Customer Reviews

Rostropovich, Master Cellist

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To celebrate the 75th year of the birth of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, the various labels he recorded with over his illustrious career have issued several excellent collections. EMI outdid themselves by issuing, among other sets, the breathtaking 13-CD box set "The Russian Years," featuring rare recordings and numerous premieres made by Rostropovich during his tenure behind the Iron Curtain. That set's a hard one to match, but the two-disc "Master Cellist: Legendary Recordings 1956-78" comes close. What it lacks in quantity, "Master Cellist" makes up for in quality. It contains arguably the single best recording ever made of the Dvorak Cello Concerto (with von Karajan), an excellent Schumann Concerto, and stunning shorter works for cello and orchestra by Tchaikovsky and Glazunov. These are legendary accounts for sure, but no big deal to most serious collectors because they are, or have been, previously available on CD. But what made me trade in my DG Originals disc of the Dvorak Concerto, and get "Master Cellist" was disc two of this set. It features four glorious works for cello and piano, never before released on CD, with Slava's long-time collaborator, pianist Alexander Dedyukhin. They are all, along with the Rach Sonata, quite simply sublime. Rostropovich will sadly not live another 75 years, but his legacy will live on for at least that long thanks to magical recordings like these.

I bought this cd a while ago. Even if you are familiar with these pieces/own another version of them, getting this version is well worth the money.
The quality of the recording is excellent, cd quality.

Quality of playing:
In my opinion Rostropovich is one of the best cellists that ever lived, and is my favorite cellist in most respects. His playing is technically clean and clear, while still being extremely musical. I know everyone has different opinions, but for what it's worth I am a cello performance major. Although not all musicians will agree with my views, a huge number agree that Rostropovich is WELL worth the listen and was one of the best cellists of his time.

Repetoire:
This cd has several key pieces from standard cello repetoire. The Dvorak and Schumann Concertos are both beautifully written, very lush and passionate.
All of the pieces on the cd are either well known or well worth the listen, in my opinion. To have a compilation of all these pieces is well worth the 15 dollars (the price when I'm writing this review anyways, personally I'd pay double that much if I had to, and it would still be worth it)

Overall: well worth the buy

As difficult a period as the 20th century was ... and all the more so in the soviet union -- Rostropovich stands out like a dazzling star. He represented some the finest levels of musical art that man can achieve -- a triumph of the human spirit.

In the 21st century in the western world, we are witness to the decline of the art form known as "classical music"... with nothing comparable or better on the horizon to replace it. As the 6 billion people of the earth, soon to be 9 billion, struggle for light and space ... there are ominous reverberations in the arts.

Thank God the few of us left who love this music have recordings of men like Rostopovitch ... always with the hope that the fire will be passed on to new generations of performers and composers who will catch the spirit and breath new life into the world.

I like this 2 CD set. The first CD consists of the Dvorak and Schumann Cello Concertos, Tchaikovsky's Andante Cantabile and Glazunov's lovely Chant du Menestrel. The Second consists of lesser, but still lovely, cello pieces and transcriptions from Rachmaninov, Chopin, Schubert and Schumann. I wanted a restrospective of Rostropovitch and this fits the bill: classic cello works played by a master of the cello. To my ear and fancy, he does a much better job on the Schumann Cello Concerto than Jacqueline du Pre (EMI Classics). Her's is agitation; his is romanticism.

Rostropovich plays the cello as good as anyone. Probably ever. If you enjoy the sound of this instrument, I highly recommend this set. The sound quality is very good, and his playing is both emotional and technically brilliant. Simply fantastic.....

This genius of the cello left us April 27th. For the recent music newcomers this name is synonymous of a talented musician, but Rostropovich meant for the music much more than a privileged and sheer artist. His multiple activities as soloist performer and conductor ranked such historical achievements that hardly could be resumed in this little note.

His loss is extremely significant, due he embodied the goal of a total artist. Reader, thinker, and always worried by his country, he knew about so many unsaid details of the missed U.R.S.S, and his narrow collaboration with Dimitri Shostakovich make of him a essential part of the musical History of the last Century With his departure a cycle ends. Fortunately his enormous musical bequeath stand out through the years to come, as striking evidence of his egregious talent.

Hail and farewell!