Mstislav Rostropovich Quotes

• You must play for the love of music. Perfect technique is not as important as making music from the heart.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Heart, Play, Perfect

  64 Copy quote

• The artist must forget the audience,
  forget the critics, forget the technique, forget everything but love for the music.
  Then, the music speaks through the performance,
  and the performer and the listener will walk together
  with the soul of the composer, and with
  God.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Artist, Forget Everything, Soul

  31 Copy quote

• There is too much emphasis on technical perfection nowadays, and not enough on what music is actually about - irony, joy, human suffering, love.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Perfection, Joy, Suffering

  22 Copy quote

• When I started learning the cello, I fell in love with the instrument because it seemed like a voice - my voice.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Voice, Instruments

  FaceBook post by Mstislav Rostropovich from Dec 20, 2016

  25 Copy quote

• Capitalism, communism ... it's all garbage.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Business, Garbage, Communism

  12 Copy quote

• I would rather have ideas and some difficulties of technique than a perfect technique and no ideas.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Ideas, Perfect, Technique

  "Mstislav Rostropovich, Cellist and Conductor, Dies at 80" by Allan Kozinn, www.nytimes.com. April 27, 2007.

  15 Copy quote

• People are craving this great progress in electronics, going after computers, the Internet, etc. It's a giant progress technologically. But they must have a balance of soul, a balance for human beauty. That means art has an important role.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Art, Mean, People

  16 Copy quote

• All my life I wanted to play music with love to every member of the audience.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Play, Members, Wanted

  "Why the cello is a hero". Interview with Julian Lloyd Webber, www.telegraph.co.uk. October 28, 2004.

  18 Copy quote

• The cello is a hero because of its register - its tenor voice. It is a masculine instrument, whereas the violin is feminine because of its soprano pitch. When the cello enters in the Dvorak Concerto, it is like a great orator.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Hero, Voice, Violin

  "Why the cello is a hero". Interview With Julian Lloyd Webber, www.telegraph.co.uk. October 28, 2004.

  11 Copy quote

• I never studied, but I had the best teachers.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Teacher, Best Teacher

  "Mstislav Rostropovich, 80, Dissident Maestro, Dies" by Allan Kozinn, www.nytimes.com. April 27, 2007.

  7 Copy quote

• It is my aim, my destination in life to make the cello as beloved an instrument as the violin and piano.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Piano, Violin, Beloved

  6 Copy quote

• In 1948 the first severe crash occurred in my life when Stalin put out his decree on formalism. There was a bulletin board in the Moscow Conservatory. They posted the decree, which said Shostakovichs compositions and Prokofievs were no longer to be played.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Boards, Moscow, Firsts

  9 Copy quote

• You know creators, composers, need a palette for life, a color for life.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Color, Needs, Composer

  "Cellist, Human Rights Crusader Mstislav Rostropovich Dies at 80", www.foxnews.com. April 27, 2007.

  6 Copy quote

• Explain to me, please, why in our literature and art so often people absolutely incompetent in this field have the final word.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Art, People, Literature

  "Mstislav Rostropovich, 80, Dissident Maestro, Dies" by Allan Kozinn, www.nytimes.com. April 27, 2007.

  12 Copy quote

• Baalbek is so beautiful. It is the heart of beauty in the Middle East - I want to embrace these people with my music. I will try so hard for them. Their president is a Christian, their prime minister is a Muslim. Music is for everyone.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Beautiful, Christian, Heart

  4 Copy quote

• I played with the best
  conductors of the world.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  World, Conductor

  "Mstislav Rostropovich, 80, Dissident Maestro, Dies" by Allan Kozinn, www.nytimes.com. April 27, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

• Now I want to use money in a good way. I make foundations back home in Russia, I have sponsored vaccinations for more than one million children in my homeland and I have founded scholarships in the names of my great Russian compatriots - Oistrakh, Richter, Gilels, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Schnittke.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Children, Home, Russia

  "Why the cello is a hero". Interview With Julian Lloyd Webber, www.telegraph.co.uk. October 28, 2004.

  4 Copy quote

• I like coming to the United States because the United States played an important role in my life.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Important, United States, Roles

  9 Copy quote

• I came to Moscow when I was 5 years old from Baku. To walk all night in Moscow will bring back my youth to me.

  Mstislav Rostropovich

  Night, Years, Moscow

  "16 Years of Exile Ending for Rostropovich" by Barbara Gamarekian, www.nytimes.com. January 27, 1990.

  4 Copy quote

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