Word: rostropovich
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...time Mstislav Rostropovich made his first American tour in 1956, he had already won international acclaim and the status of a superstar. One young professional cellist, upon hearing that the Russian had obtained a two-year emigration visa in 1974, left his wife and cello behind in the States, hopped a plane to England, and for the next few months spent days seeking out his demigod and nights sleeping on park benches and in public toilets. Today, wherever Rostropovich plays, tickets sell out within hours. Only one week after he announced his decision to defect, the National Symphony chose Rostropovich...
...plus people who packed into Sanders Theatre last Saturday afternoon to watch him in action, Rostropovich dissolved any mystery surrounding the origin of his overwhelming popularity...
...occasion was a master class with two undergraduate cellists, Rostropovich's only public appearance at Harvard during a five-day stay at the University. From the moment he walked onto the Sanders stage, whether talking or gesticulating or demonstrating, Rostropovich won the rapt attention of his audience. Wildly waving his arms to illustrate musical points and likening performers' bad habits to sausages, pollution and clumsy love, Rostropovich repeatedly exhibited what a superlative musician can offer a student and an audience, even without his instrument...
...when both cello and audience are out of sight and the world-famous cellist sheds the veneer of the grande artiste, Rostropovich projects an idiosyncratic blend of energy and joie de vivre. As evidence one need only glimpse at the man after the master class, hulking like a Russian bear in his furry coat, dignified, prematurely gray and balding, with a protruding lower jaw, pulled along by his prize possession and constant companion, "Pooks." Pooks, the effete miniature dog who accompanies Rostropovich everywhere he goes, was insisting that they be fashionably early to the post-class reception...
Master Class with Mstislav Rostropovich and cellists Greg Colburn '79 Cindy Forbes '79, David Commanday '76 and Yo-Yo Ma, '76. Sanders Theater...