Saturday, April 28, 2007

The End of Era of Russian Maestro

The death of Rostropovich ends the era of Great Russian musicians. Rostropovich represents what Russian blood represents for in music performance: brilliant technique, titanic power and stirring emotion. As quoted in a recent article: In Russia, people don't go to music for entertainment, they go to feel life.

Slava has brought his life, which is bigger than most of people into his music. The cello is a beautiful match for his personality: never tepid, thick and warm.

Several years ago, I was listening to a CD, with Rostropovich playing Britten's cello suites. The technique was, even from an outsider like me, challenging. But he sounded effortless, yet so profound and deep. Later on, I found out he and Ozawa were going to give a free concerto in the music conservatory. It would surprise those agent nowadays that such great artists did not want a commercial performance. All they want is to talk, perform with the young musicians in the conservatory. By the time I got the news, there was no seats left: A typical China thing. (Unfortunately, I missed him again in 2002 when he gave a concert in Heinz Hall. )
Yet from his recordings, he still feels big, grand yet humane.


Here are some of my favorite recordings by Rostropovich.



































2 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.