Mstislav Rostropovich

The last symphony that Mstislav Rostropovich conducted in Moscow before leaving on what turned into 16 years of exile was Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, the "Pathetique." On Tuesday, the "Pathetique" was the first symphony he conducted at the start of the National Symphony Orchestra's appearances in Moscow and Leningrad. The symmetry was Rostropovich's way of saying that he had kept faith, cultural as well as political, during those long years abroad and that he was anxious to pick up, as best he could, where he had left off. "These past 16 years that we were in the West . . . we have been true soldiers of our Russian art, Russian music," he said on his return this week.

Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli has won Denmark's Sonning Music Prize. The award committee of the Leonie Sonning Music Foundation said Bartoli's "sound is unique, her technique has not been surpassed and her radiation on stage is like [opera legend Maria] Callas." Bartoli will receive the $110,000 award during a concert in Copenhagen on June 16, 2010. Previous winners include Leonard Bernstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Daniel Barenboim.

How quickly we forget. In becoming, in the last two decades, a serious international conductor, the celebrated Russian musician, Mstislav Rostropovich, has been touring less with his original instrument, the cello. Music lovers everywhere may still think of him as a cellist, yet he has been increasingly less visible and audible in that capacity.

The billionaire who bought the art collection of the late cellist Mstislav Rostropovich said Monday it would be on permanent display in a palace outside St. Petersburg, Russia, that is one of the presidency's main meeting centers.

Mstislav Rostropovich, the cellist and conductor considered by many to be one of the finest virtuosos 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 the government'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.

If Mstislav Rostropovich has always been seen as larger than life, the same can be said about his calendar. The celebrated cellist, who for three decades has shown he can also conduct, will soon step down from the helm of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington. Retiring from a post he's held for 17 years would presumably allow him breathing room after a lifetime of concerts and recordings. That's if he wanted breathing space. Apparently he does not.

Lionel Hampton, Ginger Rogers, Mstislav Rostropovich, Paul Taylor, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward will receive this year's Kennedy Center Honors, it was announced Thursday. Selected by the trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for their contributions to cultural life in America, they will be guests of President Bush at the White House and will attend a televised performance at the Kennedy Center in December.

LONDON--It is Mstislav Rostropovich's birthday, but he's doling out as many kisses as he's receiving. For two weeks, the Russian cellist, conductor and pianist has been celebrating his 75th (actual date: March 27) with a residency at the London Symphony Orchestra, conducting half a dozen programs devoted to his "good friends" Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten.

Famed Russian cellist and renowned conductor Mstislav Rostropovich has been discharged from a Moscow hospital, a Russian news agency reported Wednesday. He was released Tuesday and now "feels well," his press secretary, Natalia Dolezhal, was quoted by Interfax as saying. Rostropovich, 79, was hospitalized last month for unspecified reasons -- first in Paris and then in Moscow.

Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli has won Denmark's Sonning Music Prize. The award committee of the Leonie Sonning Music Foundation said Bartoli's "sound is unique, her technique has not been surpassed and her radiation on stage is like [opera legend Maria] Callas." Bartoli will receive the $110,000 award during a concert in Copenhagen on June 16, 2010. Previous winners include Leonard Bernstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Daniel Barenboim.

A Russian billionaire says he bought the art collection of the late cellist Mstislav Rostropovich for the state by offering the upper limit of the value established by the auction house. Alisher Usmanov said Friday in an interview on Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio that he paid $72.6 million on the eve of an auction by Sotheby's that was to begin Tuesday in London, forcing the auction house to cancel it. The sale had been announced earlier this week, but not the price.

It is easy to know where to begin with Mstislav Rostropovich. He made his debut in 1940, at 13, playing Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto No. 1. Thirteen years later, he recorded the concerto with a dutiful Soviet orchestra from the All-Union Radio. The score is moderately lightweight, especially in comparison to the spiritually rich music Prokofiev and Shostakovich had already written for this remarkable young musician, still in his 20s.

Mstislav Rostropovich, the cellist and conductor considered by many to be one of the finest virtuosos 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 the government'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.

Feeble but clearly pleased, Mstislav Rostropovich came to the Kremlin on Tuesday evening for a gala celebration marking the 80th birthday of a man renowned for his music and his human rights work. Rostropovich, who had been hospitalized in February for an undisclosed illness, walked slowly into the celebration on the arms of his wife, Galina Vishnyevsakaya, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Famed Russian cellist and renowned conductor Mstislav Rostropovich has been discharged from a Moscow hospital, a Russian news agency reported Wednesday. He was released Tuesday and now "feels well," his press secretary, Natalia Dolezhal, was quoted by Interfax as saying. Rostropovich, 79, was hospitalized last month for unspecified reasons -- first in Paris and then in Moscow.

Korean cellist Han-Na Chang was 11 in 1994 when she won not only first prize but the contemporary music prize at the fifth Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris. It was her interest in music of our time that led her to bracket Bach with works by Ligeti and Britten on Wednesday in her stunning solo recital debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich go on their seventh foreign tour this summer--but Rostropovich, who defected from the Soviet Union in 1974, doesn't think his motherland is on the itinerary. If Soviet authorities extend an invitation, he told reporters Tuesday, "then we will respond." Rostropovich said he exchanged "polite words" with Soviet leader Mikhail S.

Prokofiev and Shostakovich, like Mozart and Haydn, can be seen as opposite sides of a single coin. Prokofiev is the cool, hard-edged, objective composer; Shostakovich, the anguished personal conscience of his time. But occasionally, Prokofiev let the mask slip, as he did in the Sinfonia Concertante, the centerpiece of the Los Angeles Philharmonic program Saturday at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

LONDON--It is Mstislav Rostropovich's birthday, but he's doling out as many kisses as he's receiving. For two weeks, the Russian cellist, conductor and pianist has been celebrating his 75th (actual date: March 27) with a residency at the London Symphony Orchestra, conducting half a dozen programs devoted to his "good friends" Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten.