Rostropovich Archives

Cello Concerto Overview: The Should Haves (Part II)

Reprinted with permission from Interlude. Rostropovich Here are six more cello concertos a cellist should have in their repertoire. Robert Schumann studied the cello as a youngster and although he was unable to continue due to an injury to his right hand he developed a deep affinity to the instrument. Schumann’s Cello Concerto departs from traditional structure. Initially intended as a “Conzertstück”, each of the three movements meld seamlessly into the next. Perhaps the structure is due to Schumann’s aversion to interruptions from the audience. In any case the work breaks with tradition. Written late in his life, it is deeply lyrical, almost enigmatic and mystical in its sparse use of thematic material, which returns throughout the piece. It is best regarded as a one large-movement work. Two unusual features [...]

By Janet Horvath|2024-07-05T20:10:22-04:00April 24th, 2022|Categories: Repertoire|Tags: prokofiev, Schelomo, Don Quixote, Richard Strauss, Leonard Rose, Schumann, Janos Starker, Ernest Bloch, Saint-Saëns, Shostakovich, Sol Gabetta, Rostropovich, Alban Gerhardt, Maria Kliegel|

Conversation with Yosif Feigelson (1995)

Interview by Paul Tseng PT: Please describe your association with Rostropovich. JF: In terms of my association with Rostropovich, I studied with him for three years from 1971 to 1974. It was after I took the first prize in the Concertino Prague Competition. Rostropovich also won first prize in a competition with Daniel Shafran [Prague Spring Festival]. He heard about me from a friend. I remember he held an audition in his flat in Moscow and I actually came a year earlier to the conservatory because I had to graduate a year later. But he said I should take a one year extension in my studies. At that time he had gotten involved with Solzhenitsyn and it was a difficult time because he wasn't concertizing very much. But for me [...]

By Paul Tseng|2021-01-06T20:59:58-05:00December 9th, 2020|Categories: Internet Cello Society Archive, Artistic Vision, Interviews, Performance|Tags: Interviews, Expanding the Repertoire, Technique, Rostropovich, prokofiev|

Conversation with Bion Tsang (July, 1997)

Interview by Tim Janof Bion Tsang has appeared as soloist with the New York, Moscow, and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, the National, American, Atlanta, and Pacific Symphony Orchestras, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and the Taiwan National Orchestra. Mr. Tsang's career as a chamber musician has been equally distinguished, marked by numerous collaborations with violinists Cho-Liang Lin and Pamela Frank, frequent appearances as guest artist of the Boston Chamber Music Society, and performances at festivals such as Marlboro Music, the Portland and Seattle Chamber Music Festivals, and the Laurel Festival of the Arts, where he serves as Artistic Director. TJ: You studied with some illustrious musicians- Leonard Rose, William Pleeth, and Aldo Parisot. What were they like as teachers? BT: I didn't study long enough with Leonard Rose or William Pleeth [...]

By Tim Janof|2022-11-09T21:16:52-05:00October 7th, 2020|Categories: Internet Cello Society Archive, Artistic Vision, Chamber Music, Competition, Interviews, In the Practice Room, Pablo Casals, Performance, Repertoire|Tags: Leonard Rose, William Pleeth, Portato, Projection, Rostropovich, competitions, Pablo Casals, career, Aldo Parisot|

Conversation with Wendy Warner (June, 2000)

Interview by Tim Janof The international music world first took note of Wendy Warner when she won First Prize in the Fourth International Rostropovich Competition in Paris in 1990. Later that year, Ms. Warner made her debut with the National Symphony Orchestra and Mstislav Rostropovich, and the next year she was the featured soloist on their North American tour. Rostropovich also engaged her for a tour of Germany with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in 1991, making her debuts in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Koln, Dusseldorf, and Berlin. For Rostropovich's 70th birthday celebration concert in Kronberg, Germany, she was invited to perform in recital and with orchestra, and later played the Vivaldi double concerto with him at Reims, France. In addition to her tours with Rostropovich, Ms. Warner toured with the Moscow Virtuosi [...]

By Tim Janof|2020-09-24T03:04:03-04:00September 8th, 2020|Categories: Internet Cello Society Archive, Interviews, Performance, Teaching|Tags: Glenn Garlick, Interpretation, Nell Novak, Teaching, sound production, Technique, Rostropovich, Mstislav Rostropovich|

Conversation with Maria Kliegel (September, 1999)

Interview by Tim Janof German cellist Maria Kliegel's international career started in 1981 when she received the "Grand Prix" of the Concours Rostropovich in Paris. She also won first prizes at the American College Competition, the First German Music Competition in Bonn, the Concours Aldo Parisot, and was in the national selection for "Concerts with Young Artists." After the Rostropovich Competition, the international concerts and tours began: she performed in Basel, and played with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and the Orchestre National de France in Paris -- each time with Mstislav Rostropovich conducting. She has performed at the Konzerthaus Berlin, Stuttgart Liederhalle, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Weilburger Schloßkonzerte, Gidon Kremer's Lockenhaus Festival, Gubaidulina Festival in West Germany, Risor Kam in Norway, Alte Oper Frankfurt, and Kultursommer Nordhessen. She has [...]

By Tim Janof|2020-03-01T17:58:09-05:00October 27th, 2019|Categories: Internet Cello Society Archive, Janos Starker, Performance|Tags: Janos Starker, Rostropovich, Maria Kliegel, Naxos, Concerto|

Conversation with Frans Helmerson (May, 2001)

Interview by Tim Janof Swedish cellist Frans Helmerson studied with Guido Vecchi in Göteborg, Guiseppe Selmi in Rome, and William Pleeth in London. Other important musical influences came through contact with conductor Sergiu Celibidache, with whom he worked as principal cellist in the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in the early 1970's, as well as significant guidance and support from Rostropovich. Frans Helmerson has performed with many of today's finest conductors and orchestras, touring throughout Europe, the USA, South America, Asia, and Australia since the late 1970's. His love for chamber music led him to take the position of Artistic Director of the Korsholm Chamber Music Festival in Finland as well as appearing at many other renowned festivals. Since 1992 Frans Helmerson has held a Professorship at the Musikhochschüle [...]

By Tim Janof|2020-03-10T14:56:11-04:00August 5th, 2019|Categories: Internet Cello Society Archive, Interviews|Tags: Frans Helmerson, Vecchi, Rostropovich, Truls Mork, Tim Janoff, barenboim, dupre, Internet Cello Society, ICS, William Pleeth|

Conversation with Mstislav Rostropovich (April, 2006)

Interview by Tim Janof Mstislav Rostropovich is internationally acclaimed and acknowledged as one of the world's greatest living cellists. He has given countless memorable performances and has inspired the world's leading composers to enlarge and enrich the standard cello repertoire with works specially composed for and dedicated to him. These include works by Britten, Bliss, Khachaturian, Lutoslawski, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Rostropovich was soloist in the premieres of Prokofiev's second Cello Concerto in 1952, Shostakovich's two Cello Concertos in 1959 and 1966, Britten's Cello Symphony in 1964 and Bliss's Cello Concerto in 1970. Many other works have been written for him and today his repertoire includes more than 50 concertos, ranging from the baroque, through the classical and romantic periods, to the avant-garde. As a cellist, Rostropovich is noted for his [...]

By Tim Janof|2020-03-10T15:00:24-04:00August 5th, 2019|Categories: Internet Cello Society Archive, Interviews|Tags: Rostropovich, Mstislav Rostropovich, Internet Cello Society, ICS, Mstislav|

The Forgotten Live Video Recording: Du Pré & the Dvořák Cello Concerto, 1968 — by Tony Woodcock

The most wonderful video performance of the Dvořák Cello Concerto by Jacqueline Du Pré and Daniel Barenboim was added to YouTube just a few weeks ago. In this CelloBello exclusive blog is a moving, personal description by a young London musician, Tony Woodcock, who was 17 years old at the time. Below he recounts the unexpected political backdrop for this historic concert, which was hastily arranged in response to the 1968 Russian invasion of Dvořák’s home country of Czechoslovakia. Tony Woodcock, by the way, grew up to eventually become the President of the New England Conservatory of Music, and was a primary supporter of the founding of CelloBello.com. My heartfelt thanks to him for his role in making our website possible, and for illuminating us on an extraordinary history that [...]

By Tony Woodcock|2020-10-29T22:20:59-04:00November 9th, 2017|Categories: Artistic Vision, Interpersonal Relationships, Performance, Videos|Tags: world war, london symphony orchestra, Rostropovich, Zukerman, Dvorak, cello concerto, perlman, barenboim, dupre, jacqueline, history|

Phrasing and Meter — by Robert Battey

Today’s ruminations have to do with musical phrasing. As a music critic for the Washington Post, I'm regularly attending concerts of all kinds. That, plus a lot of chamber music coaching, leads me to ruminate on this subject often. The ability to produce clear phrasing is just as important as having good rhythm or intonation, but a lot of folks don’t do it well, or as well as they think. Remember, in grade school, when we had to take turns reading aloud from the book? And how some kids were flat, with little inflection and the same pause between every word, while with others it came out sounding like natural speech? To a certain extent it’s the same with music, sometimes even at the professional level. It’s often been remarked that the [...]

By Robert Battey|2018-09-13T03:22:28-04:00December 15th, 2013|Categories: Performance|Tags: complexity, conservatory, phrase lengths, robert, counting, powerful, resolution, dissonance, communication, score-study, accents, Bach, focused listening, alignment, stunning effect, Bach Cello Suites, vibrato, great artists, performer, stylistic conventions, slurs, cello, great composers, melody, text, Yo-Yo Ma, cellobello, intelligent artist, Rostropovich, Washington Post, bar lines, Awareness, interpreter, recordings, youtube, Beethoven’s “Archduke” Trio, intonation, interpretive decisions, studying, Brahms Double Concerto, musical phrasing, metrical organization, Feuermann, Capucon, phrasing, musical critic, Battey|

The Britten Cello Suites (Part 5): An Interview with Steven Isserlis — by Aron Zelkowicz

Your 1992 recording of Britten's Third Suite is widely known, due to its pairing with John Tavener's "The Protecting Veil" (which has been called a "cult" recording). Do you have any approximate idea of how many copies that album has sold? I don't know—quite a few, anyway. I wonder how many people have listened to the Britten, though! There's another connection: the very first time I went to see John Tavener with my cello, I played him the passage in the coda of the Britten where the cello breaks into a chordal version of the chant for the dead—like a Russian Orthodox choir. I remember him saying how wonderful that music sounded on the cello. Much later, John heard me play the whole suite, and—rather to my surprise, because it [...]

By Aron Zelkowicz|2021-06-28T04:45:37-04:00December 8th, 2013|Categories: Artistic Vision, Interviews, Performance, Repertoire|Tags: Steven, interview, Tavener, Britten Cello Symphony, Shostakovich, chant, recording, conducting, Rostropovich, Introduzione, Aron, Isserlis, Zelkowicz, manuscript, Sonata, improvisation, multiple versions, cello, Britten, premiere, cellobello, Britten Cello Suites, Russian Orthodox Liturgy, performance, third suite|

The Britten Cello Suites (Part 4): An Interview with Colin Carr — by Aron Zelkowicz

Two of my favorite recordings of the Third Britten Suite are both by Colin Carr, with whom I studied during a summer in high school and then years later as a doctoral student. On both occasions I brought the Third Suite to my lessons. You first recorded the Third Suite on an album for GM Records, “Unaccompanied Cello”, with solo works by Kodaly, Crumb, and Schuller. Was this your solo debut album? I had a recording made as part of the Naumburg competition prize, Franck and Debussy sonatas and a few little Faure pieces, but this was my first commercial recording. Why did you choose to include the Britten with these other works? I wanted it to be all unaccompanied and didn't want to play Bach. That meant a [...]

By Aron Zelkowicz|2019-05-27T00:34:29-04:00November 21st, 2013|Categories: Interviews, Performance|Tags: Menlo, Bach, Zelkowicz, Menuhin School, Growth, Suites, microphones, cello, Benjamin Britten, Music@Menlo, cellobello, Britten, solo debut album, performance, cello suites, analysis, composition, Colin Carr, Rostropovich, differences in performance, live-performance, interview, recordings, live recording, Aron|

The Britten Cello Suites (Part 3): An Introduction to the Third Suite — by Aron Zelkowicz

Britten chose to build his Third Suite for Cello around four pre-existing Russian themes: three tunes taken from Tchaikovsky’s volume of folk-song arrangements, and the Kontakion, the Byzantine chant for the dead taken from the Russian Orthodox liturgy. Rostropovich considered himself Russian Orthodox, and one can appreciate the impact of Britten presenting a score based on this theme as a gift to the cellist in Moscow. The Third Suite also serves as a dual tribute to Shostakovich. The second movement, Marcia, includes the signature “anapest” rhythm found in Shostakovich’s symphonies (“da-da-DUM”), and in a subtle yet ingenious linking, the final statement of the Kontakion in C minor employs the notes C-B-Eb-D: a reordered allusion to Shostakovich’s famous four-note D-S-C-H signature (D-Eb-C-B). Britten goes about weaving the Russian-themed motifs in [...]

By Aron Zelkowicz|2019-05-27T00:44:35-04:00November 12th, 2013|Categories: Performance|Tags: Britten, Rostropovich, cello suites, Aron, consistent themes, score, cyclical closure, Zelkowicz, introduction, Suites, journey, audience, Orthodox liturgy, Rhythm, impact, Russian Themes, cellobello, blog, Russian-themed motifs, Technique, Benjamin Britten, third suite, effect, tune, melodies|

Pezzo Capriccioso, Transitions, Alterations, and Rosin (Edited Version) — by Robert Battey

I am indebted to Aron Zelkowicz for correcting factual errors in the first version of this article, and to Peter Close for locating an on-line version of the original score. Today’s ruminations are on Tchaikovsky. And his congenital weakness regarding transitions. It’s kind of endearing, that such a genius would have this Achilles’ heel; for some reason, his muse regularly deserted him when he needed to stitch together two sections of music. It could be in a placid spot, such as the transition to the jerky second theme in the first movement of the Piano Concerto . . . or the connecting “music” preceding the waltz variation in the A minor Trio. It could also be in a transition meant to increase tension, like the second return to the [...]

By Robert Battey|2018-03-18T04:39:36-04:00September 8th, 2013|Categories: Repertoire|Tags: glissando, Rococo Variations, Piatigorsky, gummed-up fingers, options, sections, compositions, increased tension, melody, show piece, transitions, Leopold Auer, Rostropovich, sticky problem with shifting, rosin, lyrical, recordings, Tchaikovsky, sections of music, master, composer, trill, Achilles’ heel, modern artists, effects, charming, musical transitions, Battey, difficulty, opening material, robert, experimenting with rosin, creativity, Pezzo Capriccioso, virtuoso, flawed works, cello, repeated notes, alterations|

Tour Musings — by Alisa Weilerstein

I'm now a few days removed from one of the most exhilarating—and definitely the longest—tours of my life. I've grown accustomed to playing a different concerto every week, sometimes with a recital thrown in here and there. But I can't remember the last time I actually played only one piece for three weeks straight. However, that's exactly what I did in the last week of March and first two weeks of April; I played Shostakovich 1st Concerto fifteen times across the US with the St Petersburg Philharmonic and Yuri Temirkanov. I've had so many thoughts about this tour and am struggling to consolidate them into a coherent blog entry. I have to start by saying what an incredible musical and educational experience it was for me. There are players in [...]

By Alisa Weilerstein|2018-03-15T04:14:38-04:00April 22nd, 2011|Categories: Artistic Vision, Cello Travel, Performance, Self Discovery|Tags: experiences, Sound, Shostakovich, emotion, unique, performance, musicianship, Concerto, challenges, Cello Travel, inspiration, rehearsals, exhilarating, cello, Airplanes, recital, cellobello, Alisa, Rostropovich, orchestra, tour, Weilerstein, Travel, concert halls|