Word: rostropovich
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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What was a nice, "serious" musician doing in a piece like this? It was an all-Bernstein program, and the composer had dedicated the overture to Rostropovich by way of acknowledging his arrival in Washington. The music was called Slava!, which is not only the Russian word for glory but Rostropovich's nickname, and it was a good way for the conductor to show Washington that he is as gifted with jazz as he is with Tchaikovsky. Rostropovich caught the spirit easily, bending his body into the music, shafting his cues with a vigorous baton, sculpting the shapes of sound...
...Mass" for Violoncello and Orchestra, an episodic piece that gave listeners a chance to hear Slava produce his exquisite cello sound, to watch his left hand flick across the finger board, his right arm streak like a bowing jet. Both programs were enlivened by the now familiar spectacle of Rostropovich leaping from his podium to kiss and hug every musician within reach...
Washington is of course used to spectacle, but the era of Rostropovich has no precedent, nor has it ever promised so much. For years the capital's music-lovers have felt ignored. The great performers of the world passed through for one-nighters somewhere en route between New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston and even downtown Cleveland. But with the opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971, enterprising managers began to book extended dates for the artists, and today Washington has become one of the obligatory stops for any major musician or musical group that goes on the road...
...hands of Rostropovich, the renaissance flowered. New works were written for him by Benjamin Britten, Lukas Foss, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev. In the Soviet Union alone, innumerable compositions were dedicated to him. This burgeoning literature, as well as the example of Rostropovich himself, has encouraged a new generation of fine young cellists, who have moved from deep inside the orchestra to center stage...
...Strad between his legs?or, more precisely, embracing it?he seems to pour his Russian soul into every phrase, bowing long, singing lines with a subtle eloquence and a purity of tone. His technique is flawless. Modern composers lay finger-mangling minefields in the thickets of their pieces, but Rostropovich negotiates them with cheerful ease. "I don't even know why my hands do certain things sometimes," he says. "They just grab for the notes." His dynamic range, from the greatest fortissimo down the line to a pianissimo that comes on little cat feet, is nothing short of phenomenal...