, to Baku, where the family moved from Orenburg at the invitation of the Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov.

Rostropovich began studying music in early childhood with parents.

In 1932-1937 he studied in Moscow in Music College named after Mussorgsky.

In 1941, his family was evacuated to the city of Chkalov, where Mstislav studied at the music school where his father taught.

At the age of 16, he entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied cello with Semyon Kozolupov and composition with S. S. Prokofiev and D. D. Shostakovich.

Mstislav Rostropovich in childhood

He gained fame as a cellist in 1945, winning gold medal Third All-Union Competition of Performing Musicians in Moscow.

Along with the 18-year-old Rostropovich, who withstood the most difficult competition and won his first victory, the pianist Svyatoslav Richter, who was already famous by that time, received the first prize at the competition of performing musicians.

In 1947 he won 1st prize at World Festival youth and students in Prague.

Thanks to international contracts and tours, Rostropovich became known in the West. He performed virtually the entire repertoire of cello music, and subsequently many works were written specifically for him. He performed for the first time 117 works for cello and gave 70 orchestral premieres. As a chamber musician he performed in an ensemble with Svyatoslav Richter, in a trio with Emil Gilels and Leonid Kogan, and as a pianist in an ensemble with his wife Galina Vishnevskaya.

By his own admission, three composers had a huge influence on the formation of his personality: Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten.

In 1955, four days after meeting the famous opera singer G.P. Vishnevskaya at the Prague Spring festival, they actually became husband and wife. After returning from Prague, Vishnevskaya decisively broke up with her former husband, director of the Leningrad Operetta Theater M. I. Rubin and connected her life with the “man from the orchestra.”

Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya lived together for 52 years. The family settled in an apartment at the House of Composers on Gazetny Lane. Soon two daughters were born - Olga and Elena. According to the daughters' recollections, the father was a very strict, pedantic parent who was constantly involved in their upbringing.

Mstislav Rostropovich in Galina Vishnevskaya

Beginning in 1969, Rostropovich and his family supported him, allowing him to live at their dacha near Moscow and writing an open letter in his defense. This was followed by the cancellation of concerts and tours, and the stopping of recordings.

In 1974, he received an exit visa and went abroad with his wife and children for a long period of time, which was formalized as a business trip by the USSR Ministry of Culture.

In 1978 they were deprived of Soviet citizenship. The Izvestia newspaper dated March 16, 1978 wrote: “M. L. Rostropovich and G. P. Vishnevskaya, who went on trips abroad, showed no desire to return to the Soviet Union, carried out anti-patriotic activities, discredited the Soviet social system, the title of citizen of the USSR. They systematically financial assistance subversive anti-Soviet centers and other organizations hostile to the Soviet Union abroad. In 1976-1977, for example, they gave several concerts, the proceeds from which went to benefit White emigrant organizations. ...Considering that Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya systematically commit actions that are detrimental to their prestige USSR and incompatible with belonging to Soviet citizenship, The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR decided on the basis of Art. 7 of the USSR Law of August 19, 1938 “On citizenship of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"for actions discrediting the title of citizen of the USSR, deprive M. L. Rostropovich and G. P. Vishnevskaya of USSR citizenship".

USSR citizenship was returned to Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya in 1990.

Since 1974 he has become one of the leading conductors in the West. For 17 seasons he was the permanent conductor and artistic director The National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, which under his leadership became one of the best orchestras in America, is a regular guest of the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic.

Rostropovich's last recordings were Schnittke's Cello Concerto No. 2 and Return to Russia - documentary about a trip to Moscow with the National Symphony Orchestra in 1990.

During the August 1991 putsch and the events of October 1993, he acted on the side of the President of Russia, and in August 1991 he was among the defenders of the White House.

For 26 years he taught at the Moscow Conservatory, and for seven years he was a teacher at the Leningrad Conservatory.

From 1959 to 1974, Rostropovich was a professor, and since 1993, an honorary professor at the Moscow Conservatory.

The repertoire of Rostropovich the cellist included, along with classical works more than 140 modern works for cello, written especially for him. About 60 composers dedicated their works to Rostropovich, including Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, Luciano Berio, Alfred Schnittke, Leonard Bernstein, Henri Dutilleux, Olivier Messiaen, Witold Lutoslawski, Krzysztof Penderecki and, especially, Benjamin Britten.

In 2002, the London newspaper The Times proclaimed Rostropovich "the greatest living musician." Daily Telegraph music columnist Lloyd Webber called Rostropovich “probably the greatest cellist of all time” (April 28, 2007).

Rostropovich is also known for his charitable activities: he was the president of the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Charitable Foundation, which provides assistance to Russian children's medical institutions, as well as one of the trustees of the A. M. Gorchakov school, revived in the spirit and traditions of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.

In the summer of 2006, Mstislav Leopoldovich became seriously ill: in February and April 2007, he underwent two operations due to a malignant liver tumor.

Farewell to Rostropovich took place on April 28 in Great hall Moscow Conservatory. The funeral service took place in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

Rostropovich was buried in Moscow, at the Novodevichy cemetery.

The work of the famous talented musician, cellist, and outstanding conductor Mstislav Rostropovich belongs to world culture.

The biography of Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich began in a hereditary musical family. He was born on March 27, 1927 in Baku.

Your initial music education Rostropovich received it thanks to his father, a professor at the Baku Conservatory. In the 30s, Rostropovich studied at the Moscow Gnessin Music School.

With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1941, Rostropovich and his family were evacuated to Orenburg. The gifted musician Mstislav Rostropovich already at the age of 15 began giving music lessons, earning bread for the whole family.

The musical talent of young Rostropovich allowed him to make serious professional progress in composing and performing at an early age.
During the years of evacuation, together with the musicians of the Maly Theater orchestra, Rostropovich gave concerts for Red Army soldiers.

Returning from evacuation in 1943, the young musician entered the Moscow Conservatory, combining his studies in the cello course and the faculty of composition. Rostropovich was noticed by the master of Russian music, composer Dmitry Shostakovich, who highly appreciated the work of Mstislav Rostropovich - his first piano concert.

Rostropovich increasingly honed his performing talent on the cello. In 1945, he was already awarded First Prize at the Competition for Young Performers and graduated from the conservatory ahead of schedule.

At the competition in Prague in 1950, the musician also won.

Rostropovich continued his musical education in graduate school and in 1948 became a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory, where he served for more than a quarter of a century.

Rostropovich brilliantly performed a varied repertoire classical music: sonatas for cello and piano by Beethoven, cello concertos by Dvorak, Haydn, Shostakovich, symphonic works by Lutoslawski and R. Strauss. Music critics They believe that cellist Rostropovich’s talent was revealed to an unusually full and vivid extent during the performance of works by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

Rostropovich successfully tries his hand at conducting. In 1967 he conducted an orchestra for the first time Bolshoi Theater during the performance of the opera “Eugene Onegin” by Tchaikovsky. Then he took part in several more opera performances Bolshoi Theater, including “War and Peace” by Prokofiev.

The talent of the cellist and conductor Rostropovich was extremely appreciated in the world musical community. In the 50s-60s he already performed on famous musical stages in Europe.

For creative biography Rostropovich played with such outstanding masters of music as Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, David Oistrakh, Svyatoslav Richter, Isaac Stern, G. Kremer, Yuri Bashmet. Created especially for Rostropovich musical works the most famous composers of the 20th century, including Shostakovich, whom Rostropovich considered his main mentor all his life.

In the 60s, Rostropovich made a brilliant musical career together with his wife, opera soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Galina Vishnevskaya. But in the 70s, the creative duo Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya fell out of favor due to their sympathy for the Soviet dissident, writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, after which they were forced to leave the USSR.

Having crossed the “Iron Curtain”, Rostropovich was favored on the most famous world stages in Europe and the USA; in Washington, he headed the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington.

With the beginning of perestroika, Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya were able to return to the USSR, where Mstislav Leopoldovich became involved in the active political life of the country, further supporting the line of Russian President Yeltsin.

Since 1993, Rostropovich again became an honorary professor at the Moscow Conservatory.

The biography of Mstislav Rostropovich is marked by outstanding creative achievements. IN different times he was awarded the highest awards and titles, both at home and abroad. Mstislav Rostropovich is a laureate of the Stalin and Lenin Prizes, numerous state awards of the USSR and Russia, People's Artist of the USSR, honorary professor of several foreign universities, including Princeton (USA), Oxford and Cambridge (Great Britain), and the Sorbonne (France). Recipient of numerous European orders, five-time Grammy Award winner.

The greatest Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich remained in the memory of his compatriots, not only as talented musician, but also as a fair, honest and caring person.

IN recent years during his life he was the founder of several charitable foundations and human rights organizations.

Mstislav Rostropovich died at the age of 80 in April 2007. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Grateful and admiring words continue to be heard in memory of Rostropovich. “The great musician Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, a man who had the courage to be himself.”

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Biography, life story of Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich

The famous musician, conductor and brilliant cellist Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich was born in Baku on March 27, 1927 into a family of musicians. Leopold Vitoldovich Rostropovich, his father, a famous cellist, Honored Artist of the RSFSR, was a professor at the Saratov and Baku Conservatories. The family moved to Baku from the city of Orenburg. They were invited by the famous Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov. Rostropovich's grandfather, Witold Ganniballovich, came from a noble Polish family; he was a pianist, composer and compiler of collections of pedagogical musical pieces for piano. In 1880, Rostropovich's great-grandfather was recognized along with his children in Russian Empire in the rights of the ancient nobility. Mstislav Rostropovich's great-great-grandfather, Joseph Rostropovichius, came to Warsaw from Vilna. Rostropovich's mother Mstislava was a pianist and lived in Orenburg; her parents were famous musicians in Orenburg.

Mstislav Rostropovich began to study music early - from the age of four. In the years 1932-1937, Rastropovich studied in Moscow, at the Mayakovsky Music College. Already at the age of 14, Rostropovich began teaching at the music school in the city of Chkalov (now the city of Orenburg), where the family was evacuated during the war in 1941. At the same time, he took mastery lessons from composer M.I. Chulaki and conductor B.I. Khaikin in Chkalov. At age 16, Rastropovich entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied cello in the class of Semyon Kozolupov and studied composition with Sergei Prokofiev. In 1945, Rostropovich gained all-Union fame as a cellist. He won the gold medal at the III All-Union Competition of Performing Musicians. After this event, Slava Rostropovich was immediately transferred from the second year of the conservatory to the fifth. According to him, his personality was influenced by three composers: Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Britten. All-Union recognition came to Mstislav Leopoldovich in 1950 after he won the Hanush Vigan competition in Prague. Rostropovich became a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory, where he worked for 26 years. Rostropovich taught at the Leningrad Conservatory for 7 years. From 1959 to 1974, Rostropovich worked as a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. He received the title of honorary professor of the Moscow Conservatory in 1993.

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Rostropovich's executive activity in the 60s had no analogues in musical world. In 1964 he was awarded the Lenin Prize. During the season he gave 130-200 concerts in the Soviet Union and abroad.

In 1969, Rostropovich and his family allowed Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn to live at their dacha in the Moscow region and wrote an open letter to the General Secretary of the CPSU in his defense. Measures followed to restrict Rostropovich's concert activities; tours abroad and many concerts were cancelled. Rostropovich and his wife, famous opera singer, found themselves in disgrace and were issued visas to leave the USSR in 1974. Rostropovich and went abroad, where they began to engage in concert activities with great success. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR followed up with a measure of deprivation of citizenship in 1978 for actions allegedly damaging the prestige of the Soviet Union.

In 1977-1994, Rostropovich was in Washington, he was the chief conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, he was invited by the best orchestras in the world. He regularly performs with the Berlin Philharmonic. He is a regular guest of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Rostropovich is the organizer of his own festivals. On his initiative, the cello competition in Frankfurt is being revived. Rostropovich conducts master classes and opens music schools. Under his auspices, an international composition competition was held in 1998. Since 2004, he has headed the Higher School of Musical Excellence in Spain (in Valencia). Since 1998, under his auspices, the International competition composition, which was conceived for closer interaction between lovers of classical and modern music. Rostropovich played thousands of concerts, including at royal residences. The latest recordings were a recording of Schnittke's concerto for cello and orchestra and a unique documentary about the musician's trip to Moscow with the National Symphony Orchestra of the United States. The Rostropovich family is known for its charitable activities. Rostropovich was the president of the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich charity competition and one of the trustees of the school. Gorchakova.

In the summer of 2006, Mstislav Rostropovich became seriously ill. He died in April, on the 27th of 2007, in a clinic in Moscow, and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.