Death of a Giant
Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich Dies at 80
By MARTIN STEINBERG and MARIA DANILOVA
The Associated Press
Friday, April 27, 2007; 5:52 AM
MOSCOW -- Mstislav Rostropovich, the ebullient master cellist who courageously 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 death was reported Friday by Russian news agencies and confirmed to The Associated Press by his spokeswoman, Natalia Dollezhal, who did not immediately provide other details.
Rostropovich had been hospitalized in February for an undisclosed illness and looked frail at his 80th birthday celebration late last month.Rostropovich has died, his spokeswoman Natalia Dollezhal said Friday April 27, 2007. Rostropovich had been hospitalized in February for an undisclosed illness and looked frail at his 80th birthday celebration late last month.
Rostropovich, who resided in Paris after self-imposed exile, suffered from intestinal cancer. He was hospitalized in Paris in early February, and after he took a turn for the worst, his family arranged for him to be flown back to Russia, longtime manager Ronald Wilford said.
He was treated at a Moscow hospital, and received a visit on Feb. 6 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Seven weeks later, he was well enough to attend a celebration at the Kremlin on his 80th birthday, but appeared frail.
"I feel myself the happiest man in the world," Rostropovich said after slowly rising from his chair during the March 27 celebration. "I will be even more happy if this evening will be pleasant for you."
Putin then presented him with a medal _ the Order of Service to the Fatherland.
A bear of a man who hugged practically anyone in sight, "Slava" Rostropovich was considered by many to be the successor to Pablo Casals as the world's greatest cellist. He was an effusive rather than an intimidating maestro, a teacher who nurtured Jacqueline du Pre among many other great cellists.
"He was the most inspiring musician that I have ever known," said David Finckel, the Emerson String Quartet's cellist who studied with Rostropovich for nine years. "He had a way to channel his energy through other people, and it was magical."
Rostropovich's sympathies against the Communist leaders of his homeland started with the denunciations of his teachers, Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev during the Stalin era.
Under Leonid Brezhnev's regime, Rostropovich and his wife, the Bolshoi Opera soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, sheltered the dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn in their dacha in the early 1970s.
I knew Rostropovich, he was my ex's boss. He was a man of wild passions and earned his place in heaven for his championing of Jackie du Pre. He was one of the most inspiring musicians I ever met, and one of the most infuriating. The way that he treated the musicians below him was a scandal.