Home >  A & E

"Slava the Great" to conduct and play this weekend in Pittsburgh

Friday, January 31, 2003

By Andrew Druckenbrod, Post-Gazette Classical Music Critic

"Slava."

When he performs, the adorable diminutive by which cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich is known around the world makes just about as much sense as calling a 7-foot basketball center "Tiny."

Pittsburgh music fans will be able to see Mstislav Rostropovich as both conductor and cellist this weekend. MUSIC PREVIEW EVENT: Pittsburgh Symphony with Mstislav Rostropovich, conductor and cello; Lucas Richman, conductor. WHERE: Heinz Hall, Downtown. WHEN: 8 p.m. today-tomorrow; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. TICKETS: $19.25-$65.25. 412-392-4900. Related story: Five essential cellists of the 20th century Related list: Slava's Firsts

The friendly personality of Azerbaijan-born Rostropovich, 75, fits a cute nickname. But as a player, his power, precision and aggressiveness hardly seem compatible with it. One of the best cellists ever, his prodigious talent and commanding technique changed the very way the instrument is played. His prowess has become legendary even as he still graces the world's stages with a commanding presence.

Plus, "Slava" is one letter from being "slave," and Rostropovich has been anything but that in his innovative career. He has been unfettered like few before him, leading the field, rather than following it. Having recorded nearly all of the cello canon, he single-handedly restocked it with a tremendous amount of repertory from the likes of Shostakovich, Lutoslawski, Prokofiev and Britten. The contemporary compositions dedicated to him approach 200.

Also a respected conductor and pianist, Slava is, in short, actually deserving of more syllables than fewer.

How about, Mstislav Rostropovich, "The Great"?

Raised in the land of Faberge, it's fitting Rostropovich's success can be seen as a chicken-and-egg affair. Was it genetics or environment? Surely he was born with immense talent. "I was able to show my musical abilities at an early age," he says over the phone with help from a translator.

His musical environment also was exceptional, however. "Because my father often played at home with my mother as an accompanist on piano, I was able to come to the piano and pick up the music that they had played," he says. "I started to do that when I was 4."

	Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich stays loose during a 1997 rehearsal with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Seiji Ozawa at Symphony Hall in Boston in honor of his 70th birthday. (Liz Schultz, Associated Press)

Rostropovich's father taught him on the cello, and his mother gave him piano lessons, home-schooling him until he was 11. "In Russia, this was an extraordinary case, because even in music school, children must attend classes, unless they are home-schooled, and that is the reason I had the exception," he says.

Even after that, he had the strong support of his father, who continued to teach him at Moscow's Central Music School. Later, at the famous Moscow Conservatory, he added conducting to his cello and piano studies. He gave his first public recital -- as a cellist -- in 1942 when he was a young teen. It was far and away a success, even though he played it on his father's cello.

"My father liked his instrument very much, but I think that it wasn't a great instrument, though I played it for a long time," he says, chuckling. It took a little while, but eventually he was more than able to buy a few other cellos. "In 1954, I bought another instrument which I play until now. It was made in 1760."

That purchase came on the heels of a most productive period in Rostropovich's life, when he truly began to make his presence known in Russia and the world. When in 1955 he married soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, a leading singer of Moscow's Bolshoi Opera, he was well on his way to stardom. Composers began to flock to this artistic force. He premiered Prokofiev's second Cello Concerto in 1952 and Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto in 1959.

	Igor Stravinsky chats with Mstislav Rostropovich in London. (Post-Gazette Archives)

"I have been the happiest man in the world because I work with such great musicians," Rostropovich says. "These musicians taught me and I was a good pupil."

Composers were excited about Rostropovich, not just for his talent, but his desire. One anecdote about Shostakovich's first cello concerto, written for Rostropovich, shows that.

"Shostakovich played it for me on the piano in St. Petersburg," says Rostropovich, still brimming with enthusiasm. "That was Aug. 1, 1958. I was so excited that on the second of August I came to Leningrad with my accompanist, [where] I practiced the concerto for 10 hours." Each of the next three days he practiced at least eight hours. On the sixth, he visited Shostakovich's house to play the concerto with him.

"Shostakovich said, 'Wait, Slava, I will get for you a music stand.' I was proud and said, 'I do not need a music stand, because after four days I can play it by memory.' "

Tales such as this of Rostropovich's talents are renowned in Russia and the former Soviet Union. More importantly, those experiences have had a bearing on the musical heritage of the region.

	Diana Ross holds the microphone for cellist Mstislav Rostropovich on stage in New York's Carnegie Hall for the Rainforest Foundation's 1996 Benefit Gala with Elton John and Sting in 1996. (Osamu Honda, Associated Press)

"I know many things that these three people -- particularly Britten, Shostakovich and Prokofiev -- and others wanted, because they told me only, since we were very close friends," he says. Indeed it is Rostropovich's keen desire for contemporary music that has allowed us unobstructed entrance into some of the mammoth achievements of the last century.

Asked if he prefers performing the music of living composers more than the classics, Rostropovich says, "Absolutely, no doubt." He was privy to the creation of many works he has played or conducted, and that knowledge has been handed down to his students and associates and, of course, the audience.

"If I know the personality of a composer very well, that is enormous help to the interpretation of the composition," he says. "Now no one knows Beethoven. We don't know directly how he felt. If someone knows a composer's personality, it is much easier to do the interpretations."

That will be the case with the two-pronged program thrust of this weekend. The first finds the maestro conducting Prokoviev's Symphony No. 1, "Classical," Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9 and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5. A special Sunday program finds him sitting for Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto No. 1 and Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra. Rostropovich obviously didn't know Tchaikovsky or Saint-Saens, but the others are straight from the horse's mouth.

The Saint-Saens played a role in the beginning of Rostropovich's career. "I started my career at 13 years old," he says. "I played the Saint-Saens concerto when I was 13, so of course I changed my interpretation since this moment."

	Mstislav Rostropovich plays his cello to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. (Columbia Records)

Rostropovich's conducting career has seemingly always been connected to politics. In this country, he led the closest thing to a state orchestra, the National Symphony, for 17 years starting in 1977. In the Soviet Union, he fell out of favor with the government for his criticism of it and for his welcoming dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn to his house. Rostropovich and his wife lost their citizenship, but it was restored in 1990.

Rostropovich continues to fight for human rights with the same ferocity he has battled to keep classical music alive and relevant.

"Classical music has quite a few notable enemies," he says. First of all, the balance between classical music and rock 'n' roll on TV is definitely on the side of rock 'n' roll. But I think that classical music will never die."

Certainty not on "Slava's" watch.

Andrew Druckenbrod can be reached at adruckenbrod@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1750.