What is Mstislav Rostropovich?
{{no sources|date=June 2024}} [[File:Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya NYWTS cropped.jpg|thumb|Galina Vishnevskaya with Mstislav Rostropovich]] '''Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich''' (born [[Baku]] 27 March 1927; died [[Moscow]], 27 April 2007) was a [[Russia]]n [[cello|cellist]] and [[Conductor (music)|conductor]]. Many [[musician]]s say that he was the greatest cellist who ever lived. He played the cello with an amazing [[Skill|technique]] and musicianship, and asked lots of [[composer]]s to write cello music for him. He got into trouble with the political leaders of the [[Soviet Union]] because he said that people should be free to say their own ideas and opinions. In 1974 he was [[exiled]] from his country and continued his career as cellist and conductor in the west. He worked hard to support [[peace]] and [[:wikt:justice|justice]] in the world. In November 1989, when the [[Berlin Wall]] came down, he took his cello there and sat outside by the ruins of the wall and played. He was allowed back to his own country after the collapse of [[communism]]. He received lots of medals and honours. == Life in the Soviet Union == Mstislav Rostropovich was born in [[Baku]] in [[Azerbaijan]] which was then part of the Soviet Union. His family were very musical. His mother played the piano and his father played the cello. He had studied with [[Pablo Casals]]. During the [[Second World War]] the family moved to [[Orenburg]]. He went to the Children’s Music School there and started playing in concerts. In 1943, he went to the [[Moscow Conservatory]] to study the cello and [[Composition (music)|composition]]. His composition teacher was [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]. They were lifelong friends and Shostakovich wrote a lot of cello music for him. Rostropovich won all the best prizes at the Conservatory and was soon very famous. Lots of Russian composers wrote music for him: [[Reinhold Glière]], [[Aram Khachaturian]], [[Nikolai Myaskovsky]], Dimitri Shostakovich and [[Sergei Prokofiev]]. In 1955, he married [[Galin