The central events of the recent tour of Russia by the London Symphony Orchestra were two concerts conducted by Benjamin Britten which included his own Piano Concerto and Cello Symphony. For these he had pulled off something of a musico-diplomatic coup by managing to borrow two of Russia's outstanding performers, the pianist Svyatoslav Richter and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, with both of whom he had already established a close relationship over the last decade, both in the intimate atmosphere of the Aldeburgh Festival where he has partnered Richter in piano duets, and on his own visits to the Soviet Union. Britten has often been inspired by the direct and concrete challenge of writing for a particular artist, and his 1961 Cello Sonata and the 1964 Cello Symphony were both composed specially for Rostropovich. The cellist has described his first meeting with Britten when he was in London to give a concert in 1960: After the concert the artists' room was full of people. I tried to guess which one of them was Britten. I remember how I attacked Britten there and then and pleaded most sincerely and passionately with him to write something for the cello he replied that we'd have to talk it over in greater detail Honestly, I did not expect a reply so simple and yet so serious. On the following day the three of us — Britten, Rozhdestvensky and I . — met at the Prince of Wales Hotel. In the artists' room I had felt the full, attractive force, the spiritual purity and superlative charm of this great man. But after this second meeting Rozhdestvensky and I recalled for many days every detail of our conversation; we were under the spell of Britten's exceptional magnetism. We decided at this meeting of ours that if Britten wrote a Sonata for 'cello he would send it to me in Moscow and it would be first performed in public at the Aldeburgh Festival of 1961. After my return [to Russial I patiently waited for the music. ' Patiently ' is not the word. The wait was actually painful. It seemed endless, I so wanted to play Britten's music. A few months later I was called to the telephone: a parcel with the music from Britain ! I'm sure I broke all records for the 880 yards for cellists. When I returned I made a dash for my cello, locked myself in and went at that sonata. It was a case of love at first sight. I was astounded: the music resembled no other piece of chamber music I knew. This whole story is very characteristic of the irrepressible Rostropovich, who has an insatiable thirst for new music, so that there is hardly a Soviet composer of any stature who has not at some time responded to his request to write something for him to play. The cello was otherwise an instrument which had been neglected by Russian composers, the only significant pre-Soviet work for it being Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme, an elegant and witty Mozartian work which also owed its origin to the composer's friendship with a noted cellist. But from the late Forties onward Rostropovich has been responsible for a tremendous body of Russian cello literature. He was born in 1927 in Baku, an oil port on the Caspian Sea which is also the capital of the Azerbaijan Republic. He came from a musical family, being taught the piano by his mother and the cello by his father, a former pupil of Casals. While still a student in Moscow he had his first major success when in 1945 he won first prize in a nation-wide competition. He then approached the aging composer Gliere, best- known for his ballets such as The Red Poppy, who had, however, already written a concerto for harp and another for wordless soprano voice, and now followed these with a cello concerto specially written for Rostropovich, who gave it its first performance in 1947. But the years in which Rostropovich was reaching musical maturity were also the last years of Stalin's reign, when all the arts were once more coming under pressure from the old tyrant's cultural henchman, Zhdanov. In 1948 the Communist Party published its notorious decree on modern music, which denounced Prokofiev, Shostakovich and other composers for the ' wrong path ' they had taken. Prokofiev, who already had to contend with failing health (he died on the same day as Stalin), became the victim of a furious witch-hunt, but among his most ardent supporters were Rostropovich and Richter, who together gave the first performance, late in 1949, of the sonata for cello and piano that the composer had written for them. While still a student in Moscow he had his first major success when in 1945 he won first prize in a nation-wide competition. He then approached the aging composer Gliere, best- known for his ballets such as The Red Poppy, who had, however, already written a concerto for harp and another for wordless soprano voice, and now followed these with a cello concerto specially written for Rostropovich, who gave it its first performance in 1947. But the years in which Rostropovich was reaching musical maturity were also the last years of Stalin's reign, when all the arts were once more coming under pressure from the old tyrant's cultural henchman, Zhdanov. In 1948 the Communist Party published its notorious decree on modern music, which denounced Prokofiev, Shostakovich and other composers for the ' wrong path ' they had taken. Prokofiev, who already had to contend with failing health (he died on the same day as Stalin), became the victim of a furious witch-hunt, but among his most ardent supporters were Rostropovich and Richter, who together gave the first performance, late in 1949, of the sonata for cello and piano that the composer had written for them. Like Rostropovich, Richter also comes from a musical family. He was born in 1914 in the Ukrainian town of Zhitomir, but moved at an early age to the Black Sea port of Odessa, a city with a great musical tradition where his father taught at the Conservatoire. Richter was interested in all the arts — his hobby is still painting — and in his twenties he worked as a coach in the Odessa Opera Theatre, before going to Moscow to study the piano under Heinrich Neuhaus. When he was 12 Richter had attended a recital given by Prokofiev during his first brief trial return to Russia in 1927, and after the composer's final return from his self-imposed exile in the Thirties Richter had developed into the supreme exponent of his piano music. The Cello Sonata was followed by Richter giving in 1951 the delayed premiere of Prokofiev's Ninth Piano Sonata, at a gala evening to celebrate the composer's 60th birthday. Though it was not until 1959, six years after Prokofiev's death, that the decree on modern music was withdrawn by Khrushchev as erroneous, Stalin had meanwhile changed tack and awarded Prokofiev a Stalin Prize. Shortly after this Richter made his debut as a conductor when he once more joined forces with Rostropovich to give the first performance of Prokofiev's Second Cello Concerto. The cellist spent two summers staying at Prokofiev's country house helping him to revise this work, which was finally rewritten as the Sinfonia Concertante. The Richter started to travel outside Eastern Europe. When he did finally make a ten-week eoast- to-coast tour of the United States in 1960 he was preceded by an almost legendary reputation, built up from records and from the reports of those who had heard him in Russia. Despite his enormous technical mastery, Richter is not in the ordinary sense a virtuoso.
