0:00:26 > 0:00:31Our life not so easy. Cello heavy instrument,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34and our travels, especially with aircraft
0:00:34 > 0:00:37give to us many difficulties.
0:00:37 > 0:00:42That's why we suffer more than violin player or flute player.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45But because we suffer, we is beautiful.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48MUSIC: "Cello Concerto No 2" by Shostakovich
0:00:52 > 0:00:56Over the last 50 years, the cello has enjoyed a revolution,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59brought about by one man from Russia.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03His name was Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10For me he was the greatest cellist not only of the century
0:01:10 > 0:01:12but possibly ever.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14Changed my life, you know?
0:01:20 > 0:01:25I think, maybe because of him, I think I believe in God.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32What he did was completely change people's perceptions
0:01:32 > 0:01:34of what was possible on the cello.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37MUSIC: "Cello Concerto" by Edward Elgar
0:01:37 > 0:01:40The 20th century was rich in outstanding cello players.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42In Britain, there was Jacqueline du Pre...
0:01:43 > 0:01:47..in France, Paul Tortelier and Pierre Fournier...
0:01:47 > 0:01:50in America the Chinese cellist Yo-Yo Ma
0:01:50 > 0:01:53and the Russian Gregor Piatigorsky.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58And before them all the legendary Catalan player, Pablo Casals,
0:01:58 > 0:02:00father of the modern instrument.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05All of them have touched the hearts of music lovers with the beauty
0:02:05 > 0:02:08and fire of their playing.
0:02:08 > 0:02:13But Rostropovich - Slava as he was known - went further.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16He set out to expand the cello's repertoire,
0:02:16 > 0:02:18to change the way it was played...
0:02:20 > 0:02:24..and to make it at least the equal of the piano or the violin.
0:02:24 > 0:02:31I must tell you we drink alcohol much better than violinists or pianists.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35What set Rostropovich apart were the risks he took in his life
0:02:35 > 0:02:39and his music, and his irresistible personality.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43Newly-discovered film of his collaboration with Benjamin Britten
0:02:43 > 0:02:49shows Rostropovich's cello as the instrument of choice for composers.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53It had the firepower to hold its own against the full symphony orchestra.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55Ahhh...
0:02:56 > 0:03:01So magnetic was this man and his music-making, that he moved
0:03:01 > 0:03:04the cello on to the world stage and changed its status for good.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10If you turn on the radio, do you always know whether
0:03:10 > 0:03:12it's him playing?
0:03:12 > 0:03:14- Yes, absolutely.- Of course.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18Yes. I think most of the time, yes.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20I don't know how.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32How?
0:03:32 > 0:03:36The sound, the sound. Nobody has a sound like that.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40It's a big, burnished, bronzed sound -
0:03:40 > 0:03:43not especially dark, quite warm.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50From the almost first notes, the moment I hear
0:03:50 > 0:03:55the recording on the radio, I know that's my father who's playing.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05It's not cello. I mean, it's a voice.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08It's like, you know, a voice that you remember,
0:04:08 > 0:04:10a Ferrier or a Janet Baker.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13It has a character which is immediately recognisable.
0:04:18 > 0:04:23His instrument was for him not an instrument that you play,
0:04:23 > 0:04:25it was just a way of expression.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28And he was a very, very colourful person.
0:04:28 > 0:04:33When he played, he was speaking. Cello was his voice,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37and I could recognise the voice of my father so...
0:04:37 > 0:04:40MUSIC: "Cello Concerto No 1" by Shostakovich
0:04:41 > 0:04:45I'm not sure that there's ever been a cellist like it.
0:04:45 > 0:04:50The spectrum of the sort of sounds he makes, and going from the...
0:04:50 > 0:04:52He can play more quietly than anybody in the world
0:04:52 > 0:04:55and he just makes an entire concert hall practically stop breathing.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08To being unbelievably powerful or savage or passionate.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13He really has every mood, every colour.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21I was completely blown away by it.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24And I don't think I know a single player, cellist,
0:05:24 > 0:05:26who didn't feel exactly the same.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41CHANTING
0:05:46 > 0:05:50Although Rostropovich's long life ended in 2007,
0:05:50 > 0:05:52his spirit lives on in his unique musical legacy.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01108 cello works written specially for him,
0:06:01 > 0:06:0515 of them masterpieces now at the heart of the cello repertoire,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08including those by his compatriots,
0:06:08 > 0:06:13Prokofiev and Shostakovich, and the Englishman Benjamin Britten.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19You know these three kings in my life,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Britten, who have passed away,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27give me so much easy think about my death,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30because I think that when I die,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34I meet these three friends once more.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37At the end, Rostropovich was a Russian hero,
0:06:37 > 0:06:42just as he had been in his youth, when the Communist authorities
0:06:42 > 0:06:45paraded him around the world as an emblem of Soviet excellence.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50But in middle age came six years of estrangement and rejection,
0:06:50 > 0:06:55which led eventually to a long exile from his beloved Russia.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02It all began one August day in London.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09- ARCHIVE:- 'The Russian forces tighten their grip on Czechoslovakia.'
0:07:09 > 0:07:13The invasion of Czechoslovakia in summer 1968
0:07:13 > 0:07:16showed the raw power of his homeland, the Soviet Union,
0:07:16 > 0:07:20determined to stamp out moves towards political freedom in Eastern Europe.
0:07:20 > 0:07:25'At least 25 people have been killed in clashes with the invaders...'
0:07:25 > 0:07:27By chance, Slava Rostropovich was in London.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30He was to play at the Proms with a Soviet orchestra.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33The work was the cello concerto by Dvorak.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36It was the event of the season.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40We suddenly realised we'd got a ticket
0:07:40 > 0:07:42for a Russian orchestra, soloist and conductor
0:07:42 > 0:07:45playing one of the greatest Czech works that evening.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48We actually thought, "Well, maybe we shouldn't go."
0:07:48 > 0:07:50Then we thought, "Well, at least it will be interesting."
0:07:50 > 0:07:53There was a question, "Should it go ahead?"
0:07:53 > 0:07:58Of all concertos to have to play on that day,
0:07:58 > 0:08:05to play Dvorak was salt in the wound.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10In those days, there weren't many Russians in London.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14So the musicians were a natural target for anti-Soviet demonstrators
0:08:14 > 0:08:17outside the Royal Albert Hall.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21TRANSLATION: They were throwing rotten tomatoes and oranges at us,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23scrunched-up bits of paper,
0:08:23 > 0:08:28and they were shouting at us, "Invaders, aggressors!"
0:08:30 > 0:08:34We pushed up our collars like this and slipped past,
0:08:34 > 0:08:36and we felt ashamed, embarrassed.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40We asked ourselves, "How could this be?"
0:08:40 > 0:08:42'And here now is the conductor...'
0:08:42 > 0:08:46Emotions spilled over inside the hall as well.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48'..Yevgeny Svetlanov...'
0:08:52 > 0:08:56- TRANSLATION:- As we went on stage, a terrible row broke out -
0:08:56 > 0:08:58people were stamping, clapping and shouting.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01They wouldn't let us start playing.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04And then other people shouted, "We want to hear the music"
0:09:04 > 0:09:06and, you know, "Shut up" and all this sort of business.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13It went on even over the opening bars of the concerto,
0:09:13 > 0:09:17and it was all very, very dramatic.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21MUSIC: "Cello Concerto" by Dvorak
0:09:21 > 0:09:25Rostropovich's anxious wife was in the audience.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11But Rostropovich found that his cello had a voice that spoke
0:10:11 > 0:10:14for a whole nation.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17It was a defining moment for the cello and for him.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22He made it sound like a requiem,
0:10:22 > 0:10:24not in a morbid way,
0:10:24 > 0:10:27but in a way that expressed everything that was inside him.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50I do vividly remember the pianissimo.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59He made it whisper sometimes, as if he had such grief inside him,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01that he could hardly get it out.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31More than any other instrument,
0:11:31 > 0:11:35the cello has a range that matches the human voice.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38It enabled Rostropovich to speak from the heart.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45It was a mingled sentiment from the audience, I think.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49We'd been in the presence of a truly remarkable performance.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53But also a feeling of relief, that we, as an audience,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56were justified in going to this concert
0:11:56 > 0:12:00because it had been turned into a demonstration of what we all felt.
0:12:06 > 0:12:12TRANSLATION: Slava raised Dvorak's score above his head, like this.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15He had picked up the score from the conductor's stand
0:12:15 > 0:12:17and held it above his head.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21He wanted to prove our solidarity with Czechoslovakia,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24with the Czech people, with Dvorak's music.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31There was another reason why the iron entered his soul that day.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34For Rostropovich, this was not "A quarrel in a faraway country
0:12:34 > 0:12:37"between people of whom he knew nothing."
0:12:37 > 0:12:39It was a personal tragedy.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43Slava certainly talked to us about that.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47He felt terrible shame, being a Soviet citizen
0:12:47 > 0:12:50and that their troops had moved in on...
0:12:50 > 0:12:53Well, and for him Prague was such an important part of his life.
0:12:58 > 0:12:59He loved Prague.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02It was the first foreign city he'd ever visited.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07He won international prizes there after the war.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10It was where in his late 20s he met the woman
0:13:10 > 0:13:15who became his wife, the great Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19It was where he recorded the Dvorak concerto,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23which became his signature piece and the piece she loved most of all.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56Many years later somebody asked him, "What do you say about this
0:13:56 > 0:14:01"four-day romance and marrying your wife in such a short time?"
0:14:01 > 0:14:04He said, "Well, I wasted three days, didn't I?"
0:14:44 > 0:14:47His experience of the joy and sadness of life
0:14:47 > 0:14:50were at the heart of his music-making.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53His audiences sensed that.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56His students, like Mischa Maisky, discovered it at first hand.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02The Rococo Variations by Tchaikovsky were a good example.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06He made me do again, again, again
0:15:06 > 0:15:09and it was never good enough for him.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Even though he explained very eloquently how important it is
0:15:12 > 0:15:16to create the atmosphere of C minor before this variation, very dark,
0:15:16 > 0:15:18and then the C major comes like a miracle,
0:15:18 > 0:15:25it's the sun out of dark clouds... It still didn't please him enough.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29Rostropovich knew what the cure was.
0:15:31 > 0:15:37He told me, "OK, look around and pick the most beautiful girl
0:15:37 > 0:15:42"you can find in this room, and look at her and play just for her."
0:15:42 > 0:15:45He of course knew that it was just the beginning of my very
0:15:45 > 0:15:50important love relationship with the beautiful young Polish cellist
0:15:50 > 0:15:52who was there in the class of course.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55Everybody knew it was her so everybody looked at her.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59She turned dark red, and I kind of didn't take it too seriously,
0:15:59 > 0:16:02but...I tried.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04He stopped me and said,
0:16:04 > 0:16:07"To hear, it's a completely different sound!"
0:17:16 > 0:17:20Slava learnt a lot from singing, as well, and of course from his wife.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24So he had this idea of the bow as being something like an enormous
0:17:24 > 0:17:27breathing instrument that you could get this continuous legato -
0:17:27 > 0:17:31his bow changes were fabulous, absolutely fantastic.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34If you use the weight of the arm,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38you get a very full and different sound
0:17:38 > 0:17:41from just pressing down.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45So, this enabled him to sustain the bow from, right from the frog,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48from this end, right the way to the point.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50You know, the dream of Rostropovich?
0:17:50 > 0:17:53He say that because he had some beautiful and funny images
0:17:53 > 0:17:57about technical aspects of the cello - once he say to me,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01"You know, my dear, my dream for the bow is like hula-hoop."
0:18:03 > 0:18:04I say, "Hula-hoop?"
0:18:04 > 0:18:08"Yes, hula-hoop, you know, my dear, hula-hoop, it's, you know,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11"the thing, you know, against, around the hips, you know."
0:18:11 > 0:18:13"Ahhh, I know what you mean."
0:18:13 > 0:18:16"Yes, like a hula-hoop all around the cello."
0:18:17 > 0:18:22So, infinite bow, because there is, of course, limit at the bow -
0:18:22 > 0:18:27once you're arrived at the tip you have to go back to the frog.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29And when you are doing that
0:18:29 > 0:18:33you can cut the music each time, there is no infinite sound.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55When you're playing at point of the bow,
0:18:55 > 0:18:57there's a very weak part of the bow.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01But music, which is not based on weak and strong places in the bow,
0:19:01 > 0:19:05it's based on melody and expression, requires that you can play
0:19:05 > 0:19:08as strongly at the point of the bow as at the heel.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14So you have to learn a way to really cling to the string.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35What is impressive...
0:19:35 > 0:19:39body has weight, and arm and shoulder has weight,
0:19:39 > 0:19:41and the cello is a perfect instrument.
0:19:41 > 0:19:47Cello is in front of you, and you can put the weight of your arm
0:19:47 > 0:19:50and shoulder into this instrument, with bow.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59He does that so well.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06His music is so connected...
0:20:09 > 0:20:13..very much connected with his body weight and ground.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17And in between there is a cello instrument.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48In the late 1940s and early '50s,
0:20:48 > 0:20:52Rostropovich was the darling of the Soviet cultural scene.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55Through his characteristic charm and cunning
0:20:55 > 0:20:59he always managed to manipulate the bureaucrats of Moscow.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03They had nothing against him travelling, going anywhere.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07And he was so enchanting that they also thought that he would be
0:21:07 > 0:21:10the most marvellous ambassador for them.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14He often told the story of how he managed to take his wife with him -
0:21:14 > 0:21:18not with the normal excuse that he was ill and needed looking after.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21His application was more cheeky.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26Rostropovich wrote exactly opposite. "Because I am very healthy man
0:21:26 > 0:21:28"I would like my wife to come with me
0:21:28 > 0:21:32"on this three-month concert tour."
0:21:32 > 0:21:35The authorities were in thrall to his talent.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37At 23 he received the Stalin prize.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40Stalin prize was the highest award at the time,
0:21:40 > 0:21:4323 years old and he was a star, he was a genius
0:21:43 > 0:21:47and he brought a lot of glory to the Soviet Union.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50He was one of the jewels in the crown.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52In a sense they were trained like the athletes,
0:21:52 > 0:21:56to the highest level, whether it was Olympics, or athletics,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00or international piano competitions.
0:22:00 > 0:22:05He was particularly, I thought, anxious to give credit to the whole
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Soviet system of teaching and support for artists
0:22:09 > 0:22:12because it was critical for him.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17He was just 21, and still in awe of the system,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20when two of his heroes, the composers Dmitri Shostakovich
0:22:20 > 0:22:24and Sergei Prokofiev, were officially disgraced for writing
0:22:24 > 0:22:29"Cacophonous music" that was "organically alien to the people."
0:22:29 > 0:22:33"No harmony," it was said, "no tunefulness or melody."
0:22:36 > 0:22:41First shock in my life about Soviet system.
0:22:41 > 0:22:47Before I believed enormous for Stalin, for the system,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51for everything what we all more or less believed.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59He took the first major risk of his career by befriending Prokofiev.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02He went to stay with the isolated and impoverished composer
0:23:02 > 0:23:05at his country house outside Moscow.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14Prokofiev re-worked his cello concerto with Rostropovich's help
0:23:14 > 0:23:17in the early '50s.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19Their creative partnership was obvious
0:23:19 > 0:23:22to the orchestral musicians in Moscow.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38TRANSLATION: From the first few bars it was clear that Rostropovich
0:23:38 > 0:23:40had made this concerto his own.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42It was very close to him.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46He had absorbed all the feelings
0:23:46 > 0:23:49and thoughts that had gone into its composition.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55The Symphony-Concerto, as Prokofiev called it, was the first major work
0:23:55 > 0:23:59written specially for Rostropovich, who was then 25.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05Even today it's a formidable challenge for any cellist.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante, when it came out, was considered unplayable by any other cellist.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17And specially the cadenza inside the second movement.
0:24:29 > 0:24:34TRANSLATION: Slava would say to Prokofiev, "Sergei Sergeyevich,
0:24:34 > 0:24:36"let's change some things in the cadenza,"
0:24:36 > 0:24:38and right there, at the rehearsal,
0:24:38 > 0:24:41he'd play certain sections in his own way.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44He'd ask "Sergei Sergeyevich, do you mind?"
0:24:44 > 0:24:47And Prokofiev replied, "All right, good, I agree."
0:25:01 > 0:25:06Rostropovich set new challenges for the virtuosity of cellists.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09And with almost missionary zeal, he went on to influence
0:25:09 > 0:25:12each new generation.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19I opened the door, he's there and I was like... Oh!
0:25:19 > 0:25:24And he just, you know, sees me and, and say, "Ah, toi, magnifique!"
0:25:25 > 0:25:28Makes two, two kisses on the both cheeks
0:25:28 > 0:25:33and just leave me like that, completely...astonished, you know?
0:25:33 > 0:25:36That was the first real meeting with him.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40We were taken backstage and he kind of gave me a bear hug and said,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44"Oh, no, Lisinka," and I'd never met him and suddenly he said,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47"When are you coming to play for me, tomorrow?"
0:25:47 > 0:25:49And I went, "Oh, oooh, oh..."
0:25:49 > 0:25:54I can remember exactly the feeling of almost being on a knife edge
0:25:54 > 0:25:56or on the edge of a precipice as it were,
0:25:56 > 0:25:59and I knew that if things went reasonably well
0:25:59 > 0:26:02I might stay on it, otherwise I might, you know...
0:26:02 > 0:26:03go down there.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06So it was an altogether very heightened moment in my life.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09HE SHOUTS ANIMATEDLY
0:26:13 > 0:26:18You know what they say, it's very difficult to meet an idol.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20You can be disappointed.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24And in the case of Rostropovich, it was just the other way around.
0:26:24 > 0:26:29He was so warm, he was so funny and he was so friendly.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50I had no idea how much money do you pay Rostropovich for a lesson -
0:26:50 > 0:26:52you know, he's the most famous cellist in the world,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54probably the most expensive.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57So I had an absolute wad of notes in my pocket,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00and I was expecting £100 or something.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03And he said, "One penny. I want one penny!"
0:27:03 > 0:27:05And I thought this was a big joke,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08so I sort of laughed and he said, "No, no, give me one penny."
0:27:08 > 0:27:10And I had to find a penny to give him.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17For 25 years, Professor Rostropovich held what amounted
0:27:17 > 0:27:21to masterclasses on the third floor of the Moscow Conservatoire.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26They were all-Russian affairs, apart from a few foreigners
0:27:26 > 0:27:28like Elizabeth Wilson, who joined Class 19
0:27:28 > 0:27:31for lessons they will never forget.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41Gosh, this is amazing. Nothing has really changed.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47There would be a scout by the lift and they'd say,
0:27:47 > 0:27:50"He's come, he's come. We can smell he's come."
0:27:50 > 0:27:54Because he put lots of perfume on, so the first thing was the smell
0:27:54 > 0:27:56of the Ma Griffe perfume or whatever it was.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59And the second was his voice, you could hear...
0:27:59 > 0:28:02"Hello, dear, how are you?" You could hear him.
0:28:02 > 0:28:03And we all knew - get ready,
0:28:03 > 0:28:06the first person would be sitting there ready to play.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09Very often nobody knew who was going to play next,
0:28:09 > 0:28:12so we'd all be thinking, "Should I be getting keyed up
0:28:12 > 0:28:13"for the next one?"
0:28:13 > 0:28:16So we were all pretty much on tenterhooks.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19And of course beforehand, out in the corridor,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22everybody had been playing away and practising.
0:28:26 > 0:28:32I had to stop, I had to sometimes sit down, take a breath -
0:28:32 > 0:28:35I mean it took me quite a long time to arrive there,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39and then behind the door, standing there...
0:28:39 > 0:28:42You have to cross the threshold, you have to open the door,
0:28:42 > 0:28:45you come in and you have to play as well.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48You weren't much further away from him than I am from you,
0:28:48 > 0:28:52and nothing escaped this man, absolutely nothing,
0:28:52 > 0:28:54it didn't matter what it was,
0:28:54 > 0:28:57it felt like he was just going into your brain.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03Even I'm starting now...
0:29:03 > 0:29:05And it all comes back.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08Well, it's a... What is it?
0:29:08 > 0:29:13Pushing an envelope, you know, sort of pushing your boundaries.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18The room seems to me smaller, but it's probably a trick of memory.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22And what would happen was that all the people would come in
0:29:22 > 0:29:26and there were chairs along the wall here, under these portraits,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29and there were cellos everywhere.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34People were packed in, sometimes three or four deep in the room,
0:29:34 > 0:29:38all round the sides of the room, on every available ledge or...
0:29:38 > 0:29:40Often people were outside,
0:29:40 > 0:29:44with their faces peeking through the door.
0:29:44 > 0:29:46Other teachers, other famous soloists,
0:29:46 > 0:29:49would drop in to watch Rostropovich at work.
0:30:00 > 0:30:01He never brought a cello.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04I don't remember one time when he brought his own cello.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21What would happen is when he started teaching, he'd get inspired
0:30:21 > 0:30:24and then he'd go to this piano,
0:30:24 > 0:30:26and the cellist would be sitting here,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29sort of playing, as it were, with this pianist,
0:30:29 > 0:30:32and you'd have an accompaniment of two pianos
0:30:32 > 0:30:34which is quite devastating,
0:30:34 > 0:30:39and all this audience, so you had to play as if it was a public concert.
0:30:39 > 0:30:45SPEAKS RUSSIAN
0:30:45 > 0:30:48THEY PLAY ON THE PIANO AND CELLO
0:30:48 > 0:30:52Rostropovich seldom talked about cello technique.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55He preferred to concentrate on the music itself.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12VOICE OF ROSTROPOVICH SPEAKING IN RUSSIAN
0:31:12 > 0:31:16Here he is playing the piano himself, just there,
0:31:16 > 0:31:18two pianos in the class.
0:31:19 > 0:31:25VOICE OF ROSTROPOVICH, SHOUTING ANIMATEDLY
0:31:25 > 0:31:27Everybody found it tough,
0:31:27 > 0:31:30even graduate students like Natalya Gutman.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36- TRANSLATION:- He called me a policeman in a glass booth,
0:31:36 > 0:31:39as though I was controlling myself too much.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45VOICE OF ROSTRPOVICH
0:31:45 > 0:31:50Now he's telling Natalya, "You don't suit the sonata
0:31:50 > 0:31:53"and the sonata is not going to suit itself to you. You've got to change.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57"You're so dry. You should weep from this music!
0:31:57 > 0:32:02"And there's nothing shameful about weeping about Rachmaninov's music!"
0:32:04 > 0:32:09Perhaps at the lesson I wasn't able to achieve what he wanted straightaway,
0:32:09 > 0:32:14but I understood this lack of lyricism was a weak point for me.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26He was totally unpredictable with his timetable.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30He could be three hours late, he could be four hours,
0:32:30 > 0:32:34and we knew that, we didn't mind, we sit and wait.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38And I remember one occasion we were here from ten in the morning
0:32:38 > 0:32:40and he only arrived at six in the evening,
0:32:40 > 0:32:44and everybody was exhausted and also fairly hysterical by that stage.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48My personal record was once ten hours.
0:32:49 > 0:32:54You know - I was sitting, actually I was sitting out of sheer stubbornness
0:32:54 > 0:32:57and determination that I have to wait, you know,
0:32:57 > 0:33:01it's interesting. He came, and there was a lesson, but I don't think...
0:33:01 > 0:33:03I mean, I was so deadly tired.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09VOICE OF ROSTROPOVICH
0:33:09 > 0:33:14He doesn't like the rhythm at all. He says, "You've got to hear these semiquavers,
0:33:14 > 0:33:19"you've got to divide it up and really feel each one so that you are exact."
0:33:19 > 0:33:22ROSTROPOVICH PLAYS THE PIANO
0:33:22 > 0:33:28VOICE OF ROSTROPOVICH
0:33:28 > 0:33:33So each note is like a shield, and behind the shield
0:33:33 > 0:33:37you have a kind of machine gun fire of small notes like a kind of motor going on.
0:33:37 > 0:33:42VOICE OF ROSTROPOVICH
0:33:42 > 0:33:45ROSTROPOVICH MAKES GROANING SOUND
0:33:45 > 0:33:47That's a very cruel comparison,
0:33:47 > 0:33:50saying it sounds like pancake batter being thrown at somebody,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53slopping all down your face, it's so unrhythmic.
0:33:53 > 0:33:59All the students of Class 19 were treated to a stream of visual ideas about music,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02which could be sometimes funny, sometimes brutal.
0:34:02 > 0:34:06An Armenian student was playing Locatelli sonata,
0:34:06 > 0:34:10which has a lot of very, very difficult technical things in it,
0:34:10 > 0:34:17where you have to do repeated staccato notes in one bow, so you play up bow,
0:34:17 > 0:34:21da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-bee, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-bee,
0:34:21 > 0:34:26and then you have to do it down bow as well, ya-da-da-da-da-da, ya-da-da-da-da-da.
0:34:26 > 0:34:28MUSIC: "Cello Sonata" by Locatelli
0:34:28 > 0:34:32And this student actually was brilliant at this,
0:34:32 > 0:34:37and it's not everybody who can do this, even, even the greats.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42And Slava looked pretty grim throughout the whole thing,
0:34:42 > 0:34:47and most of the rest of us were all amazed at what this chap was doing.
0:34:47 > 0:34:54Slava said to him, "You know, I want you to imagine the most beautiful suitcase in the world,
0:34:54 > 0:35:01"made of crocodile skin. You can't imagine how beautiful this is, it's got incredible gold buckles on it."
0:35:01 > 0:35:04So the student was looking a bit surprised.
0:35:04 > 0:35:09"Now, take it, take it," you know, "Put your hands up, take it!"
0:35:09 > 0:35:11The chap was sort of at a loss to know what to do.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15He said, "Take it, take it." So he sort of puts out his hands, he takes it.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17He said, "Now, open it."
0:35:18 > 0:35:20So he sort of does this.
0:35:20 > 0:35:22"What's inside it?"
0:35:23 > 0:35:25"Nothing. That's you."
0:35:25 > 0:35:28"You can do everything on the surface, it's all brilliant,
0:35:28 > 0:35:30"but you haven't got any ideas inside you."
0:35:30 > 0:35:33And all our mouths fell open, you know,
0:35:33 > 0:35:37at this incredible sort of analogy, I mean, it was so...
0:35:38 > 0:35:41..I-I mean, absolutely devastating.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46These frightened faces tell everything.
0:35:46 > 0:35:51I remember sitting there thinking, "My God, I hope it's not me next."
0:35:54 > 0:35:57He was such an unbelievable life force.
0:35:59 > 0:36:04How he was able to do most of the things he did,
0:36:04 > 0:36:05it's just mind-boggling.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08He lived life to the full and beyond.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11He always used to say,
0:36:11 > 0:36:17"The only time people are happier than when I arrive is when I leave."
0:36:17 > 0:36:19Because everybody's so exhausted.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24As students, we'd all be absolutely wiped.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26He would then go on and conduct an opera
0:36:26 > 0:36:29at the Bolshoi Theatre, having just taught for about nine hours.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33I mean, his energy was just absolutely phenomenal.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37He liked drinking...
0:36:38 > 0:36:43..eating, he liked life so much. He loved life.
0:36:44 > 0:36:49He could consume amount of hard liquor, mostly vodka.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54He was a man of big appetites
0:36:54 > 0:36:56and that included an appetite for life,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59and that comes across in his music-making.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01He didn't seem to sleep that much.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04Two or three hours per night, no more.
0:37:04 > 0:37:05Or not at all, sometimes.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09If you just think of what he got through in a day or in a week -
0:37:09 > 0:37:11and that doesn't include all the women and things,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14which perhaps we shouldn't talk about too much!
0:37:14 > 0:37:17He never missed spotting a pretty girl.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24I never met anybody like this guy.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28So many jokes, and so many dirty jokes.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32He would kiss anything he could kiss.
0:37:36 > 0:37:42TRANSLATION: He'd kiss stage technicians, lighting men, stage directors, conductors.
0:37:42 > 0:37:47Sometimes one felt that people simply couldn't un-stick themselves from him.
0:37:50 > 0:37:55He exploited his personal magnetism ruthlessly to expand the cello repertoire.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04He saw it as his duty, and not just in the music of his own time.
0:38:05 > 0:38:10When an 18th-century concerto by Haydn was discovered in 1961,
0:38:10 > 0:38:13he adopted it as one of his signature pieces.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17Perhaps it made up for the fact that Mozart never wrote a cello concerto.
0:38:34 > 0:38:40MUSIC: "Cello Concerto No.1" by Haydn
0:38:50 > 0:38:55He said, "When I die, I go and I will look for my colleagues,
0:38:55 > 0:38:59"cellists of the time of Mozart. I'll go onto that cloud,
0:38:59 > 0:39:01"I'll look for them, and I will be very upset with them
0:39:01 > 0:39:05"because they never convinced Mozart to write for cello."
0:39:05 > 0:39:07That was his way of thinking!
0:39:10 > 0:39:15He remorselessly convinced contemporary composers of the cello's merits.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18He'd begun with only three concerto works in his repertoire,
0:39:18 > 0:39:22by Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saens.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24The cello was then the poor relation of the violin.
0:39:24 > 0:39:29Everybody had always tended to think the violin was a more virtuoso instrument.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32Slava could play anything on the cello that you can play on the violin,
0:39:32 > 0:39:37or on any other instrument. So I think he, in a way, opened up the eyes of composers,
0:39:37 > 0:39:39as well as cellists.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42Rostropovich, at quite an early stage, passed the 100 mark
0:39:42 > 0:39:45in first performances of cello works.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49But there's no doubt that he'd just eclipsed anybody else.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52And if even a fraction of it lasts,
0:39:52 > 0:39:55it'll be much more than any of his predecessors did.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58When he get this music from the composer,
0:39:58 > 0:40:04he become soldier to get this music out of a score
0:40:04 > 0:40:06to the audience ear.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12Assured and confident, the musical soldier was eagerly recruited
0:40:12 > 0:40:16by the Russian composer Shostakovich, who was shy and nervous.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22They were chalk and cheese, but their relationship was surprisingly close.
0:40:34 > 0:40:36MUSIC: "Concerto No. 2" by Shostakovich
0:40:49 > 0:40:51Shostakovich became his friend and neighbour.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56Rostropovich was at ease with him, as he had been with Prokofiev,
0:40:56 > 0:40:59and Shostakovich trusted him.
0:40:59 > 0:41:05He called to me and tell me, "Slava, you must come to my house now!"
0:41:05 > 0:41:12But of course! And I come to him, and he take chair near to him, opposite him.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15He said, "Slava, sit down, sit in this chair."
0:41:15 > 0:41:22I sit. He tell me, "Slava, now...not speaking, just sit down."
0:41:24 > 0:41:27They would sit literally for an hour and a half not saying a word,
0:41:27 > 0:41:31not saying a word. It was a very particular friendship. And then...
0:41:31 > 0:41:35- Not say a word? - Not say a word, in silence.
0:41:35 > 0:41:41For me, if not speaking two minutes, for me like a half-life, you know?
0:41:41 > 0:41:45Two minutes, maybe five minutes not speaking,
0:41:45 > 0:41:49maybe...maybe seven minutes, I don't know how,
0:41:49 > 0:41:54but, for me, feeling that half-life. And I sit just across to him.
0:41:54 > 0:42:00And after a long time, he stand up,
0:42:00 > 0:42:02and tell me, "Slava, thank you very much.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07"That's now much easier coming life for me.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09"Thank you, bye-bye."
0:42:25 > 0:42:29MUSIC: "Concerto No. 2" by Shostakovich
0:42:39 > 0:42:43It's absolutely fantastic playing.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51- TRANSLATION:- It's amazing he played so brilliantly at the premiere.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59As usual, he had memorised the whole piece.
0:43:15 > 0:43:17- TRANSLATION:- The power and energy!
0:43:24 > 0:43:27It's coming to the climax now. The intensity of playing is just...
0:43:30 > 0:43:32..the trump call.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40When the orchestra takes over, most soloists welcome the rest.
0:43:40 > 0:43:41Not Rostropovich.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54But he never took his eye off the ball.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58Watch this. His next entry is a fiendish piece of double-stopping,
0:43:58 > 0:44:01high up, and playing two strings at once.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04A quick check he has the right notes,
0:44:04 > 0:44:09and he's off at full tilt - a daring high wire act, with no safety net.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25To see it that close,
0:44:25 > 0:44:27and to see Shostakovich reaction...
0:44:27 > 0:44:28He never showed emotions,
0:44:28 > 0:44:31but you can say from there, he's deeply, deeply moved.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37- TRANSLATION: - Rostropovich loved Dmitri
0:44:37 > 0:44:39and Dmitri loved Rostropovich.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42That was the basis of their relationship.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44That's why it worked out so well.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50MUSIC: "Cello Concerto" by Haydn
0:44:50 > 0:44:53When you saw Rostropovich's hands,
0:44:53 > 0:44:57they were the most beautiful hands I've seen from any string player.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01The sort of musician's hands that musicians are supposed to have,
0:45:01 > 0:45:03but hardly ever do have.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06They had the most beautiful long, tapering fingers.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11He probably had the biggest stretch of any cellist I've ever seen in my life,
0:45:11 > 0:45:14which also meant that a lot of technical passages
0:45:14 > 0:45:19he could manage with fingers that nobody else could actually get near!
0:45:27 > 0:45:33This is fascinating, because the length of his fourth finger is quite extraordinary.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37Longer than most people's first finger.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40And very even length of fingers,
0:45:40 > 0:45:43which makes a huge difference for playing the cello.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46If you have very different lengths of your fingers,
0:45:46 > 0:45:48it's much more difficult.
0:45:54 > 0:46:00He had the most incredibly sensitive feeling in his hands.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04You can see that, the way he actually puts his hands on the fingerboard -
0:46:04 > 0:46:09there's no extraneous pressure, it's just beautifully placed.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25A lot of people get a lot of problems by over-pressing and over-gripping,
0:46:25 > 0:46:28but you never get that sensation.
0:46:32 > 0:46:37The fingers are absolutely bedded on the strings,
0:46:37 > 0:46:40just an amazing sort of contact there.
0:46:43 > 0:46:49I think you would tell from his hands that he was an amazingly sensitive person.
0:46:49 > 0:46:55So, he wasn't...he wasn't just a sort of grizzly bear going around...
0:46:55 > 0:47:00I mean, I've been hugged and kissed three times by him,
0:47:00 > 0:47:05quite a few times, you know! And I didn't know him that well.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09MUSIC: "Back in the USSR" by The Beatles
0:47:09 > 0:47:14Rostropovich's two teenage daughters saw a different side of him.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18He may have been one of the Soviet Union's freer spirits,
0:47:18 > 0:47:21but he was not an indulgent father.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26He would not allow us a bit of make-up or any extravagant dresses.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29By extravagant I mean two centimetres above the knee!
0:47:29 > 0:47:31# Back in the USSR! #
0:47:33 > 0:47:35He had to be in control of things, you know,
0:47:35 > 0:47:37and he has two daughters
0:47:37 > 0:47:41and then they grow up and the boys start showing around,
0:47:41 > 0:47:43and he was very jealous. Very jealous, you know.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46# Moscow girls make me sing and shout
0:47:46 > 0:47:49# That Georgia's always on my mind... #
0:47:49 > 0:47:53My mother bought us, brought from one of the trips that she took,
0:47:53 > 0:47:55she brought us jeans.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57In Moscow, at that time, we did not have jeans,
0:47:57 > 0:47:59it was a dream of everybody to have jeans,
0:47:59 > 0:48:02and ones that appear on the black market cost a fortune.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06Just to make it even more, you know, more fabulous,
0:48:06 > 0:48:10I took some stitches out, you know, to make it really fluffy, here and there.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14And I put some little patches over - cats, little dogs,
0:48:14 > 0:48:16nothing offensive, just very simple.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20It was unbelievable. It was...I was a hit, you know, in the neighbourhood.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23It was our most precious possession ever. Ever.
0:48:23 > 0:48:28One day, he saw us, and he told us, "Bring the jeans here." And we didn't know why, you know.
0:48:28 > 0:48:35He got these pairs of jeans, put it on a terrace in our country house -
0:48:35 > 0:48:38a country house made of wood, by the way, just a side remark.
0:48:38 > 0:48:43I knew something terrible was going to happen, so I was not paying attention what exactly,
0:48:43 > 0:48:46- how he's going to set it on fire. - Put over gasoline and burned it.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49And then we were crying with my sister, it was very dramatic, I mean.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52Black smoke was coming out of our country house.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55My mother appeared and she thought somebody died -
0:48:55 > 0:48:59we're all standing there with these long faces, my father very glorious there.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02She comes in and she says, "Oh, Rostropovich" - my father,
0:49:02 > 0:49:07standing there stirring this whole thing, "See what I've done, it's not going to poison my life any more,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11"I'm a happy person now," you know? That was the story of the jeans.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13# Back in the USSR... #
0:49:19 > 0:49:24Rostropovich was more relaxed with the Western composers now writing for him.
0:49:24 > 0:49:25He gave them a free hand.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28He told the French composer Henri Dutilleux
0:49:28 > 0:49:32not to be afraid of pushing the technical boundaries of the cello.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36He said to me, "Everything is possible.
0:49:36 > 0:49:38"Change nothing, because...
0:49:40 > 0:49:43"..you must be absolutely free."
0:49:51 > 0:49:57Now, listen to this metamorphosis, this harmonics,
0:49:57 > 0:50:01this F sharp...
0:50:03 > 0:50:06..turning into the real note.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08It's incredible.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22Many violinists could be jealous about this intonation.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31Dutilleux kept sending scraps of music
0:50:31 > 0:50:34to Rostropovich for him to learn. It gave him confidence.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37But when they met three weeks before the premiere,
0:50:37 > 0:50:38he was in for a shock.
0:50:40 > 0:50:46He was not ready, he was not ready, and how is possible,
0:50:46 > 0:50:47three weeks before?
0:50:47 > 0:50:55He said to me, "Henri, we have a studio to work during the night
0:50:55 > 0:50:59"and we work three weeks
0:50:59 > 0:51:04"and it is possible, it is possible",
0:51:04 > 0:51:07and I have said, "Yes, we try."
0:51:07 > 0:51:10By the time of the first performance,
0:51:10 > 0:51:12the composer realised he need not have worried.
0:51:12 > 0:51:19Immediately, I have understand that Slava knew the piece
0:51:19 > 0:51:22very well.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25He was so gifted, he played the piece by heart,
0:51:25 > 0:51:33by memory without reading his part.
0:51:33 > 0:51:37MUSIC PLAYS
0:51:37 > 0:51:39Very impressive.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47You can feel in this recording
0:51:47 > 0:51:51all the love he had for the composers.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55Rostropovich wanted to ensure that cellists of the future
0:51:55 > 0:52:00would have many more great works to play than he'd had as a young man.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04I asked him once, "Do you really believe that every piece
0:52:04 > 0:52:08"they write for you and you learn and play
0:52:08 > 0:52:10"is so great and worth your time and effort?"
0:52:10 > 0:52:17He said, "Of course not, but I know if I will make it a rule,
0:52:17 > 0:52:21"I will play every piece written for me at least once.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24"The composers know it and they will keep writing.
0:52:24 > 0:52:29"And then out of ten of those pieces, "nine will disappear, but one will remain as a masterpiece."
0:52:29 > 0:52:33And that's how the concertos by Shostakovich,
0:52:33 > 0:52:36Prokofiev Symphony-Concerto, Britten, of course,
0:52:36 > 0:52:41all music he wrote for the cello, Lutoslawski, Penderecki, Dutilleux,
0:52:41 > 0:52:46were created, these incredible masterpieces of the 20th Century.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49He embarked on several concerto marathons,
0:52:49 > 0:52:54playing 44 different works in 11 concerts in just a few weeks,
0:52:54 > 0:52:56many of them inspired by him.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02It was a high-risk strategy, as his conductor discovered
0:53:02 > 0:53:06when they tackled the rarely-heard concerto by Paul Hindemith.
0:53:08 > 0:53:13TRANSLATION: He didn't know it, he simply didn't know what it was about.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17When one of the concerts was over, and it finished late,
0:53:17 > 0:53:20around midnight, he was in a great hurry to leave.
0:53:20 > 0:53:25He asked me to come with him to the Soviet Embassy where there was a piano.
0:53:30 > 0:53:36And he asked me to play the Hindemith Concerto through with him, bar by bar.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44We would stop after each bar and start again,
0:53:44 > 0:53:47and in this way, we played through the whole concerto.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51This went on until four in the morning.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54At 10am, he started rehearsing it with the orchestra,
0:53:54 > 0:53:56without a single mistake.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05The most productive of all his relationships with composers
0:54:05 > 0:54:08began in London, in September 1960.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11Rostropovich had arrived with Shostakovich
0:54:11 > 0:54:15to rehearse and perform his friend's first cello concerto.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18He had no idea that in the audience
0:54:18 > 0:54:21would be the British composer, Benjamin Britten.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25At that stage, he barely knew his name, let alone his music.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30Yet before the day was out, Rostropovich's playing
0:54:30 > 0:54:33was to spark a momentous friendship with the British composer,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36and a major enrichment of the cello repertoire.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51That evening, Britten sat beside Shostakovich
0:54:51 > 0:54:53and kept nudging him with his elbow in delight.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57He said he felt liberated by Rostropovich's new,
0:54:57 > 0:54:59uninhibited way of playing the cello.
0:55:04 > 0:55:08After the concert, we were all sitting together in the box,
0:55:08 > 0:55:12Rostropovich came up to see Shostakovich there
0:55:12 > 0:55:14and Britten came in and that was it.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Three geniuses in one festival hall box.
0:55:17 > 0:55:22Britten had never composed for the solo cello before.
0:55:22 > 0:55:24He set to work immediately.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28Composers often find inspiration in particular performers.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31But Britten's clutch of five new works
0:55:31 > 0:55:34was driven more by mutual devotion.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38My father had such a tenderness and so much love for Britten.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41Every time name Britten would be mentioned,
0:55:41 > 0:55:44my father always he had a smile,
0:55:44 > 0:55:48I don't know how it happened, it always, you'd say "Britten..."
0:55:48 > 0:55:51"Oh Benjik", you know, always had a smile on his face.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54And then, of course, there was the music.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57I mean, Britten was just in love with this playing
0:55:57 > 0:56:01and Rostropovich was in love with the kind of music that came out.
0:56:01 > 0:56:06He said to me, "It's like a man waking up at night
0:56:06 > 0:56:11"and it's dark, and the guy is terrified, frightened."
0:56:11 > 0:56:16Pa-pa-pa-pa! Pe-pa-pe-pa!
0:56:16 > 0:56:20And he's trying desperately to find the light,
0:56:20 > 0:56:22and touching the walls like that, you know?
0:56:22 > 0:56:24And I always have this image.
0:56:42 > 0:56:47It was in 1970 that darkness began to envelop Rostropovich himself.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54Until that point, he had relished the Soviet limelight.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57Just as he could do anything he wanted on the cello,
0:56:57 > 0:57:00he felt he had special latitude within the Soviet system.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04As an honoured member of the artistic elite.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08He had incredible privileges, he had a flat in central Moscow,
0:57:08 > 0:57:12he had a country house outside Moscow, he had cars.
0:57:12 > 0:57:16I went there, the apartment was a bit of a treasure trove, really,
0:57:16 > 0:57:20by Soviet standards, all kind of Western equipment in there.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25The family's comfort was sanctioned by the authorities,
0:57:25 > 0:57:27in sharp contrast with the way they treated dissidents.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the author of
0:57:32 > 0:57:35One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich,
0:57:35 > 0:57:39was under increasing persecution because of his frank portrayal
0:57:39 > 0:57:43of the dark side of the Soviet Union.
0:57:43 > 0:57:48Rostropovich offered him shelter at his country house outside Moscow,
0:57:48 > 0:57:51where Solzhenitsyn stayed as his guest.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55My father introduced him to us as a teacher of mathematic,
0:57:55 > 0:57:56and I was so scared.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00He said to us this is a new member of our family,
0:58:00 > 0:58:02his name is Uncle Sanya, you know,
0:58:02 > 0:58:06and he's going to be staying with us for a while.
0:58:08 > 0:58:12When the so-called maths teacher won the Nobel Prize for literature,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16Moscow stepped up its campaign against him.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20Word of Rostropovich's private gesture of support began to spread.
0:58:20 > 0:58:24He felt he had to speak out, and drafted a letter to the Soviet press,
0:58:24 > 0:58:27defending Solzhenitsyn and artistic freedom.
0:58:27 > 0:58:30It was open defiance of the authorities,
0:58:30 > 0:58:33and not even his privileged status would protect him,
0:58:33 > 0:58:36as his wife knew only too well.
0:59:17 > 0:59:20He complained that literary and musical talent
0:59:20 > 0:59:23was being crushed by the party line.
0:59:23 > 0:59:28The letter wasn't published, and he never circulated it.
0:59:28 > 0:59:30But word got out.
0:59:33 > 0:59:35TRANSLATION: Shostakovich was horrified
0:59:35 > 0:59:38because he could foresee the consequences.
0:59:38 > 0:59:41But Slava said Solzhenitsyn was being persecuted,
0:59:41 > 0:59:44and he had to defend him.
0:59:48 > 0:59:53Many times Solzhenitsyn tell for us maybe I go from your house,
0:59:53 > 0:59:56for make a little bit easier for you.
0:59:56 > 1:00:00But my wife and I not accept this.
1:00:02 > 1:00:07I tell you, if ask me what I make in my life
1:00:07 > 1:00:10the best step....
1:00:10 > 1:00:13I'll not found it in music,
1:00:13 > 1:00:18but in my life best step, that's only one page of this letter.
1:00:18 > 1:00:22And since this moment, my conscience was clean and clear.
1:00:26 > 1:00:29Rostropovich found his concerts cancelled.
1:00:30 > 1:00:33People were told he was ill.
1:00:33 > 1:00:35His recordings were suppressed.
1:00:35 > 1:00:39One Moscow concert, featuring Beethoven's Triple Concerto,
1:00:39 > 1:00:43was allowed to go ahead,
1:00:43 > 1:00:47but the authorities soon realised what a mistake that was.
1:00:49 > 1:00:52The voice of his cello was too powerful.
1:00:53 > 1:00:57It was an extraordinary concert because there was such tension,
1:00:57 > 1:01:01and everybody knew that Rostropovich had done this very brave thing.
1:01:08 > 1:01:11And the audience gave him a standing ovation.
1:01:11 > 1:01:14It was very much for him, and they applauded him
1:01:14 > 1:01:18for seven minutes without stopping, a standing ovation.
1:01:18 > 1:01:22And of course that was seen as provocation by the Soviets,
1:01:22 > 1:01:26they thought this, you know, he was provoking the audience to demonstrate
1:01:26 > 1:01:30against the Soviet authorities, they saw everything in that light.
1:01:30 > 1:01:35Rostropovich's main contact in the Soviet government was the glamorous,
1:01:35 > 1:01:39but notorious Minister of Culture, Ekaterina Furtseva,
1:01:39 > 1:01:43who held the destinies of Russian artists in her hands.
1:01:43 > 1:01:49Slava himself told me he had to go to see her at the Ministry of Culture.
1:01:49 > 1:01:52And he went into her office and she was standing,
1:01:52 > 1:01:55looking out the window with her back to him,
1:01:55 > 1:01:59and she said to him, "Slava, why are you doing this?"
1:01:59 > 1:02:04He explained I suppose, and she turned around and she said,
1:02:04 > 1:02:09"Do you realise what you're doing, not only to you, but to me as well?"
1:02:09 > 1:02:12And she had tears rolling down her face, apparently.
1:02:12 > 1:02:16So this was an astonishing side to her
1:02:16 > 1:02:20that you don't hear from any other people,
1:02:20 > 1:02:24because she was such a battleaxe in terms of obstructing people.
1:02:24 > 1:02:28And Slava told me he actually respected her, he had a,
1:02:28 > 1:02:33he had a feeling that she was as caught in the system as he was.
1:02:33 > 1:02:37He was still allowed to teach in Class 19,
1:02:37 > 1:02:40but virtually the only places he could perform
1:02:40 > 1:02:43were in remote parts of the Soviet Union.
1:02:43 > 1:02:47His wife could justly say I told you so.
1:03:48 > 1:03:53Before my house was open door, so many people coming, my guests,
1:03:53 > 1:03:59my friends, and always non-stop telephone ring.
1:03:59 > 1:04:01But over the last two years,
1:04:01 > 1:04:06I was near to alone in my home and my family,
1:04:06 > 1:04:09because all people, even my friends,
1:04:09 > 1:04:13worried, make contact with me. Yes.
1:04:15 > 1:04:18The Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski
1:04:18 > 1:04:22wrote a cello concerto for him at the start of his troubles.
1:04:22 > 1:04:25Rostropovich recognised his own story in the music.
1:04:26 > 1:04:30He said to him, "This concerto is about you, it's your portrait."
1:04:30 > 1:04:34In which he was the rather pitiful hero,
1:04:34 > 1:04:38who was being pursued by enemies.
1:04:38 > 1:04:42There's a wonderful moment when all the strings come together in the end of the slow movement
1:04:42 > 1:04:45and they come in a unison which is led by the cello.
1:04:45 > 1:04:51MUSIC: "Cantilena" from Cello Concerto by Lutoslawski
1:04:51 > 1:04:56And after that there are some very dramatic entries by the brass,
1:04:56 > 1:05:00which come in really blasting away.
1:05:00 > 1:05:04BLAST OF BRASS INSTRUMENTS
1:05:06 > 1:05:08And he would say,
1:05:08 > 1:05:12"That's a whole central committee against me there."
1:05:12 > 1:05:15FRANTIC BRASS CONTINUES
1:05:15 > 1:05:18He was saying, "You are playing and then all these people..."
1:05:18 > 1:05:22or, you know, "All these authorities, they are shouting there."
1:05:22 > 1:05:26DISCORDANT CELLO MELODY
1:05:33 > 1:05:35And then the cello will be left as a single voice,
1:05:35 > 1:05:39and at the end there's a very little kind of wailing phrase,
1:05:39 > 1:05:42and he said, "That's me, that's me dying."
1:05:42 > 1:05:46MELANCHOLY CELLO MELODY
1:05:50 > 1:05:54Almost incredibly, some of his musical colleagues in Moscow
1:05:54 > 1:05:59began to question his musicianship, as both cellist and conductor.
1:05:59 > 1:06:03And, equally incredibly, Rostropovich began to believe them.
1:06:03 > 1:06:06I think they just really wanted to destroy him
1:06:06 > 1:06:10because my father was very sensitive person.
1:06:10 > 1:06:12Destroy my mother, not possible.
1:06:12 > 1:06:16Destroy my father, yes, you know, because he would be very vulnerable.
1:06:16 > 1:06:19The director of the opera theatre said, "Listen, you know,
1:06:19 > 1:06:24"you shouldn't be conducting, you know, you're not good enough for this orchestra.
1:06:24 > 1:06:26"You're just no longer a good musician."
1:06:26 > 1:06:30And my father said that he start crying like a child.
1:06:30 > 1:06:33He was standing there and crying like a child
1:06:33 > 1:06:36because he just could not believe that, you know.
1:06:36 > 1:06:40And then he came home and my mother saw him and that's when she said,
1:06:40 > 1:06:43"OK, that's it, we're going to write a letter. That's it.
1:06:43 > 1:06:45"We're out."
1:06:46 > 1:06:48At Galina's instigation,
1:06:48 > 1:06:52Rostropovich wrote to the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev,
1:06:52 > 1:06:56in March 1974, and applied to work abroad for two years.
1:06:56 > 1:07:00He hoped it would make the Kremlin bring him back into the fold.
1:07:00 > 1:07:04But within hours, Brezhnev said, "OK, go!"
1:07:04 > 1:07:08Ahead of his family, Rostropovich flew to London
1:07:08 > 1:07:11to look for work and somewhere to live.
1:07:11 > 1:07:13He was met by his British friends,
1:07:13 > 1:07:16the impresarios Lillian and Victor Hochhauser,
1:07:16 > 1:07:19and his former pupil Elizabeth Wilson.
1:07:19 > 1:07:22We were able to go right up to the steps of the aeroplane.
1:07:22 > 1:07:27And it was extraordinary. When it arrived, out of the front door of the aeroplane,
1:07:27 > 1:07:32Slava descended the steps with a Newfoundland dog,
1:07:32 > 1:07:35an enormous Newfoundland dog, and two cellos.
1:07:35 > 1:07:37Kuzya, his name was,
1:07:37 > 1:07:40this great dog that came off.
1:07:40 > 1:07:44Not knowing anything about quarantine laws,
1:07:44 > 1:07:47the dog was sent back immediately on the plane.
1:07:47 > 1:07:50There was a terrible stink. They said, "Tell him to go back!"
1:07:50 > 1:07:53And I said, "You can't do that, he's just...
1:07:53 > 1:07:56We're saying you can't. "Oh, no, no, you must tell him to go back.
1:07:56 > 1:08:00"The dog can't touch the ground. We've got to get the van round."
1:08:00 > 1:08:03Poor man. Here he was being told to go back.
1:08:03 > 1:08:05He thought, "What are they doing?
1:08:05 > 1:08:08"Are they going to send me back to the Soviet Union?"
1:08:08 > 1:08:13Though he wasn't actually deported, it felt like he was being deported.
1:08:13 > 1:08:18And he was extremely low at that time.
1:08:18 > 1:08:23Here he suddenly was adrift. he had no structure here.
1:08:23 > 1:08:25He's very grateful to everybody
1:08:25 > 1:08:28for the very warm welcome he's had in London.
1:08:28 > 1:08:31HE SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN
1:08:34 > 1:08:37I would like to underline the fact
1:08:37 > 1:08:40that both myself and all my family remain Soviet citizens.
1:08:40 > 1:08:44I think he was scared because it was a tremendous responsibility.
1:08:44 > 1:08:47He was thrown out of his country. We had no money, no money at all.
1:08:47 > 1:08:53HE SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN
1:08:53 > 1:08:58And I'd also like to say that I love very deeply and very sincerely
1:08:58 > 1:09:01my country and my people.
1:09:01 > 1:09:03Thank you very much. Thank you.
1:09:15 > 1:09:19His exile lasted 16 years.
1:09:19 > 1:09:21Moscow barred the door against him.
1:09:23 > 1:09:25It made him an international celebrity.
1:09:25 > 1:09:28But he had to learn how to fend for himself.
1:09:31 > 1:09:36I remember him sort of saying, "I wonder if anybody would want to employ me."
1:09:36 > 1:09:40MUSIC: Sarabande by Johann Sebastian Bach
1:10:01 > 1:10:04This Sarabande, by Johann Sebastian Bach,
1:10:04 > 1:10:08was the piece he'd played as an encore at the Proms six years before,
1:10:08 > 1:10:13when he'd first stood out against his homeland over the invasion of Czechoslovakia.
1:10:17 > 1:10:20His cello may have been a solitary voice,
1:10:20 > 1:10:23but it expressed a nation's grief and his own.
1:10:32 > 1:10:34It was incredibly moving.
1:10:34 > 1:10:37I mean, he was weeping, you know, copiously during that,
1:10:37 > 1:10:39but still managed to play.
1:10:50 > 1:10:55He seems to be actually carving it out of the living rock,
1:10:55 > 1:10:58like Michelangelo.
1:10:58 > 1:11:01And Rostropovich had that monumental quality to him.
1:11:10 > 1:11:14The recording doesn't exist of that particular performance,
1:11:14 > 1:11:17but I'm not sure I would want to hear it.
1:11:17 > 1:11:21Rostropovich said he liked to offer the Sarabande to those who felt sad.
1:11:23 > 1:11:29As when years later, his friend, the Japanese sumo wrestler, Chionofuji,
1:11:29 > 1:11:31lost his baby daughter.
1:11:32 > 1:11:37Slava found out, came with his own cello from Europe,
1:11:37 > 1:11:43and took taxi to Chiyonofuji's house without telling anyone, nobody,
1:11:43 > 1:11:46with the cello and front of house,
1:11:46 > 1:11:52and then played Sarabande of Bach as his prayer to Chiyonofuji,
1:11:52 > 1:11:55champion's daughter who just died.
1:11:55 > 1:11:59Taxi was waiting and came back to Tokyo Airport, Narita,
1:11:59 > 1:12:03which takes one hour and a half, and then flew back to Europe.
1:12:03 > 1:12:05Can you imagine?
1:12:13 > 1:12:18His years in the West brought Rostropovich wider fame and wealth.
1:12:18 > 1:12:22He bought himself a Stradivarius cello.
1:12:22 > 1:12:26He became the friend of kings and queens.
1:12:26 > 1:12:29But despite being stripped of his Soviet citizenship,
1:12:29 > 1:12:31he always longed to be back in Russia.
1:12:31 > 1:12:33ARCHIVE: As protestors moved in,
1:12:33 > 1:12:36the tanks rolled forward and opened fire...
1:12:36 > 1:12:39So when Soviet tanks were back on the streets, this time in Moscow,
1:12:39 > 1:12:41in the dying days of the Soviet Union,
1:12:41 > 1:12:44he felt pulled back to his native land.
1:12:46 > 1:12:49Hardline Communists were hoping to seize control
1:12:49 > 1:12:51from Boris Yeltsin and the liberals.
1:12:53 > 1:12:55Slava was in Paris with his daughter Elena,
1:12:55 > 1:12:58while Galina was in England.
1:13:08 > 1:13:10And we spent the whole night watching.
1:13:10 > 1:13:15Then he said to me, "You know, I think I'm going to go Russia." I said, "Are you kidding?
1:13:15 > 1:13:19"You have responsibilities, you can't just go. Besides, where will you go?"
1:13:19 > 1:13:21At the age of 64,
1:13:21 > 1:13:25Galina's Pinocchio was as impulsive as ever.
1:13:25 > 1:13:27Next day he wakes up and I see him all dressed up,
1:13:27 > 1:13:30with this beautiful suit and he has a briefcase.
1:13:30 > 1:13:34Since I went with him everywhere, I said, "Where are you going?"
1:13:34 > 1:13:36He said, "Oh, I'm going to the bank.
1:13:36 > 1:13:39"But please stay for lunch because I'd like to have lunch with you."
1:13:39 > 1:13:42And that's where he got me!
1:13:44 > 1:13:4612 o'clock, one o'clock, two, three,
1:13:46 > 1:13:48and we didn't have mobile phones.
1:13:48 > 1:13:51So I keep waiting and I call the banker,
1:13:51 > 1:13:54and she said she never saw him and they didn't have a meeting.
1:13:54 > 1:13:59Then I start getting worried because now I don't know what to think.
1:13:59 > 1:14:03Elena's sister Olga was in America, where she got a message
1:14:03 > 1:14:08that her father had been spotted on a plane to Moscow.
1:14:08 > 1:14:12So I called my mother. She said, "This is stupid, this is not possible."
1:14:12 > 1:14:15But later on, she received a phone call.
1:14:32 > 1:14:33"Thank you very much."
1:14:33 > 1:14:37He bought a ticket to Japan cos he hadn't got a visa,
1:14:37 > 1:14:39so, you know, stopping off in Moscow.
1:14:39 > 1:14:43He got out, talked his way through customs, and then he was in the building with Yeltsin,
1:14:43 > 1:14:45cos he thought because he was famous
1:14:45 > 1:14:48there was just a 1% greater chance maybe
1:14:48 > 1:14:51that, you know, the tanks wouldn't move in.
1:14:51 > 1:14:55It could be end of Slava there, that time, you know,
1:14:55 > 1:14:59and Slava cannot help anything.
1:14:59 > 1:15:03I know it, he knew it. But this is, er Slava.
1:15:03 > 1:15:04I called my mother, and I said,
1:15:04 > 1:15:09"Mum, you know, don't worry about anything he is fine, but he's in Moscow in the White House."
1:15:09 > 1:15:14There was a silence and then she start screaming in the,
1:15:14 > 1:15:18you know, like calling him all kinds of names - she was right -
1:15:18 > 1:15:20and getting it all out, you know, like,
1:15:20 > 1:15:22"How could he, this and that,
1:15:22 > 1:15:26"how could you do this and not telling me?"
1:15:26 > 1:15:28You know, she really had to...
1:15:28 > 1:15:31And then, when it was over, she started crying.
1:15:31 > 1:15:36We saw the newspaper, he had a gun from young soldier
1:15:36 > 1:15:41and the young soldier is sleeping and he looks so tired
1:15:41 > 1:15:44but he still carrying his gun, this young soldier's gun.
1:15:44 > 1:15:47He was so proud 'cause this guy was his bodyguard, and after
1:15:47 > 1:15:51about 36 hours without sleep, this guy couldn't stay awake any longer,
1:15:51 > 1:15:55So Slava said, "I'll look after the gun, and you go to sleep."
1:15:55 > 1:16:01To me he was so stupid to do this and I told him so stupid.
1:16:01 > 1:16:07He was so mad at me, that he convince me he had to do it.
1:16:07 > 1:16:10So I said, "All right, all right."
1:16:10 > 1:16:12And then, of course, you know,
1:16:12 > 1:16:16when my father finally called to Galina, to Mama, she said,
1:16:16 > 1:16:18"Don't you ever, ever come back to me!
1:16:18 > 1:16:23"If you do I am going to kill you!"
1:16:23 > 1:16:26Then when he came back I was so proud of him.
1:16:26 > 1:16:31I was waiting for him at the airport when he arrived, he was arriving, I mean, he was my hero.
1:16:32 > 1:16:35His family and friends had not taken into account
1:16:35 > 1:16:39that for Rostropovich, thoughts of death were part of life.
1:16:40 > 1:16:42His later pupils had a sense of that.
1:16:44 > 1:16:49He gave me a great, great lesson on this Schumann concerto.
1:16:49 > 1:16:52He said, but not in a mean way,
1:16:52 > 1:16:56"You play that, you know, as I was playing that when I was young.
1:16:56 > 1:16:59"Now I am going to give you the keys."
1:16:59 > 1:17:02That was one of his favourite expression.
1:17:02 > 1:17:07"I'm going to give you the keys to perform that as an old person."
1:17:07 > 1:17:11It was so touching, because you could sense, you could feel,
1:17:11 > 1:17:16that it was an old person that knows that the end is approaching.
1:17:16 > 1:17:19All the feelings, you know, all the memories.
1:17:19 > 1:17:21He said to me,
1:17:21 > 1:17:29"You know, there it's like souvenir of a music you hear behind a door.
1:17:38 > 1:17:44Because there was the feeling of the memory that has escaped.
1:17:49 > 1:17:51And it's behind the door.
1:17:54 > 1:17:56My life so full,
1:17:56 > 1:18:01and God give my life, make my life so rich for friendship,
1:18:01 > 1:18:05rich for love, rich for beauty, what I have in my life.
1:18:05 > 1:18:10And I think about my last presence in this world.
1:18:12 > 1:18:16For Rostropovich, music coloured every aspect of both beauty
1:18:16 > 1:18:17and suffering.
1:18:17 > 1:18:20As when he played the Arpeggione Sonata by Schubert,
1:18:20 > 1:18:22with Benjamin Britten at the piano.
1:18:22 > 1:18:24He said to me,
1:18:24 > 1:18:27imagine Schubert with little glasses, round glasses,
1:18:27 > 1:18:30and he's sitting there composing this piece, you know,
1:18:30 > 1:18:34and he's just looking out of the window.
1:18:34 > 1:18:37And it's like autumn and the rain is falling and just the silence
1:18:37 > 1:18:42and hear the raindrops and sort of, you know, like...
1:18:42 > 1:18:47The sun is not there, it's like sort of like kind of a mist, you know.
1:18:47 > 1:18:49I mean, and now he says,
1:18:49 > 1:18:54"Imagine this, silence. Do you hear the rain, you hear it?"
1:18:54 > 1:18:56I said, "Yeah." He said, "Now you start."
1:18:56 > 1:18:58SOLO PIANO
1:19:11 > 1:19:16The way Britten played the opening of this sonata it was just...
1:19:16 > 1:19:21After this, I'm sure for Rostropovich to match this miraculous atmosphere
1:19:21 > 1:19:25it took all of his concentration and talent and abilities.
1:19:25 > 1:19:28CELLO ENTERS
1:19:45 > 1:19:49To me, there's nothing more beautiful or more magical.
1:19:49 > 1:19:52It takes you somewhere on a different plane, it does.
1:19:59 > 1:20:04It says to me that life is beautiful, life is eternal,
1:20:04 > 1:20:08it's without the boundaries, it's without the language,
1:20:08 > 1:20:10it's without countries,
1:20:10 > 1:20:13because you have two people, two instruments,
1:20:13 > 1:20:17but, in the end, when you listen to it, it sounds just like one.
1:20:17 > 1:20:21His cello playing and his prayer
1:20:21 > 1:20:23to the god...
1:20:23 > 1:20:27To me, same thing.
1:20:46 > 1:20:50Schubert Arpeggione being very special piece for every cellist
1:20:50 > 1:20:52since some of the most beautiful,
1:20:52 > 1:20:55but at the same time most difficult, pieces for cello.
1:20:57 > 1:21:00It's like walking on ice a bit, no matter how many times you play it.
1:21:04 > 1:21:10You know when he got ill, in the last days when he was
1:21:10 > 1:21:14already in a sleep, and we decided to bring him some music,
1:21:14 > 1:21:18to stimulate him or to make him listen to some of his recordings.
1:21:19 > 1:21:24And then, we put the Arpeggione Sonata.
1:21:24 > 1:21:31And, you know, I looked at him, and although he was in a deep sleep,
1:21:31 > 1:21:34there was a tear coming down his cheek.
1:21:34 > 1:21:38It was absolutely, he was crying when he was listening to it, you know.
1:21:39 > 1:21:41Was it a piece your father played often?
1:21:41 > 1:21:45No, once he played it with Britten,
1:21:45 > 1:21:48he didn't want to play it with anyone else.
1:22:20 > 1:22:25TRANSLATION: In one of my last conversations with Rostropovich,
1:22:25 > 1:22:28he told me, "I'm not afraid of death, you know,
1:22:28 > 1:22:31"because when I go up to heaven,
1:22:31 > 1:22:36"I'm sure the first person I meet will be Ben, Benjamin Britten.
1:22:36 > 1:22:40"And we'll have a really good party up there!"
1:22:44 > 1:22:48Before his death in 1976, Britten had given many concerts
1:22:48 > 1:22:51and recitals with Rostropovich.
1:22:51 > 1:22:54But their collaboration on Britten's own cello music was never
1:22:54 > 1:22:55apparently captured on film.
1:22:57 > 1:23:00In Moscow, Rostropovich premiered the biggest work,
1:23:00 > 1:23:04the Cello Symphony, with Britten conducting.
1:23:04 > 1:23:06Photographs were published at the time,
1:23:06 > 1:23:09but in the course of making this programme,
1:23:09 > 1:23:12we discovered unedited cine film of that first performance
1:23:12 > 1:23:16languishing in a Russian archive, without any sound.
1:23:20 > 1:23:24So we matched it to the Russian radio recording of the concert,
1:23:24 > 1:23:28and invited some of Rostropovich's friends to see this unique evidence
1:23:28 > 1:23:32of his bond with Britten, and his enduring legacy.
1:23:57 > 1:23:59And absolutely it's speaking.
1:24:07 > 1:24:08And so tender.
1:24:30 > 1:24:34Such incredible sensitivity in his left hand, isn't there?
1:24:34 > 1:24:37Amazing sort of finesse and beauty of the sound.
1:24:37 > 1:24:42Comes to mind always when we talked about vibrato,
1:24:42 > 1:24:45and expressivity of vibrato,
1:24:45 > 1:24:46all those years back.
1:24:50 > 1:24:54Britten is also involved in a very high emotional level.
1:24:55 > 1:24:59There's a tangible kind of tension in the air between them.
1:25:02 > 1:25:07And this moment is just so glorious when the major comes back.
1:25:12 > 1:25:15And now we start this building up...
1:25:17 > 1:25:19- Incredible, isn't it?- Yes.
1:25:30 > 1:25:34Look at Slava! He's just... absolutely totally in this.
1:25:59 > 1:26:02He's playing inside the music, 100%.
1:26:03 > 1:26:07And, at the same time, it's absolutely fantastic playing.
1:26:20 > 1:26:22- It's absolutely ecstatic.- Yes.
1:26:22 > 1:26:26- Such phenomenal projection he had. - Yes.
1:26:37 > 1:26:39FINAL CHORD SWELLS AND ENDS
1:26:39 > 1:26:41APPLAUSE ON ARCHIVE FILM
1:26:41 > 1:26:43Wow!
1:26:48 > 1:26:50APPLAUSE ON FILM DROWNS SPEECH
1:26:58 > 1:27:00I don't know.
1:27:00 > 1:27:03That's the most moving piece of film of him I think I've ever seen.
1:27:08 > 1:27:11His ability, as a first performer of works,
1:27:11 > 1:27:14to get right under the skin and to live them.
1:27:14 > 1:27:16How can he do that, how can he understand
1:27:16 > 1:27:20the composer's intentions with such emotional force?
1:27:20 > 1:27:25And, of course, convey it, and to see Britten and him together,
1:27:25 > 1:27:30sharing that, it makes me think of what Shostakovich said about him,
1:27:30 > 1:27:32he said he was a co-author of many new works.
1:27:32 > 1:27:33And I think, in that sense,
1:27:33 > 1:27:37I can't think of any other performer who was able to do that.
1:27:37 > 1:27:40As we say, the first emotion, it's very, very touching,
1:27:40 > 1:27:43you think you remember and then you see something like that,
1:27:43 > 1:27:47and it's a deja vu effect, it comes straight here!
1:27:47 > 1:27:53He was so passionate about that music, it's very touching somehow.
1:27:55 > 1:27:59That amazing beautiful sort of way that he, you know,
1:27:59 > 1:28:01uses his hands on the cello.
1:28:01 > 1:28:04Ah! It's just like having another lesson, you know!
1:28:06 > 1:28:10'Friends, I sorry that I not with you.
1:28:10 > 1:28:12'I love you, I appreciate you.'
1:28:12 > 1:28:16And I would like wish to you much much love,
1:28:16 > 1:28:20much happiness, and all best!
1:28:20 > 1:28:23He loves people.
1:28:23 > 1:28:28He loves life.
1:28:28 > 1:28:32He loves your life.
1:28:34 > 1:28:38And that will find out in five second. Maximum ten second.
1:29:21 > 1:29:23Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
1:29:23 > 1:29:25E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk