After concerts, Slava got down and scrubbed the floors
mainAmong the many memories shared with me by the sorely-missed Victor Hochhauser:
….After Oistrakh, there was Slava — the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich who, when in London, insisted on staying at the Hochhausers. After the Soviets threw him out for giving shelter to the dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Slava and his family lived in the Hochhauser office for a while, permanently wrecking Victor’s credit in Moscow. Victor eventually got him a flat in Maida Vale.
After concerts, coming down literally to earth, Slava would get on his knees and scrub the tiled floor. At his 60th birthday in Washington DC, with the Hochhausers and half of Hollywood in attendance, I saw Nancy Reagan take charge of the orchestra to conduct “Happy Birthday”….
Read on here.
I just want to mention the movie Monsaigenon made about Slava
https://basiaconfuoco.com/2019/02/04/de-ontembare-strijkstok-van-mstislav-rostropovich/
Brilliant documentary–had its premiere at Lincoln Center last year with the director and the Rostropovich daughters in attendance.
==The ascetic French composer Pierre Boulez looked to Lilian to unfreeze Soviet resistance to his post-tonal music.
Now that’s an interesting story I’d not heard before. I know PB managed to do Eclat in Moscow with BBC SO
I remember seeing a clip of the concert on tv years ago with a very stressed trumpeter counting like hell before a large audience which included Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Does anyone know if it’s resurfaced anywhere?
He was a hero of human spirit.
Because he fought the oppression of communism. Now coddled millennial sheep want to bring communism back.
The following youtube demonstrates just how much he meant to the National Symphony Orchestra members during his 17-year tenure.
https://youtu.be/wcq3IGnAipY
How did Rostropovich leave the USSR in 1974?
Was it a Nureyev-style escape? Did he get official permission? Did they just dump him at the border?