Cello, soul of my soul

This year would have been Mstislav Rostropovich’s 85th birthday, and it is also the 5th anniversary of his demise.

The third Rostropovich Festival will be held from April 27 to May 27. Olga Rostropovich, the festival’s creative director, said that concerts will take place in Moscow as well as in other cities that played a role in her father’s life: Voronezh, Saratov, Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod.

The monument to Rostropovich created by sculptor Rukovishnikov and architect Voskresensky will be unveiled in Brusov Pereulok in Moscow on March 27. “The same day we open the Festival with a musical offering to Shostakovich. The opera ‘Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District’ will be performed: this piece was very important for my dad. He conducted it in 1996 after it hadn’t been performed for 60 years. For March 28 I’ve invited the Nizhny Novgorod orchestra. This symphony orchestra is named after my father. This is a wonderful orchestra; they performed at the Baku Rostropovich festival with great success recently, but surprisingly their last visit to Moscow dates back to 2003. I thought it fit to invite them here in the year of my father’s anniversary. We all know how my father cherished young talents, so I offered a brilliant young cellist, Rostropovich scholarship holder Vsevolod Gusov, to play the Elgar concerto for orchestra and cello with the orchestra. Also a young Korean violinist, who won first place at the Venyavsky contest in Poland, will perform. She performed successfully at the latest festival in Baku,” Olga Rostropovich said.

On April 1-2 the London Philharmonic Orchestra headed by Vladimir Yurovsky will perform. At the first concert Rudolf Buchbinder, a splendid pianist, will solo. On April 2 the concert will be devoted to Prokofiev. Olga Rostropovich reminded that “Egyptian Nights” was composed by Prokofiev after Tairov’s request. He met Prokofiev in Paris and asked him to compose music for Tairov’s planned performance “Egyptian Nights.” This performance would consist of works by Bernard Shaw, Shakespeare and Pushkin. Tairov was interested in this theme, as he saw parallels in relations with Queen Elizabeth and her favorite. He thought it would be interesting to reflect the stories of Shaw and Shakespeare in the current reality. It was Prokofiev’s first work composed in Russia after his migration to France. It was in 1934. Later the Chamber Theatre was closed. Since 1934 “Egyptian Nights” has never been played the way it will be played at the festival. Orchestration for the movie “Ivan Grozny” will be performed. There was only one orchestration by Abram Stasevich in 1961. But recently the musical score by Levon Avtomyan, who was the closest friend of Prokofiev, has been found. He made adaptations of his symphonies for fortepiano. Neli Kravets, the musicologist, found this music sheet which had never been played. This orchestration will be performed for the first time by London Symphony Orchestra and Vladimir Yurovski at our festival.»

On April 14th Russia will welcome the Orchestre de Paris and its new head Paavo Jarvi. They will present works by Strauss and Schubert.

April 21st will see a great return of Maxim Vengerov. “He had close relations with his father, and after his death in 2007 Maxim had stopped playing violin. He wanted to be a conductor: moreover, he had problems with his arm. And now several years after that, he has returned to the stage. Maxim has already played concerts in Moscow, but I think our festival will be his great return. The works he will perform are very serious,” Olga Rostropovich said.

On April 25th an exhibition devoted to Rastropovich and Vishnevskaya called “Mingling of Fates” will take place in the Glinka Museum. Unique items will be exhibited: papers, private possessions and masterpieces.

On April 26-27 the Orchestra Santa Chichilias headed by Antonio Papano comes to Moscow.

The festival will be closed on April 27th. Juji Wong will play the Third Concerto by Prokofiev. “Last year she failed to come to us, because of bad weather, and Denis Matsuev substituted for her. This year she should come,” Rostropovich said. “At the moment we are holding talks with Patriarch Kirill, for a service of requiem at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral on April 27th.”

The festival will be conducted abroad too: in Kornberg, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany and the USA. In December the festival in Baku will be opened. Traditionally it will be opened by a performance of the Azerbaijani Orchestra. Various orchestras from different countries will play at this festival. The Rostropovich Symphony Orchestra will come from Nizhny Novgorod. It will play two concerts. The first will include works by Prokofiev. The second concert is something special: three tenors.