Word: rostropovich
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...Rostropovich is not immune from the egotism stereotypically associated with superstars. Last week, when a Boston Symphony representative failed to pick up Rostropovich at Logan Airport, the Russian became infuriated and decided to seek revenge. Without a word of warning, he hailed a cab with cello and Pooks in hand and asked to be delivered to the Colonnade Motel, a block from Symphony Hall...
Pandemonium broke out in the managerial offices upstairs at Symphony since no one could find the soloist, who was scheduled to rehearse with the orchestra two hours earlier. When a Harvard official finally located him after remembering that Rostropovich had stayed at the Colonnade on his last trip to Boston, the cellist sat sulking and refused to go to the rehearsal. "He just wanted to play prima donna when he wasn't met at the airport. He specifically didn't go to Symphony, even though he could have been there 20 minutes before the rehearsal. He happens to be very...
...Saturday Rostropovich conveyed only affection, whether he was fondling Pooks, talking about his penchant for Chinese food, or embracing and kissing everyone in sight, as he did at Saturday's reception. The joy he shows today contrasts with the sad memories he has of the Soviet Union, where his refusal to participate in what he calls "officially organized persecution campaigns" cost him his professional and social freedom several years ago. "I lived," he says, "according to my conscience and my heart...
...Rostropovich's outspoken support of intellectual dissidents put him in constant trouble with the Soviet government. He was barred from travel abroad for three years. His refusal to sign letters denouncing Andrei Sakharov led to the onset of what the cellist calls "silent torture." When he gave refuge to his friend Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who spent four years in Rostropovich's home, the cellist's musical life in the Soviet Union was squelched. Radio announcers were not permitted to mention his name. At one point all his concerts were cancelled. Once, in a small town, Rostropovich saw men obscuring posters...
...government was systematically corroding and stifling our artistic life," Rostropovich said last year. "They wanted to prove that we did not exist. We were treated like lepers. We lost our identity. It was like looking into a mirror and not finding your reflection. In Russia," he said with characteristically vivid imagery, "if one blade of grass grows higher than another, they send in bulldozers to trim it down...