Mstislav Rostropovich is a Russian conductor and composer, public figure and key figure in musical art XX century. Winner of various awards, People's Artist of the USSR and husband of Galina Vishnevskaya.
Childhood and youth
Mstislav Rostropovich is a native of Baku. The musician was born on March 27, 1927. His parents were involved in art: his father Leopold Rostropovich was a cellist, and his mother Sofia Rostropovich was a pianist. By the age of 4, the boy was playing the piano, independently composing melodies and selecting compositions. At 8 he learned to play the cello. The first teacher of the young talent was his father.
In 1932, the family moved from Baku to Moscow. By the age of 7, Mstislav became a student at the music school named after. Gnesins, where his father taught. As a child, the boy followed his father, changing educational institutions, so in 1937 both musicians moved to music school Sverdlovsk region. The debut concert took place during the same period. Mstislav performed on stage accompanied by a symphony orchestra, performing main party from the work.
Having received secondary education, Rostropovich entered the school at the Conservatory. . The young man's dream was to create music. But the war turned out to be an obstacle to implementation. The family was evacuated to Orenburg, then called Chkalov. At the age of 14, the young man became a student at the railway school and music school, where his father taught. Here Rostropovich developed his first concerts.
Later the young man got a job at opera house, where he began composing compositions for piano and cello with the support and mentorship of Mikhail Chulaki. In 1942, the young musician took part in the reporting concert, where he was presented as a composer and performer. The performance created a sensation. The talent was appreciated by the public, critics and journalists, who noted Rostropovich’s sense of harmony, musical taste and talent.
In 1943, the family of musicians returned to Moscow, and Mstislav resumed his studies at the school at the conservatory. His hard work and efforts were noted by the teachers who transferred the talented young man from the 2nd to the 5th year.
In 1946, Rostropovich received a diploma with honors in two specialties: composer and cellist. Mstislav entered graduate school, and after completing his studies, became a teacher at conservatories in Moscow and St. Petersburg. For 26 years he led pedagogical activity, having trained Ivan Monighetti, Natalya Shakhovskaya, Natalya Gutman, David Geringas and other musicians.
Music
The second half of the 1940s was marked for Rostropovich with concerts in Kyiv, Minsk and Moscow. Victories on international competitions brought success and fame. They were consolidated by tours around European cities And different countries peace. International recognition for to a young musician it came quickly.
Rostropovich constantly strived for self-improvement. In interviews, the musician often characterized this period in his career as a time when he “passionately wanted to play well.” As a composer and performer, Mstislav Leopoldovich studied scores, interpretations of cello parts by composers and their performance by musicians.
The Prague Spring Festival of 1955 brought Rostropovich an acquaintance with an opera singer. The couple often performed together: Galina sang to the accompaniment of Mstislav. The musician also performed as part of a chamber ensemble with David Oistrakh and. In 1957, Rostropovich made his debut as a conductor, conducting the premiere of Eugene Onegin in Bolshoi Theater. The performance was sold out and brought resounding success.
Mstislav Leopoldovich was in great demand. Excess energy and the desire to bring all my plans to life forced me to combine teaching activities with tours, concerts and composing new compositions. The maestro had his own point of view on everything that happened in the musical field, and had his own opinion regarding the socio-political situation in the country. He left no opportunity to speak out about the issues that worried him.
In 1989, Mstislav Leopoldovich performed a suite, performing it on his own instrument near the Berlin Wall. The composer fought against persecution. He even provided the latter with shelter at his dacha. Rostropovich's actions caused discontent and pressure from the government.
Signing an appeal to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR regarding the amnesty of prisoners and the abolition death penalty in 1972, the musician was deprived of his job at the Bolshoi Theater. He was banned from traveling abroad. Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya were no longer invited to perform by the capital's orchestras.
Mstislav Leopoldovich obtained an exit visa and left the USSR with his family, leaving for the USA. After 4 years, he and his wife were deprived of USSR citizenship for anti-patriotism. This period turned out to be difficult for the composer. At first there were no performances. Gradually he began giving concerts and received the position of artistic director of the Washington Symphony Orchestra.
After 16 years of living abroad, Rostropovich was an internationally recognized composer, conductor and cellist. The USSR government belatedly offered him and Vishnevskaya the return of citizenship, but the artists by that time were “citizens of the world,” and this sign became symbolic for them.
Doors were open for Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya in all countries. They performed in Moscow along with other cities. The 1991 coup forced the man to take part in the fate of the country. He strongly supported the proposed changes. In 1993, the musician and his family moved to St. Petersburg.
Mstislav Rostropovich's repertoire was enormous. He performed solo and in ensemble, worked with symphony orchestra and was opera conductor. Everyone was focused on him music world. More than 60 composers wrote works for him, hoping that the maestro would perform their compositions. Rostropovich was the first to perform more than 100 cello works and conducted 70 premieres with the orchestra. The musician's instrument has been performed on the world's best stages.
As a conductor, Rostropovich performed in productions of “ Queen of Spades"in the USA, "The Tsar's Bride" in Monaco, "Lady Macbeth" in Germany, "Khovanshchina" in Moscow. The artist also recorded concerts for radio. For his services, the maestro was awarded the Stalin and Lenin Prizes. In 1966, Rostropovich became People's Artist of the USSR. Mstislav Leopoldovich is the winner of 5 Grammy awards. In 2003, the award was awarded “For an extraordinary career.”
Personal life
The fateful acquaintance with Galina Vishnevskaya changed the life of Mstislav Rostropovich. They met at one of the receptions, where the artist, as usual, was bored in the circle of guests and dressed up ladies. Having seen Galina, Mstislav did not leave her all evening, courting her. Then he accompanied her on tour in Prague, diligently trying to conquer the beauty by changing costumes. The man was 28 years old, but his awkward figure, large glasses and the bald spot that appeared in his youth made him feel complex.
Vishnevskaya at that time shone everywhere and was at the peak of her fame. Rostropovich won her heart with his aristocratic behavior, attention and intellect. The composer asked the artist to become his wife 4 days after they met. Vishnevskaya broke up with her husband Mark Rubin to be with him.
After getting married, the couple lived with Mstislav’s family for some time, but soon acquired own apartment. Rostropovich's personal life made him happy: in 1956, his wife gave birth to a daughter, Olga. The musician was ready to lay the whole world at Galina’s feet, presenting her with furs, perfumes and other surprises.
The composer brought the gifts from a tour in England, where he saved money to please his beloved, because part of the fees had to be given to the Soviet embassy. In his soul, the composer opposed the laws that the government imposed. Once, using his entire fee, he bought an antique Chinese vase and broke it at the embassy, offering to divide the fragments into “mine” and “yours.”
In 1958, their second daughter, Elena, was born. My father idolized his women. He taught music to the children and that's it. free time gave to favorites. The family idyll was disrupted by migration to the United States. The family faced a lack of finances and creative and political disgrace.
However new life quickly made the couple rich and free. Rostropovich became a Knight of the Order of the British Empire, received the Legion of Honor from France and the Officer's Cross of Merit from Germany. The Japan Arts Association presented the conductor with the Imperial Prize, the USA - the Presidential Medal, and Sweden - the Order of the Polar Star.
Returning to Russia, Rostropovich, already a philanthropist, human rights activist and public figure, did not demonstrate pomposity and snobbery. He preferred auditions of children in regular schools to pretentious methods, always agreed to be photographed with fans, and did not refuse any requests. For the musician, there was no difference in nationalities, denigrating biographical facts - he treated everything with understanding and respect.
Death
In 2007, the maestro’s health deteriorated significantly. He was hospitalized several times. Doctors discovered a malignant tumor in the liver. An operation was performed that promised improvement, but the composer’s weakened body was in no hurry to recover.
On April 27, 2007, the brilliant musician passed away. The cause of death was the illness and the consequences of rehabilitation. Until the last minute, his family and friends were with him.
Memory
The death of Mstislav Rostropovich did not stop the development of the projects that he conceived. High-ranking friends and acquaintances support the business he started during his lifetime. Thus, a school opened in 2004 in Valencia still operates. In memory of the composer it is held annual festival young talents, named after him.
The conductor founded a foundation that supports gifted students with grants and scholarships. Today its leader is his daughter Olga. " Charitable Foundation Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich” is the contribution of musicians to the development of domestic medicine, which is supported by their daughter Elena.
In Moscow, on Bryusov Lane, a monument to the composer was erected. In honor famous musician several were named educational institutions Russia.
Awards and titles
- 1951 – Stalin Prize II degree
- 1955 – Honored Artist of the RSFSR
- 1964 – Lenin Prize
- 1964 – People's Artist RSFSR
- 1966 – People's Artist of the USSR
- 1991 – State Prize of the RSFSR named after M. I. Glinka
- 1995 – State Prize of the Russian Federation
They became husband and wife four days after they met and lived in perfect harmony for a long time and happy life. Love of the brilliant cellist, the most intelligent person, reverent lover, caring husband and father Mstislav Rostropovich and world star opera stage,
They became husband and wife four days after they met and lived a long and happy life in perfect harmony. The love of the brilliant cellist, the most intelligent person, a reverent lover, caring husband and father Mstislav Rostropovich and the star of the world opera stage, the first beauty Galina Vishnevskaya was so bright and beautiful that it would probably be enough for not one, but ten lives.
Lilies of the valley and cucumbers
They first saw each other in the Metropol restaurant. Rising Star Bolshoi Theater and the young cellist were among the guests at the reception of the foreign delegation. Mstislav Leopoldovich recalled: “I raise my eyes, and a goddess descends from the stairs to me... I was even speechless. And at that very moment I decided that this woman would be mine.”
When Vishnevskaya was about to leave, Rostropovich insistently offered to accompany her. “By the way, I’m married!” - Vishnevskaya warned him. “By the way, we’ll see about that later!” - he answered her. Then there was the Prague Spring festival, where all the most important things happened. There Vishnevskaya finally saw him: “Thin, with glasses, a very characteristic, intelligent face, young, but already balding, elegant,” she recalled. “As it turned out later, when he learned that I was flying to Prague, he took all his jackets and ties with him and changed them morning and evening, hoping to impress.”
At a dinner in a Prague restaurant, Rostropovich noticed that his lady “mostly leaned on pickles.” Preparing for the decisive conversation, the cellist sneaked into the singer’s room and placed a crystal vase in her closet, filling it a huge amount lilies of the valley and... pickles. To all this I attached an explanatory note: they say, I don’t know how you will react to such a bouquet, and therefore, in order to guarantee the success of the enterprise, I decided to add to it pickled cucumber, you love them so much!..
Galina Vishnevskaya recalls: “Everything possible was used,” he threw down to the last penny of his daily allowance at my feet. Literally. One day we went for a walk in a garden in upper Prague. And suddenly - a high wall. Rostropovich says: “Let’s climb over the fence.” I responded: “Are you crazy? Am I, the prima donna of the Bolshoi Theater, through the fence?” And he said to me: “I’ll give you a lift now, then I’ll jump over and catch you there.” Rostropovich gave me a lift, jumped over the wall and shouted: “Come here!” - “Look at the puddles here! The rain just stopped!” Then he takes off his light cloak and throws it on the ground. And I walked over this cloak. He rushed to conquer me. And he won me over.”
“Every time I look at Galya, I marry her again”
The novel developed rapidly. Four days later they returned to Moscow, and Rostropovich posed the question bluntly: “Either you come to live with me right now - or you don’t love me, and everything is over between us.” And Vishnevskaya has a 10-year reliable marriage, a faithful and caring husband Mark Ilyich Rubin, director of the Leningrad Operetta Theater. They went through a lot together - he stayed up day and night trying to get the medicine that helped save her from tuberculosis, their only son died shortly after birth.
The situation was difficult, and then she simply ran away. She sent her husband to pick up strawberries, and she threw her robe, slippers, whatever came into her suitcase, and ran. “Where should we run? “I don’t even know the address,” Galina Pavlovna recalled. - I called Slava from the corridor: “Slava! I'm coming to you! He shouts: “I’m waiting for you!” And I yell at him: “I don’t know where to go!” He dictates: Nemirovich-Danchenko Street, house such and such. I’m running down the stairs like crazy, my legs are giving way, I don’t know how I didn’t break my head. I sat down and shouted: “Nemirovich-Danchenko Street!” And the taxi driver stared at me and said: “Yes, you can get there on foot - it’s nearby, over there, around the corner.” And I shout: “I don’t know, you’re taking me, please, I’ll pay you!”
And then the car drove up to Rostropovich’s house. Vishnevskaya was met by his sister Veronica. He himself went to the store. We went up to the apartment, opened the door, and there was my mother, Sofya Nikolaevna, standing in a nightgown, with the eternal “Belomor” in the corner of her mouth, a gray braid to the knee, one of her hands was already in a robe, the other could not get into the sleeve from excitement ... My son announced three minutes ago: “My wife will arrive now!”
“She sat down so awkwardly on a chair,” said Galina Pavlovna, “and I sat on my suitcase. And everyone suddenly burst into tears and roared. They've made their voices heard!!! Then the door opens and Rostropovich enters. He has some fish tails and bottles of champagne sticking out of his string bag. Yells: “Well, we met!”
When Rostropovich registered his marriage at the regional registry office at Vishnevskaya’s place of registration, the registrar immediately recognized the famous soloist of the Bolshoi Theater and asked who she was marrying. Seeing the rather unprepossessing groom, the receptionist smiled sympathetically at Vishnevskaya, and having difficulty reading the surname “Ro... stro... po... vich,” she told him: “Well, comrade, now you have the last opportunity to change your surname " Mstislav Leopoldovich politely thanked her for her participation, but refused to change his last name.
“Don’t give birth without me!”
“When I told Slava that we were having a child, his happiness knew no bounds. He immediately grabbed a volume of Shakespeare’s sonnets and enthusiastically began to read them to me, so that without wasting a minute, I would be imbued with beauty and begin to create in myself something equally sublime and beautiful. Since then, this book has been lying on the night table, and just as the nightingale sings over the nightingale at night when she hatches her chicks, so my husband always read me beautiful sonnets before going to bed.”
“The time has come to be relieved of the burden. Slava was on tour in England at that time. And he asked, insisted, demanded, begged that I definitely wait for him. “Don’t give birth without me!” - he shouted into the telephone receiver. And, what’s funniest, he demanded this from the other representatives of the “woman’s kingdom” - from his mother and sister, as if they could pike command stop contractions if they start for me.
And I waited! On the evening of March 17, he returned home, inspired by the success of the tour, happy and proud that the domestic Indian kingdom had fulfilled all his orders: his wife, barely moving, was sitting in a chair waiting for her master. And just as all sorts of miracles appear from a magician’s box, so fantastic silks, shawls, perfumes and some other incredibly beautiful things that I didn’t even have time to look at flew at me from Slava’s suitcase, and finally a luxurious fur coat fell out of there and fell into my lap. I just gasped and couldn’t utter a word from amazement, but the shining Slava walked around and explained:
This will suit your eyes... Order a concert dress from this. But as soon as I saw this material, it became clear to me that this was especially for you. You see how good it is that you waited for me - I’m always right. Now you will have good mood and it will be easier for you to give birth. As soon as it becomes very painful, remember something beautiful dress, and everything will pass.
He was simply bursting with pride and pleasure that he was such a wonderful, such a rich husband that he was able to present me with such beautiful things that no other theater artist has. And I knew that my “rich” husband and, as the English newspapers already wrote then, the “brilliant Rostropovich,” in order to be able to buy all these gifts for me, probably never had lunch during the two weeks of the tour, because he received for the concert was 80 pounds, and the rest of the money... was handed over to the Soviet embassy.”
On March 18, 1956, their first daughter was born. Galina Pavlovna recalls: “I wanted to call her Ekaterina, but I received a note of complaint from Slava. “I beg you not to do this. We can’t call her Ekaterina for serious technical reasons - after all, I can’t pronounce the letter “r”, and she will still tease me. Let's call her Olga." And two years later, a second girl was born, who was named Elena.
Classic house building
“He was an unusually gentle and caring father, and at the same time very strict. It got to the point of tragicomedy: Slava toured a lot, and I kept trying to reason with him, explaining how much my growing daughters needed him. “Yes, you're right!” - he agreed... and spontaneous music lessons began. He called the girls. Lena's eyes were wet beforehand - just in case. But Olya was his cellist colleague, a very lively girl, always ready to fight back. The whole trio solemnly disappeared into the office, and a quarter of an hour later screams were already heard from there, Rostropovich flew out, clutching his heart, followed by howling children.
He adored his daughters, was jealous of them, and to prevent boys from climbing over the fence to them at the dacha, he planted bushes with large thorns around it. He was so busy important issue with all seriousness, and even consulted with specialists until, finally, he found a reliable variety so that, as he explained to me, all the gentlemen would leave scraps of their pants on the spikes.
He absolutely couldn’t see jeans on girls: he didn’t like the fact that they were hugging their bottoms and seducing boys; and he reprimanded me why she brought them from abroad. And so, once arriving at the dacha after a matinee performance, I found complete darkness and mourning there. Thick black smoke was spreading across the ground, and a fire was burning out on the open veranda of our wooden house. There was a pile of ashes on the floor, and three people stood above it - the solemn Slava and the sobbing Olga and Lena. A handful of ashes is all that remains of the jeans. And yet, despite all his severity, the girls idolized their father.”
Four days
They had a happy life ahead, but very hard time: friendship with the disgraced Solzhenitsyn, deprivation of USSR citizenship, wanderings, success and demand on the world music scene, Mstislav Leopoldovich’s arrival in Moscow during the August 1991 putsch, return to the now new Russia.
Rostropovich was never afraid to show his attitude towards power. One day, after a triumphant tour in the United States, he was invited to the Soviet embassy and explained that he had to hand over the lion's share of the fee to the embassy. Rostropovich did not object, he only asked his impresario to buy a porcelain vase for the entire fee and deliver it in the evening to the embassy, where the reception was scheduled. They delivered a vase of unimaginable beauty, Rostropovich took it, admired it and... unclenched his hands. The vase hit the marble floor and shattered into pieces. Picking up one of them and carefully wrapping it in a handkerchief, he said to the ambassador: “This is mine, and the rest is yours.”
Another case is that Mstislav Leopoldovich always wanted his wife to accompany him on tour. However, the Ministry of Culture invariably refused his request. Then my friends advised me to write a petition: they say, due to my poor health, I ask permission for my wife to accompany me on the trip. Rostropovich wrote a letter: “In view of my impeccable health, I ask that my wife Galina Vishnevskaya accompany me on my trip abroad.”
...The star couple celebrated their golden wedding in the very Metropol restaurant where Vyacheslav Leopoldovich first saw his goddess. Rostropovich showed the guests a check for $40 that Reader's Digest magazine had given him. The correspondent, when interviewing him, asked: “Is it true that you married Vishnevskaya four days after you first saw her? What do you think about this? Rostropovich replied: “I really regret that I lost these four days.”
They became husband and wife four days after they met and lived a long and happy life in perfect harmony. The love of the brilliant cellist, the most intelligent person, a reverent lover, caring husband and father Mstislav Rostropovich and the star of the world opera stage, the first beauty Galina Vishnevskaya was so bright and beautiful that it would probably be enough for not one, but ten lives. 
They first saw each other in the Metropol restaurant. The rising star of the Bolshoi Theater and the young cellist were among the guests at the reception of the foreign delegation. Mstislav Leopoldovich recalled: “I raise my eyes, and a goddess descends from the stairs to me... I was even speechless. And at that very moment I decided that this woman would be mine.”
When Vishnevskaya was about to leave, Rostropovich insistently offered to accompany her. “By the way, I’m married!” - Vishnevskaya warned him. “By the way, we’ll see about that later!” - he answered her. Then there was the Prague Spring festival, where all the most important things happened. There Vishnevskaya finally saw him: “Thin, with glasses, a very characteristic, intelligent face, young, but already balding, elegant,” she recalled. “As it turned out later, when he learned that I was flying to Prague, he took all his jackets and ties with him and changed them morning and evening, hoping to impress.” 
At a dinner in a Prague restaurant, Rostropovich noticed that his lady “mostly leaned on pickles.” Preparing for the decisive conversation, the cellist snuck into the singer’s room and placed a crystal vase in her closet, filling it with a huge amount of lilies of the valley and... pickles. I attached an explanatory note to all this: they say, I don’t know how you will react to such a bouquet, and therefore, in order to guarantee the success of the enterprise, I decided to add pickled cucumber to it, you love them so much!..
Galina Vishnevskaya recalls: “Everything possible was used,” he threw down to the last penny of his daily allowance at my feet. Literally. One day we went for a walk in a garden in upper Prague. And suddenly - a high wall. Rostropovich says: “Let’s climb over the fence.” I responded: “Are you crazy? Am I, the prima donna of the Bolshoi Theater, through the fence?” And he said to me: “I’ll give you a lift now, then I’ll jump over and catch you there.” Rostropovich gave me a lift, jumped over the wall and shouted: “Come here!” - “Look at the puddles here! The rain just stopped!” Then he takes off his light cloak and throws it on the ground. And I walked over this cloak. He rushed to conquer me. And he won me over.”
“Every time I look at Galya, I marry her again”
The novel developed rapidly. Four days later they returned to Moscow, and Rostropovich posed the question bluntly: “Either you come to live with me right now - or you don’t love me, and everything is over between us.” And Vishnevskaya has a 10-year reliable marriage, a faithful and caring husband Mark Ilyich Rubin, director of the Leningrad Operetta Theater. They went through a lot together - he stayed up day and night trying to get the medicine that helped save her from tuberculosis, their only son died shortly after birth.
The situation was difficult, and then she simply ran away. She sent her husband to pick up strawberries, and she threw her robe, slippers, whatever came into her suitcase, and ran. “Where should we run? “I don’t even know the address,” Galina Pavlovna recalled. - I called Slava from the corridor: “Slava! I'm coming to you! He shouts: “I’m waiting for you!” And I yell at him: “I don’t know where to go!” He dictates: Nemirovich-Danchenko Street, house such and such. I’m running down the stairs like crazy, my legs are giving way, I don’t know how I didn’t break my head. I sat down and shouted: “Nemirovich-Danchenko Street!” And the taxi driver stared at me and said: “Yes, you can get there on foot - it’s nearby, over there, around the corner.” And I shout: “I don’t know, you’re taking me, please, I’ll pay you!”
And then the car drove up to Rostropovich’s house. Vishnevskaya was met by his sister Veronica. He himself went to the store. We went up to the apartment, opened the door, and there was my mother, Sofya Nikolaevna, standing in a nightgown, with the eternal “Belomor” in the corner of her mouth, a gray braid to the knee, one of her hands was already in a robe, the other could not get into the sleeve from excitement ... My son announced three minutes ago: “My wife will arrive now!”
“She sat down so awkwardly on a chair,” said Galina Pavlovna, “and I sat on my suitcase. And everyone suddenly burst into tears and roared. They've made their voices heard!!! Then the door opens and Rostropovich enters. He has some fish tails and bottles of champagne sticking out of his string bag. Yells: “Well, we met!”
When Rostropovich registered his marriage at the regional registry office at Vishnevskaya’s place of registration, the registrar immediately recognized the famous soloist of the Bolshoi Theater and asked who she was marrying. Seeing the rather unprepossessing groom, the receptionist smiled sympathetically at Vishnevskaya, and having difficulty reading the surname “Ro... stro... po... vich,” she told him: “Well, comrade, now you have the last opportunity to change your surname " Mstislav Leopoldovich politely thanked her for her participation, but refused to change his last name. 
“Don’t give birth without me!”
“When I told Slava that we were having a child, his happiness knew no bounds. He immediately grabbed a volume of Shakespeare’s sonnets and enthusiastically began to read them to me, so that without wasting a minute, I would be imbued with beauty and begin to create in myself something equally sublime and beautiful. Since then, this book has been lying on the night table, and just as the nightingale sings over the nightingale at night when she hatches her chicks, so my husband always read me beautiful sonnets before going to bed.” 
“The time has come to be relieved of the burden. Slava was on tour in England at that time. And he asked, insisted, demanded, begged that I definitely wait for him. “Don’t give birth without me!” - he shouted into the telephone receiver. And the funny thing is, he demanded this from the other representatives of the “woman’s kingdom” - from his mother and sister, as if they could, at the command of a pike, stop the contractions if they started for me. 
And I waited! On the evening of March 17, he returned home, inspired by the success of the tour, happy and proud that the domestic Indian kingdom had fulfilled all his orders: his wife, barely moving, was sitting in a chair waiting for her master. And just as all sorts of miracles appear from a magician’s box, so fantastic silks, shawls, perfumes and some other incredibly beautiful things that I didn’t even have time to look at flew at me from Slava’s suitcase, and finally a luxurious fur coat fell out of there and fell into my lap. I just gasped and couldn’t utter a word from amazement, but the shining Slava walked around and explained: 
- This will suit your eyes... Order a concert dress from this. But as soon as I saw this material, it became clear to me that this was especially for you. You see how good it is that you waited for me - I’m always right. Now you will be in a good mood and it will be easier for you to give birth. As soon as it becomes very painful, you remember about some beautiful dress, and everything will go away. 
He was simply bursting with pride and pleasure that he was such a wonderful, such a rich husband that he was able to present me with such beautiful things that no other theater artist has. And I knew that my “rich” husband and, as the English newspapers already wrote then, the “brilliant Rostropovich,” in order to be able to buy all these gifts for me, probably never had lunch during the two weeks of the tour, because he received for the concert was 80 pounds, and the rest of the money... was handed over to the Soviet embassy.” 
On March 18, 1956, their first daughter was born. Galina Pavlovna recalls: “I wanted to call her Ekaterina, but I received a note of complaint from Slava. “I beg you not to do this. We can’t call her Ekaterina for serious technical reasons - after all, I can’t pronounce the letter “r”, and she will still tease me. Let's call her Olga." And two years later, a second girl was born, who was named Elena. 
Classic house building
“He was an unusually gentle and caring father, and at the same time very strict. It got to the point of tragicomedy: Slava toured a lot, and I kept trying to reason with him, explaining how much my growing daughters needed him. “Yes, you're right!” - he agreed... and spontaneous music lessons began. He called the girls. Lena's eyes were wet beforehand - just in case. But Olya was his cellist colleague, a very lively girl, always ready to fight back. The whole trio solemnly disappeared into the office, and a quarter of an hour later screams were already heard from there, Rostropovich flew out, clutching his heart, followed by howling children. 
He adored his daughters, was jealous of them, and to prevent boys from climbing over the fence to them at the dacha, he planted bushes with large thorns around it. He dealt with such an important issue with all seriousness, and even consulted with specialists, until he finally found a reliable variety so that, as he explained to me, all the gentlemen would leave scraps of their pants on spikes. 
He absolutely couldn’t see jeans on girls: he didn’t like the fact that they were hugging their bottoms and seducing boys; and he reprimanded me why she brought them from abroad. And so, once arriving at the dacha after a matinee performance, I found complete darkness and mourning there. Thick black smoke was spreading across the ground, and a fire was burning out on the open veranda of our wooden house. There was a pile of ashes on the floor, and three people stood above it - the solemn Slava and the sobbing Olga and Lena. A handful of ashes is all that remains of the jeans. And yet, despite all his severity, the girls idolized their father.” 
Four days
They had a happy, but very difficult time ahead: friendship with the disgraced Solzhenitsyn, deprivation of USSR citizenship, wanderings, success and demand on the world music scene, Mstislav Leopoldovich’s arrival in Moscow during the August 1991 putsch, return to the now new Russia. 
Rostropovich was never afraid to show his attitude towards power. One day, after a triumphant tour in the United States, he was invited to the Soviet embassy and explained that he had to hand over the lion's share of the fee to the embassy. Rostropovich did not object, he only asked his impresario to buy a porcelain vase for the entire fee and deliver it in the evening to the embassy, where the reception was scheduled. They delivered a vase of unimaginable beauty, Rostropovich took it, admired it and... unclenched his hands. The vase hit the marble floor and shattered into pieces. Picking up one of them and carefully wrapping it in a handkerchief, he said to the ambassador: “This is mine, and the rest is yours.” 
Another case is that Mstislav Leopoldovich always wanted his wife to accompany him on tour. However, the Ministry of Culture invariably refused his request. Then my friends advised me to write a petition: they say, due to my poor health, I ask permission for my wife to accompany me on the trip. Rostropovich wrote a letter: “In view of my impeccable health, I ask that my wife Galina Vishnevskaya accompany me on my trip abroad.” 
...The star couple celebrated their golden wedding in the very Metropol restaurant where Vyacheslav Leopoldovich first saw his goddess. Rostropovich showed the guests a check for $40 that Reader's Digest magazine had given him. The correspondent, when interviewing him, asked: “Is it true that you married Vishnevskaya four days after you first saw her? What do you think about this? Rostropovich replied: “I really regret that I lost these four days.” 
Biography
Mstislav Rostropovich was born into a family of professional musicians - cellist Leopold Rostropovich, the son of pianist and composer Vitold Rostropovich, and pianist Sofia Fedotova in 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 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.
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 the World Festival of Youth and Students in Prague (see Awards and titles). 
M. Rostropovich's grave at Novodevichy Cemetery
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.
Beginning in 1969, Rostropovich and his family supported A.I. Solzhenitsyn, allowing him to live at his dacha near Moscow, and writing an open letter to Brezhnev 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, denigrated the Soviet social order, title of citizen of the USSR. They systematically provided material assistance to 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 damage the prestige of the USSR and are 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. 
Conductor of the US National Symphony Orchestra, 1993.
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.
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.
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 school named after A. M. Gorchakov, which is being 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. He died in a clinic in Moscow on April 27, 2007. 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.
Rostropovich captivated Galina Pavlovna with pickles
Last week Galina VISHNEVSKAYA passed away. The opera diva passed away in her sleep at the age of 87, while in own home in Zhukovka near Moscow. We said goodbye to Galina Pavlovna in the Center opera singing, bearing her name, and the funeral service was held in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. For Irina TAIMANOVA, professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Vishnevskaya’s departure became a personal tragedy. After all, the woman was associated with the prima of the world opera stage and her husband, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich for many years friendship. Taimanova shared very intimate memories of her outstanding family with Express Gazeta.
Our friendship began in 1966, when I, being a pianist and the wife of composer Vladislav Uspensky, came to the Shostakovich festival in Gorky. The concert also featured cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and violinist Mikhail Vaiman. After the welcome banquet we went to the hotel. There was me, Rostropovich and my husband in the car. Mstislav, half asleep, lay down on my fragile girlish shoulder, and on the other they put the armored case of his cello. Thus, I supported the master and his instrument with both shoulders, and my husband sat next to the driver. Having slept a little, Rostropovich woke up from the light of the lanterns, looked at me carefully and patted my husband on the shoulder: “Stagik, she’s very pretty!” To which Uspensky replied with dignity: “I respect you so much that I will not argue with you.”
At the concert, I came out first and began to play Shostakovich’s prelude, Mstislav and Vladislav stood behind the scenes and listened. “Stagik, but she hits both blacks and whites! And how it rocks!” - Rostropovich commented on my playing. More than once later he asked me to sit at the piano, although he himself was a brilliant pianist.
We met with Rostropovich often later. He could call me from some country and say: “Igochka, in a few days we will go to the gym, I really love the gym!” Or he could have invited my husband and me to stay in Dilijan at the House of Composers' Creativity, where at that time, for example, the famous English composer Benjamin Britton. For our sake, they slaughtered lamb in the mountains and caught silver trout in the lake.
With Mstislav we had no sexual relations! I revere Galina Pavlovna and I am pure before her. A musician simply needs a state of love!
One day in the 90s I came to their house in Paris. Mstislav Leopoldovich met me in a dressing gown and took me to show him collectible cellos. He looked at me and said, jokingly, of course: “35 years ago you refused me, and now you will refuse me too?” And I answered: “If I refused then, then now I will refuse even more so.”
I admired their family and their relationships. But there was a time when Vishnevskaya had a reverent romance with the Bolshoi Theater tenor Zurab Andzhaparidze. Rostropovich was very upset by this, and he once said to my husband: “Stagik, let’s wave our wives!” Mine is very bad character! Mine is a terrible bitch!” One day he came to visit us and handed us the newspaper “Evening Moscow”, where he himself announced his divorce from Vishnevskaya. But then their relationship improved.
Rostropovich loved to come up with holidays and surprise everyone. I spoiled my wife with crazy gifts. One day he presented her with an entire estate in the suburbs of London and gave it the name “Galya”. Do you know how their love began? Both worked at the Bolshoi Theater, but knew nothing about each other until they met on tour in Prague.
Slava had breakfast in a cafe, sitting at a table under the spiral staircase. And suddenly he sees: beautiful legs descending. Then luxurious thighs appeared in a breathtaking dress, then - thinnest waist, and then all of Vishnevskaya with her beautiful face. And Rostropovich fell in love with this perfection from the first second! He found out that Galya loves pickled cucumbers, and that same evening opera diva I found this delicacy in a crystal vase in my apartment - my boyfriend presented it as flowers. Slava made his beloved laugh for three whole days so much that she could no longer laugh. And when they returned to Moscow, they were already husband and wife - all that remained was to register with the registry office, which they did four days later. Although before this trip, Rostropovich lived with the singer Zara Dolukhanova, for whom, it seemed, he burned with unimaginable passion.
Today the name of Mstislav Rostropovich is the name of one of the greatest academic musicians of the 20th century. He not only had a unique performing talent, but was also a principled person who opposed the policies of the totalitarian system of the USSR. For this, Rostropovich was expelled from the country. In the West, he made a career on a global scale, after which he returned to his homeland when communism had already fallen.
Childhood
The future conductor and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich was born in 1927 in Baku. His parents and grandfathers were musicians, so the child’s future was determined even before he was born. In 1932-1937 Rostropovich studied at the Gnessin School in Moscow. It was one of the best music educational institutions in the country.
With the onset of war, a mass evacuation of civilians began in the capital. 14-year-old Rostropovich also got into it. The conductor's biography turned out to be connected with the city of Chkalov (Orenburg). Mstislav's father died during the evacuation, and the teenager became the de facto head of the family. At the age of fifteen, he began teaching at a local music school and thus supported his relatives.
Then the first ones appeared independent works, which Rostropovich wrote. The biography of the aspiring composer was marked by the creation of a poem for cello, a piano concerto and a prelude for piano. During the war years, the musician became a touring artist. He performed with the Maly Theater orchestra, performing works by Tchaikovsky. Rostropovich also gave concerts in military units, hospitals, regional centers and collective farms.
Education
At the age of 16, the gifted performer entered the capital's Moscow Conservatory, where he began to study the art of playing the cello and composing skills. His teacher turned out to be Semyon Kozolupov. He immediately noticed the potential that Rostropovich hid within himself. The musician’s biography could have gone differently if he had not found himself in the attentive and demanding hands of Kozolupov.
At the conservatory, Rostropovich met Shostakovich and showed him the score of his own piano concerto, and also performed it for clarity. Dmitry Dmitrievich appreciated the efforts of the young student and invited him to study individually to improve his composition skills.
However, in the future, Rostropovich did not begin to compose his own music. The reason was simple. When he first heard Shostakovich’s eighth symphony, which made a tremendous impression on him, the cellist decided to give up on his future as a composer, realizing that he would never reach the level of a master anyway. Perhaps this was a youthful exaggeration, but Rostropovich made his decision. Time has shown what he did right choice, since the whole world remembered him as a unique and inimitable performer.
Teacher
In 1945, the next All-Union competition for young musicians was held. Mstislav Rostropovich received the first prize. The cellist's biography was marked by his first award, although he received many more throughout his life. This success allowed the second-year student to immediately move to the fifth. In 1950, the young performer won the Hanush Vigan competition held in Prague.
At that time, he had already graduated from the conservatory and graduate school. Rostropovich quickly became a bright and enviable teacher. He worked for 26 years at the Moscow Conservatory and another 7 years in Leningrad. Over three decades, Mstislav Rostropovich trained many world-class professionals. Among them were Natalia Shakhovskaya, Natalia Gutman, Joseph Feigelson, Sergei Roldugin, David Geringas, Maris Villerush, Ivan Monighetti, etc. Many of these students later themselves became professors at the most prestigious music academies around the world.
Rostropovich's work
What do you remember about Mstislav Rostropovich as a performer? The musician performed with a huge repertoire of works. His work can be divided into two groups. Firstly, Rostropovich was a cellist (ensemble and soloist), and secondly, a symphony and opera conductor. His talent was recognized everywhere - about 60 best composers the world wrote works specifically for Mstislav Leopoldovich. He was the first to perform more than a hundred cello works and gave about 70 more premieres with orchestra. Rostropovich made his debut as a conductor in 1957, when, under his strict leadership, Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” was sold out at the Bolshoi Theater. It was a resounding success.
During the Soviet period of his career, cellist Rostropovich toured throughout the USSR. He also performed as a chamber musician in an ensemble with David Oistrakh and the performer’s wife was opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya. Rostropovich often performed with her on the same stage, accompanying his wife. In 1951, the conductor received the Lenin award in 1965, and in 1966 he became
Defense of Solzhenitsyn
Mstislav Rostropovich, whose personal life was connected with many friends, was not afraid to defend them in front of totalitarian state, even if he had to risk his position. In 1969, the composer sheltered the disgraced writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn at his dacha. By that time, it was a thing of the past and the Brezhnev government began to persecute the author of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and other popular camp works.
The musician not only sheltered Solzhenitsyn, but also wrote an open letter in his defense, which he sent to the main Soviet newspaper Pravda. After this, cellist Rostropovich faced many problems. The authorities did not allow him to perform with major orchestras and did not allow him to tour abroad. The press began to ignore the cellist. In fact, he became a marginal and irreconcilable enemy for the Soviet state.
Life in the USA
In 1974, Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife Galina Vishnevskaya were expelled from the USSR. In 1978, they were deprived of Soviet citizenship. The whole story of the great musician’s disgrace began with an open letter to Pravda. After the fall of communism and the return to democratic Russia, Rostropovich said in one of his interviews that he considered that gesture in defense of Solzhenitsyn the best thing in his life, since it was he who reconciled the conductor with his own conscience.
After leaving Soviet Union The musician and his family mainly lived in the USA. He was the father of two daughters. Olga and Elena Rostropovich were born in the 50s and left their homeland as children. In 1977-1994. conductor led the Washington National Symphony Orchestra. Once every four years, this group played at the inauguration ceremony of the US President. Rostropovich also regularly performed at holiday concerts, dedicated to the Day independence July 4th. In addition, he toured all over the world. By invitation, he performed with the main orchestras of France, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Japan, etc.
World star
Rostropovich celebrated his 60th birthday in Washington. In 1987, on the occasion of this date, the First World Cello Congress was held in the American capital. At the same time, Ronald Reagan presented the conductor with the highest state award - the Medal of Freedom. Even Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain visited Rostropovich.
The musician was an extroverted and life-loving person by nature. During the years of dizzying fame abroad, he acquired a colossal number of high-ranking friends and acquaintances. The entire world's musical elite gathered for his anniversaries. Rostropovich's friends were Picasso, Chagall, Dali, Galich and Brodsky. In 1994, when the conductor announced the end of his collaboration with the Washington National Symphony Orchestra, he held a grand gala concert. Letters of gratitude Rostropovich was sent by all the American presidents with whom he met in his “post”: Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr. and Clinton.
Musician and citizen
In the West, Rostropovich became known not only as an unsurpassed musician, but also as a fighter for human rights. He often gave concerts in particularly troubled regions of the world. For example, in 1989 the maestro played one of Bach's cello suites at the Berlin Wall. In 1974, he received an award awarded to him by the League of Human Rights.
Meanwhile, the situation in the world was changing. In the USSR, a new leadership came to power, embarking on the path of reform. In 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev revoked the decree by which Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya were deprived of citizenship, awards and honorary titles. However, the musician wanted to remain a “citizen of the world.” He did not take back Soviet citizenship, and later Russian citizenship. In 1991, when, at the last gasp of the Soviet system, the reactionaries staged a putsch by the State Emergency Committee, Rostropovich flew to Moscow specially from Paris and joined the crowd defending the White House.
Career continuation
In the nineties and zero years, the performer continued to tour actively. Rostropovich's cello sounded in the largest cities of the world. As a conductor, he performed with The Queen of Spades in San Francisco, with “ The royal bride" - in Monte Carlo, with "Lady Macbeth" - in Munich. The musician again began giving concerts in Russia. In 1996, he performed at the Bolshoi Theater with Khovanshchina.
Rostropovich often recorded concerts for radio. In 2003, he received his next Grammy Award. This time she was honored - for "a life on record" and an "extraordinary career." In total, Mstislav Leopoldovich became a Grammy Award winner five times. Throughout his career, critics have noted the artistry, emotionality, inspiration and filigree beauty of the maestro's playing.
Rostropovich Foundation and Festival
As a teacher, the conductor opened a school in Valencia in 2004, where he taught the highest musical skills. The cellist's organizational skills were evident in his vigorous activity and the creation of new festivals. Such events made it possible to discover new young names of talented performers for the whole world. Today, in memory of the great musician, the Rostropovich Festival is held every year.
The conductor became president of his own foundation. His funds went to help gifted students. Thanks to him, new scholarships and grants for child musicians appeared in Russia. Today, the late father’s music foundation is headed by Olga Mstislavovna Rostropovich.
Help for medicine
As a philanthropist, Rostropovich also became known for his projects to help Russian medical institutions. This activity was and is carried out by the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Charitable Foundation. Today it is headed by the performer's daughter Elena Rostropovich.
In 2000, the organization began implementing a program to vaccinate children against hepatitis B. At that time, this was the first such undertaking since the collapse of the USSR.
Death
In 2006, in funds mass media information appeared about the deterioration of Mstislav Leopoldovich’s health. The musician underwent surgery in Geneva, Switzerland. In December, the conductor was hospitalized after returning to Moscow from Voronezh.
He spent three months in the hospital. Shortly after his discharge in March, the maestro celebrated his 80th birthday. He was deservedly congratulated by the most famous colleagues in the music industry, politicians, public figures and old friends. The celebration itself took place in the Moscow Kremlin. Soon Rostropovich's condition worsened again. On April 27, 2007, he died. After the death of a legend in Moscow, every year passes music festival Rostropovich.
Confession
Rostropovich was a member of the French Academy of Arts, the US Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Music of England, etc. The musician became a professor in more than 50 universities, and an honorary citizen in dozens of cities around the world. France awarded him the Order of the Legion of Honor, and the Japanese Arts Association recognized the conductor's work with the Imperial Prize. The British authorities made Rostropovich an honorary knight.
In the USA, the musician received the Presidential Medal, in Sweden - the Order of the Polar Star. In total, he had state awards from 29 countries. On the eve of his 80th birthday, Rostropovich received the Russian Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st class.