In this free PDF from tonebase, you’ll find various excerpts from interviews with Rostropovich, which highlight how he was able to get into the music—to get behind the notes—and make the music he played seem fresh and exhilarating each time. You'll also learn about his practice habits—some of which might surprise you!
Learn why Rostropovich only practiced “at most two hours per day”
Understand his approach to the cello sound and what he hears when he plays
Discover the unique way he would learn a brand-new composition
Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007) was such a colossal figure that he didn’t just set standards for cello playing—he changed history.
Over the course of his life, hundreds of new works were written for him by almost every major composer of the century, such as Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Britten, Walton, Kabalevsky, Miaskovsky, Schnittke, Pärt, Penderecki, and many others. All told, Rostropovich gave the premieres of 224 new works, large and small. And according to Yo-Yo Ma, “That means we cellists owe him maybe 40 percent of our current repertoire.”
