Goodbye Rostropovich
May 1st, 2007 Posted in classical music, shostakovich
The soon-to-be-even-more-legendary-than-he-already-was cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich passed away last week. There is no way I can give a summary of his life better than the BBC or Wikipedia can. My contribution is a link to this sweetly innocent and enchanting performance of his, conducting Shostakovich’s “Tahiti Trot”, an orchestration of the song “Tea for Two” (which he apparently did on a 100 ruble bet).
[YOUTUBE]http://youtube.com/watch?v=rSwkz5AJGds[/YOUTUBE]
I think I first became really aware of Rostropovich when I discovered Shotakovich’s cello concertos, both of which were written with Mstislav in mind, and both of which were premiered by him. It’s sad to lose such a huge figure in the musical world, and with such a link to the great dead composers. His legacy will be large, though. It’s strange how much bigger artists can grow in the public eye after their deaths.
May 4th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Hello,
I have built some Amazon aStores around Rostropovich. I am donating all the profits from the sites to the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation (VRF) —
http://www.rostropovich.org
I am hoping readers will find these stores useful.
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/rostropovich-21 for UK
http://astore.amazon.com/rostropovich-20 for US
Best Regards
Peter
May 6th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
RIP, Slava. You should add, also, how when Shostakovich handed Rostropovich the score to the 1st Cello Concerto, Slava came back the next day with the whole thing memorized. Just amazing.
You might also find the piece Bernstein wrote for him on his birthday one year (60th?) – much fun.
May 7th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Peter,
Thanks – I’ll try and track it down!