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The Spring Issue of The Journal of a Musician is out and available!
This second issue is much more substantial and varied than our first, and just as good!
Our guest contributors for this issue include Adam Swayne, writing from the U.K., Lydia Steier and
Alain de Vira, covering events in Germany, Katie Hamada covering the fascinating approach to piano
playing of Heinrich Neuhaus, Jean-Baptiste Main de Boissiere, Consul General of France in Chicago,
discussing the role music has played in his life, and Constance Dee, an expert in the 20th century
musical issues in the old Soviet Union, covering the political aspects of the life of Mstislav Rostropovich.
Most importantly this issue contains a major HOMMAGE TO ROSTROPOVICH, the great cellist
and conductor who just died on April 27 of this year. This hommage includes ten full-length
interviews with his life-long friends and disciples, including the composer Henri Dutilleux, the luthier
Etienne Vatelot, the chef-extraordinaire Marc Meneau, Glenn Garlick, cellist in the National
Symphony Orchestra, Wendy Warner, wonderful cello soloist around the world, Ignat Solzhenitsyn,
music director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and son of the Nobel Prize winning author and
famous Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Victor Yampolsky, great violonist and conductor,
Elizabeth Wilson, cellist and author of several critically acclaimed books including her most recent,
Mstislav Rostropovich: Cellist, Teacher, Legend; David Finckel, cellist in the Grammy-winning
Emerson String Quartet, and Mischa Maisky, extraordinary world-touring cellist.
To purchase, go back to the main page of The Journal of a Musician.
This second issue is much more substantial and varied than our first, and just as good!
Our guest contributors for this issue include Adam Swayne, writing from the U.K., Lydia Steier and
Alain de Vira, covering events in Germany, Katie Hamada covering the fascinating approach to piano
playing of Heinrich Neuhaus, Jean-Baptiste Main de Boissiere, Consul General of France in Chicago,
discussing the role music has played in his life, and Constance Dee, an expert in the 20th century
musical issues in the old Soviet Union, covering the political aspects of the life of Mstislav Rostropovich.
Most importantly this issue contains a major HOMMAGE TO ROSTROPOVICH, the great cellist
and conductor who just died on April 27 of this year. This hommage includes ten full-length
interviews with his life-long friends and disciples, including the composer Henri Dutilleux, the luthier
Etienne Vatelot, the chef-extraordinaire Marc Meneau, Glenn Garlick, cellist in the National
Symphony Orchestra, Wendy Warner, wonderful cello soloist around the world, Ignat Solzhenitsyn,
music director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and son of the Nobel Prize winning author and
famous Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Victor Yampolsky, great violonist and conductor,
Elizabeth Wilson, cellist and author of several critically acclaimed books including her most recent,
Mstislav Rostropovich: Cellist, Teacher, Legend; David Finckel, cellist in the Grammy-winning
Emerson String Quartet, and Mischa Maisky, extraordinary world-touring cellist.
To purchase, go back to the main page of The Journal of a Musician.
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GEORGE LEPAUW's official website
The Journal of a Musician
David Taylor, Assistant Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, had a few
words to share about Rostropovich:
"I had the opportunity to work with him fairly often both in the Cleveland Orchestra and
with the Chicago Symphony. Obviously he was a great cellist. I remember one performance
in particular of the Dvorak Concerto in Carnegie Hall with the Cleveland Orchestra. He
tore your heart out on the last page. He was a very warm human being and greeted all of us
with kisses on both cheeks in the Russian style. But you always felt he really meant it,
which is something else. No one had such a full life. . . as a musician, politician, conductor
and humanitarian. He will be sorely missed."
In this picture, David Taylor poses with Mstislav Rostropovich in Clevelant, 1976.
words to share about Rostropovich:
"I had the opportunity to work with him fairly often both in the Cleveland Orchestra and
with the Chicago Symphony. Obviously he was a great cellist. I remember one performance
in particular of the Dvorak Concerto in Carnegie Hall with the Cleveland Orchestra. He
tore your heart out on the last page. He was a very warm human being and greeted all of us
with kisses on both cheeks in the Russian style. But you always felt he really meant it,
which is something else. No one had such a full life. . . as a musician, politician, conductor
and humanitarian. He will be sorely missed."
In this picture, David Taylor poses with Mstislav Rostropovich in Clevelant, 1976.
Daniel Baremboim, the great conductor and pianist, said in a statement that
"Mstislav Rostropovich wasn't only an outstanding cellist, but also
one of the most important musicians of the 20th century. Not satisfied
only in pursuing his personal fame, he significantly broadened the
cello reperoire through the commission of numerous compositions. In
this regard, his merits are unmeasurable. One must recognize him as a
true titan in the world of classical music."
"Mstislav Rostropovich wasn't only an outstanding cellist, but also
one of the most important musicians of the 20th century. Not satisfied
only in pursuing his personal fame, he significantly broadened the
cello reperoire through the commission of numerous compositions. In
this regard, his merits are unmeasurable. One must recognize him as a
true titan in the world of classical music."
Excerpts from the 28-page tribute to Rostropovich in The Journal of a Musician:
Henri Dutilleux:
"George Lepauw: Where would you place Rostropovich in your life?
Henri Dutilleux: For me, Rostropovich is a big part of my own life. He was so attentive and
caring about everything I did. He even wanted me to write an opera, which unfortunately
never happened. I often told myself that I should write down all of my memories of our
times spent together. It was such a privilege to have known him, and I was very thankful
for the trust he showed toward me. I say to myself now, if only he had lived to my age of
ninety-one, how much more would he have accomplished! I have said it many times, but as
a musician, there was nobody as engaged and active as he was. Musically engaged, but
also on the level of ideas and for what he did to promote the cello and music generally. His
name to me is eternal and I hope he will be remembered for a very long time."
Mischa Maisky:
"George Lepauw: I want your opinion about Rostropovich's stand for justice in defense of
Solzhenitsyn, and what it meant to you.
Mischa Maisky: Oh, it was incredible. I mean his letter to the editors of the major
newspapers in the Soviet Union defending Solzhenitsyn, which he wrote in the autumn of
1970 was amazing. It was of course quite dangerous at the time, and I remember how
powerful it sounded and how incredibly courageous it was on his part to take this stance
openly! It was an incredible encouragement to everybody, realizing that there was a way
even in this totalitarian system to hope that freedom, any kind of freedom might prevail at
the end. It was very important. He himself said on more than one occasion that this letter
was the most important thing he ever did in his life."
Ignat Solzhenitsyn:
"George Lepauw: What did ‘Slava’ Rostropovich mean to you?
Ignat Solzhenitsyn: It's hard to put into words what he meant, because it was just
incredible. He played such a major role in my life, in my development, in the development
of my thinking. It's very hard to sum up. He was an inexhaustible well of memory. I feel
nothing but the greatest tenderness, and great love for this man who was so much larger
than anything and everything."
A lot more follows in the print version!
Henri Dutilleux:
"George Lepauw: Where would you place Rostropovich in your life?
Henri Dutilleux: For me, Rostropovich is a big part of my own life. He was so attentive and
caring about everything I did. He even wanted me to write an opera, which unfortunately
never happened. I often told myself that I should write down all of my memories of our
times spent together. It was such a privilege to have known him, and I was very thankful
for the trust he showed toward me. I say to myself now, if only he had lived to my age of
ninety-one, how much more would he have accomplished! I have said it many times, but as
a musician, there was nobody as engaged and active as he was. Musically engaged, but
also on the level of ideas and for what he did to promote the cello and music generally. His
name to me is eternal and I hope he will be remembered for a very long time."
Mischa Maisky:
"George Lepauw: I want your opinion about Rostropovich's stand for justice in defense of
Solzhenitsyn, and what it meant to you.
Mischa Maisky: Oh, it was incredible. I mean his letter to the editors of the major
newspapers in the Soviet Union defending Solzhenitsyn, which he wrote in the autumn of
1970 was amazing. It was of course quite dangerous at the time, and I remember how
powerful it sounded and how incredibly courageous it was on his part to take this stance
openly! It was an incredible encouragement to everybody, realizing that there was a way
even in this totalitarian system to hope that freedom, any kind of freedom might prevail at
the end. It was very important. He himself said on more than one occasion that this letter
was the most important thing he ever did in his life."
Ignat Solzhenitsyn:
"George Lepauw: What did ‘Slava’ Rostropovich mean to you?
Ignat Solzhenitsyn: It's hard to put into words what he meant, because it was just
incredible. He played such a major role in my life, in my development, in the development
of my thinking. It's very hard to sum up. He was an inexhaustible well of memory. I feel
nothing but the greatest tenderness, and great love for this man who was so much larger
than anything and everything."
A lot more follows in the print version!