MOSCOW – Mstislav Rostropovich, the cellist and conductor considered by many to be one of the finest virtuosi of his instrument in the last half of the 20th century, has died. He was 80.
Rostropovich, who became a global political figure in the 1960s after the Soviet Union stripped him of his citizenship for protesting Moscow’s suppression of the arts, suffered from intestinal cancer. After initially being hospitalized in Paris, where he had a home, he returned to Russia in February. He died Friday in a Moscow hospital, his spokeswoman, Natalia Dollezhal, announced.Rostropovich stirred souls with playing that was both intense and seemingly effortless. He fought for the rights of Soviet-era dissidents and later triumphantly played Bach suites below the crumbling Berlin Wall.
His Soviet citizenship was restored in 1990, and he made a triumphant return to Russia to perform with Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra, where he was music director from 1977 to 1994.
When hard-line Communists tried to overthrow then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991, Rostropovich rushed back to Moscow without a visa and spent days in the Russian parliament building to join those protesting the coup attempt.
In his last public appearance, at his birthday celebration in the Kremlin on March 27, Rostropovich was frail but still able to show his capacity for joy and generosity.
“I feel myself the happiest man in the world,” he said. “I will be even more happy if this evening will be pleasant for you.”
President Vladimir Putin called Rostropovich’s death “a huge loss for Russian culture” and expressed condolences to his loved ones.
Rostropovich, who was known by his friends as “Slava,” was considered by many to be the successor to Pablo Casals as the world’s greatest cellist.
“He was the most inspiring musician that I have ever known,” said David Finckel, the Emerson String Quartet’s cellist who studied with Rostropovich for nine years. “He had a way to channel his energy through other people, and it was magical.”
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