Einer der größten Instrumentalisten aller Zeiten wird am 27. März 80 Jahre!
Anbei darf ich Euch einen Artikel von Steven Isserlis zu diesem Thema vorlegen:
Wer hat schon gewußt, daß Rostro so gut Klavierspielen konnte, daß er sogar das 2. Rach-Konzert gespielt hat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of the most powerful memories from my childhood is of being taken by
my father to hear Rostropovich in person for the first time, at the
Royal Festival Hall in London. From the moment the great man stepped
through the curtain and on to the platform, I was transfixed. He swept
on, a strange crown of rather unexpected hair circling his bald pate,
bowed to the audience more times and more rapidly than I had ever seen
anyone bow, and then sat down to play. His shoulders bunched up, his
chin jutted out, and we all knew that his life depended upon every note
he was playing. The work was Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante, a
cellistic tour de force that had been written for him. The huge sound he
made, the way he leapt around the cello like a bullfighter taming a
dangerous beast, took us all on to a new level of excitement; this was a
hero in action.
I knew that I would always remember this performance - and of course I
still do. He is a superman - there is no other way to explain the
phenomenon that is Rostropovich. Anyone who has ever come into contact
with him would agree: the animal energy, the electricity, the sheer
irresistible charisma of the man is inexplicable. And what a life he's
had! It's hard to know how to begin to list his achievements, let alone
to define his personality.
To begin with the facts: Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (now known
to his friends, and to millions of others, as Slava, meaning Glory) was
born 80 years ago, on March 27 1927 in Baku, Azerbaijan; or, to be more
precise, at 19 Kolodezni Street, recently re-named Rostropovich Street.
(The house is now a museum devoted to Slava's life.) His father was a
cellist and composer, whose rather meagre career did not mirror his
outstanding talents; one gets the feeling that a lot of Rostropovich
junior's powerful determination may have been fuelled by his father's
frustration. Leopold Rostropovich refused to fight for professional
success: "If they want me, they will come for me," he would say - but
"they" never came.
Young Mstislav, growing up in the stiflingly competitive world of the
Soviet Union, would not make the same mistake. His musical talents
seemed to be almost unlimited; not only did he win countless
competitions as a cellist, he also excelled as a pianist (playing
Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto for his final exams at the Moscow
Conservatoire) and a composer (his teachers included both Prokofiev and
Shostakovich).
It took him some time to emerge from the eastern bloc, but when he did,
he took the west by storm. His interpretations of the standard cello
repertoire were breathtaking; so were the piano accompaniments he
provided (all from memory, incidentally) for the recitals by his wife,
the famous soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He taught at the Conservatoires
of Moscow and St Petersburg, his students including Jacqueline du Pré,
Natalia Gutman and a host of other famous cellists. But it was his
perfor mances of the innumerable works written specially for him that
placed him in a unique position in musical history.
There has never been an instrumentalist who has done as much for their
instrument as Rostropovich has done for the cello. Through his
combination of insistent charm, musical brilliance and an unerring
instinct for targeting the finest composers, he managed to wring
now-celebrated masterpieces out of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Britten,
Dutilleux and Lutoslawski, and hundreds of other works (some more, some
less famous, and some still waiting to become part of the standard
repertoire) from composers ranging from Walton, Messiaen and Penderecki
to Piazzolla and Ravi Shankar. He has recorded almost all of them, and
also most of the many works he has commissioned as a conductor, in
performances that will remain benchmarks for future interpreters.
It is hardly surprising that Rostropovich's recent appearances have
produced deeply emotional responses. To see him coming on stage to
conduct a Shostakovich symphony sends shivers up the spine: this is the
man who, with his wife and two daughters, was exiled from the Soviet
Union for his defence of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; who stood shoulder to
shoulder with Yeltsin in the Kremlin in August 1991 while it was
surrounded by communist rebels (apparently it was only when they found
out Slava was inside that the rebels abandoned their plans to storm the
building); and who performed at the Berlin Wall while it was being torn
down.
But all this could never have been if he hadn't conquered the musical
world before all those political battles took place. From the moment he
emerged on to the scene, having somehow climbed out of the cesspit of
Soviet cultural bureaucracy, people started to swap stories of his
awesome powers. Back in the 1960s, he played 35 cello concertos within a
few weeks in London. Many of them had been written for him, and several
others were standard repertoire; but he also programmed the odd piece he
had never played - such as the Hindemith concerto. One night, he played
his usual three or four concertos to great success; afterwards he went
out to dinner - which was sure to have been hearty (Slava has always
loved food - and vodka). As the conductor, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, was
leaving, the two men discussed the rehearsal scheduled for later that
morning, which was to begin with the Hindemith. Slava asked for advice
on tempi - he hadn't looked at it yet, he admitted, and furthermore
confessed that he didn't actually know the piece. Rozhdestvensky left
the dinner feeling somewhat concerned; what was going to happen at the
rehearsal? What did happen was that Slava arrived, sat down and played
the huge concerto perfectly, from memory. He had stayed up all night
learning it.
My personal contacts with him have been limited (sadly) but wonderful.
The first time I played under his baton was in a performance of Haydn's
D major Concerto at one of his many Cello Congresses, this one in St
Petersburg. I come from a completely different tradition of playing
music of that period, and I was worried that he would really dislike my
approach; but he was marvellously supportive. More significant, though,
was the week when he invited me to San Francisco to give several
performances of Britten's Cello Symphony (composed for Slava). I
approached the week with a mixture of excitement and terror; but he was
the soul of warmth and generosity, constantly encouraging me while
offering superb advice about the work. He even put up with my constant
questions about his life and his friendships - I couldn't leave him
alone.
Only once was there anything approaching an uncomfortable moment. During
one of the performances, I started the last movement at a much faster
tempo than the one he wanted. I got a look then, from his penetrating
blue eyes, that I suspect will stay with me till I die. (He was, of
course, quite right about the tempo.)
Not surprisingly, considering the energy and passion with which Slava
approaches every aspect of his life, he has a fearsome temperament.
Once, his younger daughter Olga, who was studying the cello, thought her
father had gone out, and settled down to read when she should have been
practising. Unfortunately for her, Slava returned unexpectedly. Furious,
he picked up her cello, brandished it and started chasing her with it,
telling her to stop so that he could kill her (a request that she not
unreasonably chose to ignore). Eventually, she ran out of the house, but
he kept after her - and goodness knows what would have happened had they
not passed Shostakovich, who happened to be walking nearby. He pleaded
with Slava to calm down, and order was eventually restored; but I'm sure
Olga learned to practise more diligently after that - or at least to
lock her door.
Everything about Rostropovich is larger than life: his music-making, his
generosity, his embraces, his anger, his appetite, his enthusiasms, his
work for charities. Recent reports about his health had us all worried,
with various people predicting the worst; but mercifully Slava has
confounded all gloomy expectations - his is a force that will not be
quenched! He has left, and continues to leave, a huge imprint on the
whole world. Slava - glory indeed.
Wir wissen doch längst, dass Du Harajan-Fan bist 
:boese2:
Ich stelle seine Schostakowitsch-GA an die dritte Stelle nach Roshdestwensky, Kondraschin und etwa gleich mit Barshai. Mrawinsky´s Zyklus habe ich jetzt wegen der schlechten Klangqualität nicht berücksichtigt und der ist ohnehin nicht vollständig.
