Word: rostropovich
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Solzhenitsyn was eventually exiled. Rostropovich and his wife were punished in other ways. Recalls Slava: "I said to Galina, 'After this you will have many difficulties. If you want, we can have an official divorce.' She said, 'No, absolutely not.' " Without explanation, Galina was given only infrequent assignments at the Bolshoi; when she did appear, her name was left off the printed program. Similarly, when her recordings were played on the radio, her name was omitted from the announcer's list. Says she: "I would listen to myself being obliterated." Slava adds: "It was like a slow-motion plan against...
...Rostropovich was denied permission to participate in a BBC program honoring Shostakovich. In a fury, he told a Western journalist that the Soviet authorities had imposed an "artistic quarantine" on him and Galina...
Visiting Moscow in April, Kennedy saw Brezhnev and asked him to permit Slava to perform in America. Shortly thereafter, the Rostropovich family was given passports. In 1974 Slava went to Harvard to receive an honorary degree. There he saw Felicia, threw himself to his knees and kissed the hem of her dress. To show his gratitude to the Kennedy family, Rostropovich offered to train their son Teddy in the cello...
Meanwhile, Rostropovich and his family are enjoying their new freedom and fresh celebrity. In addition to the dacha and the Moscow apartment, they keep flats in Paris and New York and one near Lausanne. Olga, 20, and Elena, 19, are studying at Manhattan's Juilliard School. Galina sang Tosca last week at Covent Garden. Friends report that her life with Slava is often tempestuous, partly because his career is rising and hers is fading; after all, Rostropovich was largely responsible for destroying her position at the Bolshoi. While Galina supported her husband's defense of Solzhenitsyn, she feels that Slava...
...than a commissar at a convention. "What I remember first about Slava," says Seiji Ozawa, "is lots of drinking. He taught me how to drink fantastic amounts. After one night with him, the next day is gone." His constant companion is a pocket-size, wire-haired dachshund named Puks. Rostropovich has taught Puks to leap on the piano bench and bang away at the keyboard with his front paws. Friends observe that what is remarkable is not that Puks can play so well, but that he can play...