Mstislav Rostropovich

Mstislav Rostropovich: Cello Concertos
$17.98
I give this CD set 5 stars is merely for sentimental reasons. It was released around the time when Slava turned 80. A month later on April 27, 2007, he passed away. Commemorating this great musician, how can you not buy the 80th birthday CD release? I have most of the Slava recordings, even the early Melodiya LPs. Almost all of the works on the 2 CDs were previously released or have superior versions by Slava. Only one 3 minute long piece is the first CD release: the Paganini Moto Pepetuo.

The two bigger works:

These are Melodiya recordings of the 50's. The Schumann Concerto recorded in 1960 with Rozhdstvensky released by DG is a far superior than this version in terms of performance of Slava, the orchestra and the sound quality. The Saint Saens Concerto is the same story. I would recommend the Giulini (Coupled with Dvorak Concerto) from EMI.

I confess that I have only listened to one of the two CDs once and only the Moto Pepetuo, a technically amazing show piece. It shows Slava's great cello techniques, but it is by no means a great musical piece or one of Slava's great musical interpretations.

I often take the CD box out of the shelf and look at its cover, reminiscencing a dozen of Slava Cello concerts I attended in Washington D.C. and in Chicago in the mid 80's and early 90's. They were truly experiences of a life time.

Mstislav Rostropovich / TIME Cover: October 24, 1977, Art Poster by TIME Magazine
$15.95
The most eagerly awaited event in the editorial cycle at TIME Magazine is always the selection of the cover. The best covers capture the zeitgeist of the week while surviving the judgment of history. As browsing this collection of TIME cover art prints shows, TIME is as good a record as any of who and what mattered over the past 80-plus years. And so when TIME captures a person, an event or a trend within its iconic red borders, the magazine is adding that extra dose of significance that no other publication can quite match. That is one reason why the original artwork for more than 800 TIME covers now resides in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. Thanks to an amazing roster of artists, photographers and graphic designers, from TIME's earliest charcoal drawings of cover subjects to its later black-and-white photography to the more recent paintings and stunning color photography, TIME covers have always been, sometimes quite literally, works of great art. And, while the times may change, the TIME cover, with its iconic red border, has never lost its power to immediately send the signal that this person or event or idea is important to our lives, that in some way history is being made before our eyes.

Bach: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6
$32.98
As a music student, I am overjoyed to have such wonderful renditions of Bach's Cello Suites in my possession. The liner notes about the Magdalena scores read by Rostropovich and his interpretation of each suite and movement is fabulous.

Dvorak/Saint-Saens: Cello Concertos - Mstislav Rostropovich, Carlo Maria Giulini, London Philharmonic Orchestra
$24.98
I agree that Hugo Kach did a less than stellar job of capturing this great performance. It was taped, by the way, not filmed. Kach did a somewhat better job on the filmed performance of Rostropovich playing and conducting the Haydn concerti. That said, the sound is dynamic, the video is adequate, and the combo of Rostropovich and Giulini is amazing. This is, I believe, the finest of Rostropovich's several recordings of the Dvorak, and has the magnificent tone, phrasing, and nobility this greatest of cello concerti requires. So, ten plus for performance and sound, and quite a bit less for video direction.