“When I started learning the cello, I fell in love with the instrument because it seemed like a voice — my voice.” Rostropovich
Mstislav Rostropovich, the Russian cellist and conductor died this year. This image comes from an unplanned mini concert by the Berlin Wall at its downfall.In the 1970s he supported the banned novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn not only by allowing him to live with them but by writing an open letter of protest tothe Russian President. This led to him being himself restricted and then to go into exile in the West and his Soviet citizenship was revoked in 1978. In the West, violinist Yehudi Menuhin recalled , “he was like a little boy, laughing, shouting, pinching himself to make sure these really were the streets in Paris” but this freedom cost him greatly in a loss of homeland.
In 2002 in an interview he said "Suffering is essential for art ... You know creators, composers, need a palette for life, a color for life. If he (is) only happy with his life, I think that he (does not fully) understand what is happiness.”
Slava, as he was known, was also a good pianist as well as cellist. A little mischief happened during a concert series where he was accompanying his wife on piano and he noted the page turner wasn't very attentive. So the following night, again playing for his wife, Slava placed completely the wrong music on the piano but played the correct score from memory. The page turner had absolutely no idea what was happening!
Human beings are complex and defy definition whatever science or psychology or philosophy etc say. I am constantly fascinated that so many artists are also activists and humorists or tricksters or all and more. We all have more than one voice. Even in moments of sadness or grief or tears it is possible to find a momentary smile, a glimpse of hope, or a flash of heaven.
