Rostropovich: A Genius of the Cello

Cello genius Mstislav Rostropovich would have been 100 years old in 2027 and this portrait of him is now available to license for the first time.

Poorhouse is proud to present this masterpiece of award- winning director John Bridcut to commemorate the 100th birthday of the man “who set new challenges to the virtuosity of cellists”, and more importantly, helped to create a wealth of new literature for the instrument. The director focusses on major events in Rostropovich's life, who was also a remarkable pianist and outstanding conductor.

Born into a musical family in Baku, Azerbaijan, he originally planned to become a composer, but decided on the cello after hearing a symphony by his later friend Shostakovich. At a competition in Prague in 1955 he fell madly in love with soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, and married her shortly after. John Bridcut had the great luck to be able to interview her as well as their two daughters.

Rare archive footage illustrates the ill-fated Proms concert the very day the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia and the falling from grace in Moscow after housing and supporting the author and dissident Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. Many of Rostropovich's pupils, including Mischa Maisky, Natalya Gutman and Elizabeth Wilson, who also became his biographer, draw a picture of a boisterous man and teacher, passionately loving his music and sometimes bullying his pupils into seeing things his way. But we also hear from Seiji Ozawa that "Slava" could be a very sensitive and deep feeling person using the Sarabande from Bach´s 6th Suite for Cello to express his grief and console others.

Production year 2011
Production Company Crux Productions
Director John Bridcut
Duration 90 Minutes