Number two, exercise five.0:04
Listen to the text the Greatest Cellist of all Times and complete the statements below.0:07
THE GREATEST CELLIST OF ALL TIMES Mstislav Leopoldovic Rostropovich, a world famous cellist and conductor, is widely considered to have been one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century.0:17
He was born on March 27, 1927 in Baku, Azerbaijan, SSR, USSR.0:34
He grew up in the beautiful city of Baku, now the capital of the independent republic of Azerbaijan, and spent his young ages there until his move to Moscow in 1943 at the age of four.0:42
He learned the piano with his mother, who was a talented pianist, and started the cello at the age of 10 with his father, who was also a cellist.0:55
From 1943 to 1948 he studied at the Moscow Conservatoire, where he became professor of cello in 1956.1:05
He entered the Moscow Conservatoire at the age of 16 and studied not only the piano and the cello, but but also conducting and composition.1:14
Among his teachers were Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev.1:23
In 1945 he came to prominence as a cellist when he won the gold medal in the first ever Soviet Union competition for young musicians.1:27
In 1950, at the age of 23, he was awarded what was then considered the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, the Stalin Prize.1:35
At that time, Rostropovich was already well known in his country and while actively pursuing his solo career, he taught at the Leningrad St. Petersburg Conservatoire and the Moscow Conservatoire.1:44
In 1955, he married Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano at the Bolshoi Theatre.1:55
His international career started in 1964.2:01
He went on several tours in Western Europe and met several composers, including Benjamin Britten.2:05
In 1967, he conducted Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Anegan in the Bolshoi, thus letting forth his passion for both the role of conductor and the opera.2:12
Among the composers who wrote especially for Rostropovich were Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Britten, Bernstein, Schnitka and Piazzola.2:24
Rostropovich fought for art without borders, freedom of speech and democratic values.2:34
When in 1948, his teacher Dmitri Shostakovich was dismissed from his professorships in Leningrad and Moscow because he was thought to be one of the so called formalist composers.2:40
The then 21 year old Rostropovich quit the Conservatoire, dropping out in protest.2:53
In 1970, he sheltered Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his own home.3:00
His friendship with Solzhenitsyn and his support for dissidents led to official disgrace.3:06
As a result, Rostropovich was restricted from foreign touring as was his wife and soprano Galina Rizhnevskaya, and he was sent on a tour of small towns in Siberia.3:12
Rostropovich left the Soviet Union in 1974 with his wife and children and settled in the United States.3:24
Rostropovich was a huge influence on the younger generation of cellists.3:32
From 1977 until 1994, he was musical director and conductor of the U.S. national Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. while still performing with some of the most famous musicians, such as Sviatoslav Richter and Vladimir Horovitz.3:36
He was also the director and founder of the Rostropovich and Olderberg music festivals.3:51
His performance during the fall of the Berlin Wall, as events unfolded, earned him international fame and was shown on television throughout the world.3:57
His Russian citizenship was restored in 1990, although he and his family had already become American citizens.4:05
Rostropovich received many international awards.4:13
He supported many educational and cultural projects.4:15
Rostropovich and his wife, Galina Vishniewskaya, started a foundation to stimulate social projects and activities.4:19
He died on April 27, 2007.4:26
This was the birth date of Sergei Prokofiev, under whom Rostropovich had studied and some of whose works he had premiered.4:30
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