Rostropovich: The Musical Life of the Great Cellist, Teacher and Legend

Elizabeth Wilson
Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. 2008.
ISBN-10: 1566637767
ISBN-13: 9781566637763

Summary for the Busy Executive: Solid biography, enriched by first-hand
reminiscences.

Elizabeth Wilson, a British subject and daughter of the British
ambassador to Moscow, studied cello with Rostropovich at the Moscow
Conservatory from 1964-1971.  Among her classmates, one finds Jacqueline
du Pre, Mischa Maisky, Natalya Gutman, Stanislav Appolin, Ivan Monighetti,
and Moray Welsh.  Wilson has also written books on both Jacqueline du
Pre and Shostakovich and appears as cellist on ECM's CD of Arvo Paert's
Passio.

This isn't a full biography, in the sense that Galina Vishnevskaya's
autobiography is.  We get a few details about Rostropovich's family, but
Wilson primarily aims to present Rostropovich the teacher - a wise choice,
since that Rostropovich she undoubtedly knew best.  She admirably keeps
herself as much in the background as she can and affords generous space
to the reminiscences of others.  Her research is diligent and impeccable,
and she has gone through many official documents as well as through the
cellist's (and his wife's) personal papers.

For me, Rostropovich remains a mystery, despite Wilson. I glimpsed much
more of the man in Vishnevskaya's book, but she had a tremendous advantage.
This book portrays a "public" Rostropovich, the man of vast reserves of
mental and physical stamina, phenomenal memory, and supreme musicianship,
the great teacher.  He learned difficult new concertos in a few days,
and not just the cello part, either.  He would set similar tasks for his
students and expected them not only to play from memory, but to know
what the oboe played in measures so-and-so.  He would throw difficult
challenges at them while they played ("Play the movement a half-tone
lower") and required them to cope.  He seldom taught one-on-one, and his
open classroom encouraged other musicians to sit in.  If nothing else,
his students were accustomed to playing for a roomful of critical ears.

Some of this cello "boot camp" mentality I suspect came out of the Soviet
system of competitions.  If you could survive Rostropovich's class, the
Tchaikovsky or All-Union was, comparatively, a piece of cake.  Yet his
teaching persona wasn't that of a drill sergeant.  He invited his students
to explore with him, often assigning students the same concerto he was
currently learning.  He expected consummate professionalism, and he acted
as a friend (when he first started teaching, in his teens, some of his
pupils were older than he was) and guide.  In a certain sense, Rostropovich
didn't teach cello, or at least not the mechanics of playing, although
he would suggest certain things to each player.  Technique as such didn't
interest him.  He assumed you had it.  If you didn't, you worked with
his assistant until you came up to the mark.  He never started with the
fingers or the bow but with a conception of the appropriate sound for
the passage.  He taught music and musicianship, how to listen, how to
analyze, how to connect with the spirit of a work. He emphasized the
overall arc of a score and of finding your place in it.  Because he was
a great musician, a great teacher, and a Mensch besides, he not only
gained the love and loyalty of his students, but produced a lot of
outstanding cellists.

What most impressed me about Rostropovich this time around was his guile
in handling the Soviet bureaucracy.  He kept playing "chicken" with the
bureaucrats as he stood by Prokofiev and Shostakovich, wagering his
prestige and accomplishment against Party vindictiveness and, in some
cases, outright terror.  In the end, of course, he lost, but he had a
remarkably long run.  His personal charm (and courage) as well as an
army of prestigious foreign friends undoubtedly helped.

To Wilson's enormous credit, this book could have sprawled, and it
doesn't.  She not only writes very well, she develops large themes across
the chapters.  Her decision to give over major parts of the book to some
of her fellow students helps us see this outgoing, yet enigmatic figure
from different perspectives.  This isn't "Wilson's Rostropovich," at
least not entirely, and that's all to the good.  All in all, a fine
picture of one of the great figures of his time, and not just in music.

Steve Schwartz

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