This story is archived

Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich Dies at 80 »

Posted by: TechnologyExpert 2 years, 6 months ago

Archived 41 0 drops

Mstislav Rostropovich, the ebullient master cellist who fought for the rights of Soviet-era dissidents and later triumphantly played Bach suites below the crumbling Berlin Wall, has died. He was 80. Rostropovich's opposition to the Communist leaders of his homeland started with the denunciations of Shostakovich and Prokofiev during the Stalin era.

Read Full Story at breitbart.com »

Submitted By:

TechnologyExpert

I am Editor-in-Chief at Alice Hill's RealTechNews (http://www.realtechnews.com). I also have my own blog (Tech-Ex) at http://TechnologyExpert.Blogspot.com. Finally ...

Who Also Submitted:

This Story is Archived and Commenting is Closed

Comments: 7

Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
TechnologyExpert
April 27, 2007, 10:30 a.m.
Under Leonid Brezhnev's regime, Rostropovich and his wife, the Bolshoi Opera soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, allowed Solzhenitsyn to live in their dacha when Soviet authorities were pressuring the author for his dissident writing.
Avg rating: (+10/-0 10)
dpkjj
April 27, 2007, 5:46 p.m.
I remeber Rostropovich as not only a great cellist, but as a man who was very gracious to a twenty-something young woman (me) who came over to the restaurant table where he was dining. I was very shy about telling him how much I had enjoyed his performance (at the P.R. Casals Festival), but he put me at ease and seemed genuinely grateful for the acknowledgement.
RIP.
Avg rating: (+10/-0 10)
SonOfTheMask
April 27, 2007, 7:03 p.m.
Yo Yo Ma, you are brilliant, but Rostropovich's rendition of Bach's Cello Suites is untouchable.
Slava, we shall miss you.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
DoubleEdgedSword
April 28, 2007, 1:28 a.m.
He defined the instrument and did a lot for the American music scene, when he arrived here.
The talent drain was yet another prob for the Soviet Union during the Cold War.