MOSCOW, December 13 - RIA Novosti. The daughters of Galina Vishnevskaya Olga and Elena Rostropovich told reporters at the Moscow Opera Center on Thursday that their mother was ready to leave - anticipating it, she came from Germany to Russia to spend last days at home.
As previously reported, it will be possible to say goodbye to the great singer until 20.00 Thursday. The next day at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a liturgy will begin at 9:00, and a funeral service at 11:00. The funeral will take place on Novodevichy cemetery at 13.00.
In 1955 she married cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. From 1974 to 1990, Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich had to live outside of Russia - they were persecuted by the authorities for supporting Alexander Solzhenitsyn (from 1978 to 1990, Vishnevskaya was deprived of Soviet citizenship). During these years, the singer lived in the United States and in France, performed in the largest theaters in the world, and also staged opera performances as a director.
In 2002, the Galina Vishnevskaya Center for Opera Singing was opened in Moscow. And since 2006, the Open international competition opera artists Vishnevskaya, where the singer headed the jury.
Among Vishnevskaya's awards are the Medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" (1942), the Order of Lenin (1973), the Diamond Medal of the City of Paris (1977), the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" IV (2011), III (1996), II (2006) and I (2012) degrees. She was also an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters (France, 1982), Commander of the Order of the Legion of Honor (France, 1983), Honorary Citizen of Kronstadt (1996), Honorary Professor of Lomonosov Moscow State University (2007) and the Moscow Conservatory.
The Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Singing Center celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. In honor of this event, a number of anniversary performances and gala concerts were planned. In particular, on December 17, the presentation of the center was to take place in the Vienna City Hall.
He was applauded by kings and presidents, the greatest musicians and composers of the planet considered it an honor to meet him. The best halls The worlds were jam-packed at his concerts. And he ... He descended from the stage, took off his tailcoat and became not a genius of music, but a man. Father, husband, friend. About how Mstislav Rostropovi h was in ordinary life, "AiF" was told by the youngest daughter of Galina Pavlovna and Mstislav Leopoldovich.
House of a Hundred Pianos
Yulia Shigareva, AiF: Elena Mstislavovna, children tend to treat their parents more soberly, if not more skeptically, than crowds of their enthusiastic fans. At what point did you and your sister Olga realize that Mstislav Leopoldovich and Galina Pavlovna were special people?
Elena Rostropovich: This is a difficult question. born in this environment. We greeted Shostakovich, who recognized us. spoke with Khachaturian or Kabalevsky living, like us, in the House of Composers. Since childhood, we went to the Bolshoi Theater and saw my mother buried in flowers - she was an extraordinary woman and an outstanding singer. We went to concerts and saw how they worshiped their father, heard how they say about him that he is a genius. Yes, he is brilliant - we were sure of that too.
Therefore, Olga and I perfectly understood: our parents are like that. We are not taken to school. They don’t wait after the lessons, they don’t do homework with us. Although sometimes I was a little envious that my father and mother did not take me by the hand to school. That my grandmother was not waiting for me on a bench with sandwiches. That no one was nervous while waiting for us to pass our exams.
The family of Galina Vishnevskaya, soloist of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. Daughter Olya performs a dance from the ballet " Swan Lake". 1959 Photo: RIA Novosti / Maksimov- Both you and Olga received musical education. Alternative - other professions were not considered at all?
Not! At the age of 4, we were already sitting down at the instrument, which was in one of the rooms. Grandmother, my father's mother, taught us to play the piano. She was a pianist, she accompanied her husband, our grandfather, Leopold Vitoldovich.
We lived in a house, in the apartments of which there were more than 100 pianos - composers, singers, musicians lived here. built this famous house on st. Ogarev in 1955, and only when the first tenants moved in did it become clear that it had very poor sound insulation. Everyone heard absolutely everything about each other: who composes what, who rehearses what. And not everyone was happy that the melodies that they are born, someone intercepted. So life here flowed colorfully and colorfully. One is studying, the other composes and demands silence... But when you hear music around you for 24 hours, it leaves a certain imprint. You understand: there is simply no other life - without music.
Was Mstislav Leopoldovich a stern teacher?
Depends with whom. He began teaching early, at the age of 15. His father, an excellent cellist and talented teacher, died early. There was a war, the Rostropovich family was evacuated to Orenburg. And Mstislav became the sole breadwinner, starting to teach at the Orenburg Musical College.
It turned out that he is a teacher from God. For example, he showed students techniques, but he never showed the interpretation, but explained it through images. He wanted them to find their own way, so that they would understand and feel this music through the created images, and not copy his playing.
At home it was different. He never had enough time for us - he ran somewhere, he constantly had some projects, ideas. Therefore, he did not stand on ceremony with us. Once said - and everything was done quickly.
Although once he caught me ... It was in the summer, in the country. I studied, learned some scales. And all this was so tedious that I decided to entertain myself: I put a book on the music stand instead of notes and read. And suddenly a father appears in front of me, who had to run somewhere once again. I was scared to death, because, well, obviously I got caught! He says: "Immediately get out the book, and you will study longer today." "How did you know what I'm reading?" - I ask. \ "So you endlessly repeated the same scale!"
True, dad himself did not like a measured lifestyle, many hours of study. He said: “If you start practicing every day, say, from 9 am to 1 pm, then this is no longer art - it’s just work.” He studied when it was necessary to prepare for a concert or study a new work, and only at the moment when he was internally ready for this. And spent as much time on it as it seemed necessary to him.
Iron discipline
- And as the father of two pretty daughters, was he strict? Did you allow me to go to the cinema or go out with the boys?
What are you! What boys! He was very jealous. A particularly tense atmosphere developed at the dacha - there is a lot of free time and guys around (laughs!) At some point, Mstislav Leopoldovich decided that our fans were climbing into our bathroom window, jumping over the fence to the site. So he made a special trip to the botanical garden and wrote out some unusual hawthorn with such thorns. And he planted this hawthorn around the entire site - like a fence, so that no one would climb. It was possible to go to the cinema with my friends if we did not work out the allotted time. And it was necessary to return just in time - the discipline was iron!
- Did he teach you to take fame calmly? And how did he perceive this universal worship addressed to him?
Dad was a very humble person. This can be seen from the way he dressed, how he behaved. Arriving at a festival or a concert, I did not require any special limousines and could easily get by taxi. He never asked for anything - for the room to be such and such, the temperature in the room is such and such. He went on stage with his cello, played and left.
And for him there was no difference between kings and concierges. His 70th birthday was celebrated at the Elysee Palace in Paris. The guest list includes kings, presidents ... And - a concierge from a house in Paris on Georges Mandel, a taxi driver from the Netherlands, and many others ordinary people who were his friends. The organizers of the evening were frightened: after all, there is a protocol, kings, ministers ... Maybe there is no need for a concierge? And the taxi driver? We will organize a special evening for them. Dad replied: “No! It is forbidden! These are my friends. And I want to invite them to my birthday!” And for his birthday in London, he invited his friend Vaska, who has been building and repairing our dacha and his family for years.
Mstislav Leopoldovich was famous for his risky actions: he hid the disgraced Solzhenitsyn in his dacha, played near the collapsing Berlin Wall, arrived during the putsch in Moscow to the White House. Did he realize that his life was at stake?
We weren't particularly worried about Germany. But in 1991 it was really dangerous in the White House...
In August 1991, my father and I were in France. I came to see him in Paris (I myself lived in the suburbs with my family), We watched CNN reports. And at some point, dad says: I have to go there. I began to dissuade him: it’s dangerous there, everyone is now running from there, and you are going there. Yes, you don’t even have a Russian passport (in 1974, the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya family was expelled from the USSR, in 1978 they were deprived of citizenship - ed.). Some stupidity! He agreed: okay, okay.
I stayed with my dad for the night, we watched the news all night. And in the morning I see: he is already dressed, standing with a small suitcase. "Where are you going?" - I ask. “Oh, I need to go to the bank, do some business there.” I was surprised, because all his affairs were usually handled by me. But she didn't say anything. We agreed to have lunch together and he left. I sit, I wait: 12.00, 13.00, 14.00, 15.00 - he is still not there. I call the bank: “Did you have it?” - "No, I was not". And in the evening, my friend from the Paris Match magazine calls me: “Len, don’t worry, but your dad was seen on a plane flying to Moscow.” I tell, and I still get goosebumps from the horror experienced then ... “That's it, the end!” - I thought then. Until two o'clock in the morning I watched CNN. And suddenly I hear: in Moscow, near the American embassy, a man was killed. And I mentally said goodbye to my dad ...
Finally, with difficulty, I got through to my father's sister Veronica and she told me that my father was in the White House. When he returned back to Paris, I was incredibly proud of him. He really wasn't afraid of anyone! And he always did what his conscience and his heart commanded him to do. So he went and did it.
Two geniuses in one apartment
How did Galina Vishnevskaya and Mstislav Rostropovich get along in the same apartment? They were both incredibly bright personalities.
They were very different. Yes, both of them devoted their lives to art. But everyone had their own territory: dad had concerts, mom had a theater. And this allowed them to form a single whole together. Dad never did anything without mom, and mom did nothing without dad. “Ask your mom”, “ask your dad”, Olga and I heard. As they agreed, so be it. When they decided that they would leave the Union, they promised each other before the icon that they would never blame the other for the decision made together.
Dad did not want to leave, in principle - he could not imagine life outside of Russia. All his friends were here (Shostakovich was still alive then), his students, his audience. But still his mother made him write a letter Brezhnev with a request to let the family out of the country, because she understood: they would either kill him here, or he himself would get drunk because of lack of demand.
Because the persecution was terrible. He was not allowed to speak even on the periphery. They wrote that he was a bad musician. He, thanks to whom there are 140 works in the world cello repertoire written for him and for him!
- You say that dad was jealous of you, daughters. What about mom? A bright woman, a host of fans..
Well, of course, I was jealous! And all the time he looked after her, made gifts, made surprises, carried her in his arms. Our mother was a goddess! Mom did not touch household affairs at all. But she cooked well. They had complete harmony: dad did not require mom to keep family accounts, and mom never thought to say: go boil yourself an egg for breakfast or sew a button. The Lord is with you! It was clear to everyone who was doing what. Dad, when they traveled or were somewhere just the two of them, went to the store. He was a gentleman and could not imagine his mother carrying heavy bags.
- They didn’t tear him to shreds in the store when they saw who came?
Of course they broke! And he could disappear somewhere during such trips. Somehow - we decided to celebrate New Year in St. Petersburg - a few hours before the New Year, it suddenly turned out that little champagne had been bought. Dad volunteered to go shopping. And returned home after 12.00 at night. Because it turned out that, as dad explained, he was being driven to the store by a wonderful taxi driver. And that the taxi driver persuaded him that he urgently needed to visit him literally for 10 minutes to meet his wife, because she would not believe him that he was taking Rostropovich. While driving back and forth at the request of a taxi driver, dad was late with us to meet with the chimes at 12 o'clock in the New Year. And you ask how he treated his fame. That's how he treated it!
Weekly AiF/Persona/27.3.2017
These days, the third International Festival named after Mstislav Rostropovich. Outstanding Musician was born in Baku and carried his love for his native city through his whole life. Baku is waiting for Yuri Bashmet, Maxim Vengerov, David Geringas, as well as young talented performers. The artistic direction of the festival was taken over by Olga Rostropovich, the eldest daughter of the maestro and Galina Vishnevskaya. Izvestia columnist Maria Babalova met with Olga, who also manages the work of her father's charitable foundation.
- Somehow it turned out strange that there is a festival named after Mstislav Rostropovich in Baku, but not in Russia ...
Thanks to Yuri Luzhkov's decision, now the festival will also be held in Moscow - every year, from March 27, dad's birthday. Titled "The Week of Rostropovich". We are now preparing for the first festival in Moscow. My concept is this: so that dad, if he is in the hall - and I am absolutely sure that he is with us - enjoy what is happening. This means that there should be as few speeches as possible and more music. But the fact is that we have a very short time for preparation, and all good artists are scheduled for several years in advance, and March is also the high season. Therefore, we have a difficult task ahead of us.
- What is the most difficult thing about keeping the memory of such a grandiose person like your father?
The difficult thing is that this is a man of incredible scale - in terms of talent, human qualities and status. I do everything to the best of my ability, but it seems to me that this is not enough. I want to do more and more - to embrace the immensity. The main thing is that everything should be worthy of his name, which means that everything must be done, if not absolutely perfect, then at the highest professional level.
- What do you focus on at work?
- On everything related to the fund. First of all, it is a help to young musicians, for which the foundation was created by my father. Then, of course, holding festivals and competitions in his memory.
- How does the fund's work change?
- Hard to say. I've been in the fund since my dad left. Prior to that, he dealt with it personally. Therefore, I do not quite know how it was, it is difficult for me to compare. Of course, the issue of funding both scholarship holders and creative projects. After all, my father was the main financial source of the fund. He gave all the fees received in Russia there. Today we have to look for sponsors, and the crisis does not encourage generosity.
- They say that we have fewer talented children. Do you feel it?
- Geeks are piece goods. There were few of them before. There are talented, capable children. I think if we compare the current situation with that era, musical environment and the level of teaching, for example, at the Moscow Conservatory, when I was growing up, the situation today, to put it mildly, is not so inspiring for those who begin their journey in music.
- And yet you left professional music lessons.
- That's how life happened. I got married and started a family. Although they began to teach me music at the age of five, and no one asked me or my sister: if you want it or not. First, my grandmother, my father's mother, was engaged in our education, then we were sent to the Central Music School at the Conservatory, and so on. I gave concerts, performed a lot with my father, and taught in New York. Dad didn’t even talk to me for two years - he was offended when he realized that he had finally stopped performing.
- Do you regret that you have relied on the family?
- Never regretted. Firstly, I have always been aware that, despite my resemblance to my father, I am not endowed with a talent of his magnitude. Secondly, I am generally such a person who never regrets anything.
- How do you do it?
- I make this or that decision due to some circumstances, which means that I close the door of the room and do not enter it anymore. And I will not torment myself with thoughts like: maybe it was necessary to do it differently, but differently?
- Would you like your children to have a professional musical career?
- Professional - never. If they have a talent for this, a desire, let them try, but to force something, let alone force it, I don’t see any need for it. Besides, today the reality is that in music you are either a genius or a beggar. But if we are talking about boys, then in the future this is the head of the family, who must provide for the house, himself, wife, children.
- How was it decided that it was you, and not your sister Lena, who would become the head of the father's fund?
This happened in a completely natural way, without any problems. We did not argue and did not choose. Lena took up the affairs of the medical fund of Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich. Thank God that my sister and I do not conflict. We have a wonderful relationship. Most importantly, we never share anything. Even in childhood, they didn’t fight either because of boys or because of dresses ... By the way, we were brought up in strictness. A lot of things were forbidden to my sister and me: it was forbidden to wear miniskirts, make up our eyes, let our hair down ...
- Now you are going to move to Moscow?
- Now I spend ninety percent of my time in Moscow. Does this mean I have moved? I now live here, because there is a lot of work on the fund and my mother needs my help and support. Yes, and my personal life received a Moscow residence permit - my husband lives in Russia. I am very happy, I like it here. I think the meaning of my current life in Russia is to worthily continue the work begun by my parents. By the way, dad last years he tried very hard to persuade me to move to Moscow. But most of my life I have lived in America, and my children are Americans. True, now they are studying at a boarding school in Switzerland. How and where they will be further, they will decide.
- Why did you choose Swiss rather than American education for children?
- Two years ago, I came to the conclusion that they still better get European education. I raised my sons on my own, since their father and I separated when they were very young. And at some point in America, it became quite difficult for me to raise children in the way I think should be. There are completely different parameters of education. I still proceed from that old school, when it is possible and even necessary to punish a child. For example, to spank or forbid to go somewhere. In the US, they see it differently. There, if you slap on the ass, "well-wishers" call the police. Parents - in court, and the child - to the psychiatrist. Now American children who are not yet 16 years old can officially divorce their parents. For me this is strange. And I chose Switzerland because, firstly, they give an international baccalaureate, and secondly, in the process of education there are such concepts as discipline and respect for authorities.
- Do you see the features of a grandfather or grandmother in your sons?
- In the youngest - Slava - I see the features of the pope. Although outwardly not at all similar, but phenomenal sociability is in him! Slava walks down the street and looks into the eyes of passers-by. If he is looking for contact, and no one is talking to him, he can begin to communicate almost with a lamppost. Slavka also has an amazing intuition. He is a small boy, but he thinks in some unusual categories. She loves her grandmother, my mother, literally worships her. He does not part with his grandmother's records, he listens in his room at the boarding school. He asked for Sokurov's film "Alexandra" on DVD. He has some kind of reverence for his grandmother, which is very nice. But my eldest son is a more independent, freelance artist. He is not characterized by violent manifestations of feelings.
- What language do you communicate with your children?
- I speak Russian to them, they answer me in English... My children were born in America, their father is French. Therefore, their languages of communication are English and French. Of course, I wanted to keep the Russian language in my house, they always had Russian nannies. Another such moment ... The father of my children - for historical or national reasons - had a very difficult attitude towards Russia. Naturally, this is somehow passed on to children. And so far, unfortunately, my children do not know Russia very well.
Did you have matriarchy or patriarchy in your parental home?
- Our mother has always been our anchor. Mom reasoned with dad: "Slava, calm down, you've been carried away again." And she also often stops me - my character is similar to my father's. I'll feel bad if I walk past something that's hooked me.
- Will the rest of your family collection ever move to the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna or will it stay at home forever?
- Let's see. The decision of this question - mother's prerogative. Mom is a person who knows how to listen. If there are forty people in the room, she will listen to forty different opinions, but she will accept the forty-first. Mom has such an amazing directness that borders on harshness. Sometimes when I hear it, goosebumps.
- Are there any Russian traditions preserved in the house?
- We only live by these traditions, there are no others. We - I speak for my sister - are deeply Russian people. Therefore, no matter what house or apartment in the West I buy, I will definitely plant a birch there. I will always have lilac, I will always have jasmine, which, by the way, is impossible to find in America. You can forget about such a fragrant jasmine as we have abroad.
Elena Rostropovich: "FATHER DID NOT KNOW THAT DEATH TAKE HIM"
Parisian apartment of Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich on Georges Mandel Avenue. In January 1989, it was here that the great musician gave his first interview after being expelled from the Soviet Union to a Soviet journalist - a correspondent for Izvestia. Rostropovich then opened a bottle of Dom Perignon and offered to drink "For Russia!". “I would like to return to my country,” Mstislav Leopoldovich told me, “but this is a difficult question, especially after such wounds were inflicted on me and my wife. We are not guilty of anything to return with our heads bowed. If I am needed ready to help our people." And then Izvestia was the first to write: "To return Soviet citizenship to Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich means restoring justice." Almost two decades later, in the same apartment of the same Izvestia correspondent, Yuri Kovalenko, the daughter of Mstislav Leopoldovich, Elena, was received.
- Your parents lived in this Parisian apartment long years. Here the whole world visited them - kings, presidents, including Yeltsin, musical luminaries and just friends ...
- We had many different apartments and houses, which we gradually began to sell, because neither dad nor mom went there. Here they were, perhaps, most often. But many things are no longer here. Even before the death of the pope, the parents decided to part with their collection.
- Now you are in charge of the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation?
- I head the foundation, which is located in Washington. There are other funds - in Russia, in Lithuania, in Germany. And I want to combine them. They are very different: one is vaccinating children in Russia, the other is helping young musicians in different countries.
- As far as I understand, my father never kept diaries ...
- He didn't have time. But his phenomenal notebooks, where he entered the dates of all his concerts, rehearsals, meetings, trips. He joked that if he lost them, he would commit suicide... Unfortunately, when I saw him, he often had no time for stories. He trusted me, and his affairs fell on me. I'm so sorry I didn't take notes. He was a brilliant storyteller...
Is there still an unknown Rostropovich? In his younger years he wrote music. Shostakovich himself encouraged him to continue writing. Have these works survived?
- I will try to find all his works in the archives. In early October in the German city of Kronberg there will be a festival cellists in memory of Rostropovich. And there, in particular, they will play "Humorescu" written by the pope.
- Rostropovich compared his love for music with a priest's faith in God...
- He had a conversation with God in "Sarabande" when its last notes ascended upwards, flew away to heaven. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that he played for God. When I listened to it, I forgot about what world I am in.
Mstislav Leopoldovich had an incredible number of friends. But who - besides the family - made up the closest circle?
- Of course, there was a musical fraternity, but there were also friends who were completely unrelated to music. When we celebrated his 70th birthday in Paris, unexpected difficulties arose. He handed over the list of those invited to the Elysee Palace, where a gala dinner was being held. Among the guests were the Queen of Spain, and Prince Charles, and the concierge of his Parisian house, and other mere mortals. He loved them all. The protocol service of the Elysee Palace was in turmoil how to put them together.
Nothing human was alien to him. He loved vodka, feasts...
- Yes, he liked to sit in the company. Once - the first and the last - we went on vacation with the whole family to Greece. After breakfast, dad went to the beach, where he stood with his hands on his hips. Then his mother begged him to flop into the water. He did not know how to swim and flopped for about five minutes. Then he went to work. At dinner, our family - twelve people - met in a restaurant. And he immediately began to invite people completely unfamiliar to our table. He needed communication.
- Tvardovsky noted that "in Rostropovich there are ten of life and colors" ...
- I would add that Rostropovich lived ten lives. One man could not have done as much in his life as his father did. He did everything he wanted. Unless he wrote a book, he put everything off. But maybe it wasn't necessary?
- Well, what was the engine of his life?
- Love for music and people. Dad helped someone all the time. I saved his note, which he wrote when he was already terminally ill, asking someone to call about an apartment for a clarinetist.
- Was he a believer?
- Highly. He prayed every morning. I still have his prayer book - all tattered. He observed all the fasts, even when he was already sick. I begged him not to do it, but he did not listen.
- Well, was Mstislav a vindictive person?
- Well, what are you! He never took revenge on anyone. Although sometimes he was offended, he sat with his lips parted. He did not like conflicts and always wanted to make peace so that everything was normal. Therefore, the name Mstislav does not at all correspond to his personality.
- They lived with Galina Pavlovna for 52 years ...
- In today's times, this is something unthinkable. Maybe they matched each other because they are so different? Mom is very strong character, but she gave dad the opportunity to decide everything himself. He seemed to have power, but the decisions, in essence, turned out to be mother's. In addition, they were both together and not together. Everyone has their own trips. This is important so that people do not get used to each other, like old slippers.
“When I look at Galya, I marry her every time,” said Rostropovich.
- Indeed, there was never a routine in their love. They looked forward to each new meeting with pleasure, sent each other wonderful faxes that have been preserved.
- I know that Mstislav Leopoldovich behaved courageously until the last day ...
- At first he struggled with the disease, and then he realized that he could not do anything. However, he hardly realized that the end was coming. I have never seen such courage. He never complained. We never talked about death with him - the question did not stand that way. Dad didn't give us any parting words.
- That is, he believed that life would win?
- Absolutely. But the Lord decided otherwise. God wrote his score of his life. Dad did everything on earth that was possible.
He gave us his 80th birthday, which we celebrated together. He said goodbye to his friends. And he left, without suffering, in a dream, after the operation. He did not suffer and did not know that death was taking him away. And if you look at the dates of his life: 03/27/1927 - 04/27/2007, then only sevens are obtained. In the Moscow Conservatory, he lay on the day of St. Mstislav, and they buried him on the day of St. Galina. All this cannot be an accident.
- Probably, it is difficult to be the daughter of two such outstanding people?
- Oh, how hard, but I did not know anything else in my life. The fact that dad and mom are geniuses is a great honor for me.
- Did Rostropovich have time to be a father?
- to be good father, do not wipe the child's nose or follow how the lessons are done. I felt his incredible love all the time. When he was needed, he was always there. Of course, he is not the kind of person who knows how to behave with children. And even with his grandchildren, he was able to communicate only when they grew up a little.
- What character traits did you inherit from your father and from your mother?
- Like my father, I like to communicate with people, to help them. I inherited from him and discipline in work. If I have to do something, I will lie down and die, but I will do it. You can rely on me. From my dad, I also have a certain diplomacy. From my mother - the ability to understand people. I would like to be able, like her, to tell a person directly in the eyes what I think of him, but it doesn’t work.
- You have three sons - Ivan, Sergey and Alexander and daughter Nastasya. Do they have a talent for music?
- My father believed that Sasha was the only one in my family who had real talent. The same is said by our friend conductor Seiji Ozawa. But I am extremely careful with his talent and do not want him to be tormented very much. I think Sasha will not be a soloist, but a conductor.
- How does Galina Pavlovna feel?
- She goes to her School of Opera Singing every day. They just gave Carmen. Unfortunately, they have only 350 seats, and it is impossible to get to the performance. But the voices at her school - and I say this in all seriousness - are better than at the Bolshoi.
- Why did she agree to star in Sokurov's film "Alexandra"?
- he persuaded her for a long time and convinced that she should do it. At first she was afraid that we would see her as a perfect old woman - in sandals, in nylon socks. But my mother was very pleased. She could be an amazing dramatic actress - just look at her in the film-opera "Katerina Izmailova".
Galina Vishnevskaya and Mstislav Rostropovich with their daughters Olga and Elena
As a child, until we were forced to leave the USSR in 1974, we lived in Moscow in the so-called "House of Composers" on Ogarev Street (now Gazetny Lane), where many musicians had cooperative apartments. And we had famous feasts - dad loved them very much, the doors were open for friends at any time of the day. Everyone knew that the Rostropovichs would have the best table for any holiday, so guests always came to us with pleasure.
Now, looking at old photographs, I am amazed - my mother had an absolutely perfect figure. As a child and living next to her, I did not notice this. On the day of the performance, my mother ate the last time at three in the afternoon and only meat without a side dish - Rimma, our au pair, gave her a half-baked steak. And when she and Rimma quarreled, she brought her herring instead of a steak ( laughs).
But after a tense performance in Bolshoi Theater, already after midnight, the table was always laid, champagne opened, mother never returned from the theater alone - always with colleagues, fans. Nobody had cars, she walked out of the theater on foot, followed by a whole procession. Until late at night, they sat and discussed how someone sang, during which one or another singer joined, as something fell backstage and, of course, got to the conductor, who for the most part was declared mediocre (Laughs). At opera singers always so.
FROM early childhood Mom taught us the rules of behavior at the table: “Olya, sit up straight!”, “Olya, you have a napkin”, “Olya, do not drink in one gulp!” ... Now I also haunt my children: “Slava, get your elbows off the table!”. I understand that this gets on my sons' nerves, but I can't do anything - it's already in my blood.
From early childhood, my mother taught us the rules of behavior at the table: “Olya, sit up straight!”, “Olya, you have a napkin”, “Olya, do not drink in one gulp!
Mstislav Leopoldovich was a very strict father. When guests came to us - David Oistrakh, Svyatoslav Richter, Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich - my sister Lena and I were seated at dinner with everyone at the table, but at the same time they were strictly forbidden to express our opinion. If, during a heated discussion, we had a desire to say something, we had to first ask permission. If we said something, interrupting the adults, we got a great deal for it.
Mom really didn’t like it if one of the family members at the table left something on a plate - she instantly recalled her hungry blockade childhood. She was in Leningrad all alone, without parents. Mom was strong in spirit a woman, very direct - if she says something on this or that occasion, then you will have no doubt what exactly she thinks, just a chill on the skin ( laughs). Dad and I could never speak so harshly.
Of course, Solzhenitsyn was not mentioned at the table - then they talked about him in a whisper in the bath with water running from the tap. My sister and I, parents, all this is very early age explained without hiding anything - my parents said that in our country house in the annex there would live such a writer, Alexander Isaevich, for one book of which, if found, you could go to prison for life. And if we say something about this to anyone, it will be very bad for all of us. Therefore, if someone calls and calls Alexander Isaevich to the phone, we had to say: "You got to the wrong place." But if they called and said that this was a mechanic, Mikhail Antonovich, who needed to replace the pipe, then, on the contrary, it was necessary to urgently run and call Uncle Sanya, as my sister and I called Solzhenitsyn, - such was the password. Of course it was scary.
We almost always met the New Year at the dacha in Zhukovka. And the holiday consisted of three parts: first, a table with snacks at Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich - he lived in a neighboring dacha, then all the invitees walked through the crisp snow to us - we had a hot table, and for dessert everyone went to the dacha to the academician-physicist Nikolai Antonovich Dollezhal, who worked together with Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov.
Zhukovka was at that time a settlement for the scientific elite and ministers, which had its own pass system. For example, we had a green pass that allowed us to enter a club and watch a movie, but our academician neighbor had a red pass that allowed us to buy food at a local store. And although there was nothing special there - canned food, cucumbers, tomatoes - my mother and I borrowed this pass, and stood in line, pretending that we were from the family of Academician Dollezhal. We went for groceries ourselves - at the dacha we had a housekeeper, Aunt Nastya, but she was old and could not go to the store. And soon my mother had a pull - the director of a grocery store, "Anatoly with gold teeth," as she called him. His soul was very touched by how his mother sings, so when there were empty counters everywhere, he brought Galina Pavlovna to his bins, where there was everything - both sturgeon and caviar.
My sister and I were explained by our parents that Alexander Isaevich would live in our dacha for one book of which you could go to prison for life.
In 1974, our family left the atheistic USSR and fell from one reality into a completely different one. Before that, my sister and I lived at home with a nanny and parents, and suddenly we found ourselves in a monastery-boarding house in Switzerland, where only girls studied, the tutors were Catholic nuns and it was not allowed to go outside the monastery. We, accustomed to the company of brilliant friends of our parents, found ourselves among the nuns with whom we could not talk about anything, even if only because we did not know French at all. In six months they mastered it, but at first it was very difficult.
After that, Lena and I studied at the Juilliard Academy in New York. My parents rented an apartment for us there, while they themselves lived in Paris. Mom and dad had many friends whom they entrusted to patronage over us. For example, Lena and I were looked after and often invited to lunch and dinner by Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicita. Although I have lived in America for almost forty years, I consider myself a Russian person.
Since dad left, mom never returned to Paris - she didn’t want to.
I remember the story of the purchase of the Galino estate, an area larger than the territory of the Principality of Monaco, two hundred miles north of Washington, which my father gave my mother in 1982 to mark the end of her singing career. He made sure that the name of the settlement with a Russian name appeared on American maps - the estate still bears this name, already being owned by other people. The choice of a place quite remote from the American capital, where the father headed the National Symphony Orchestra, was determined by the proximity of the Russian monastery. The history of the restructuring of the house dragged on for five long years, during which all work was carried out in secret from Galina Pavlovna.
As a result, the "presentation of a gift" was staged like a performance. The designer, who bought furniture and paintings at auctions, completely furnished the house. Mom flew in from Paris and right from the airport her father took her somewhere, without explaining where exactly. mobile phones it wasn’t there yet, and my dad and I had an agreement that he would drive up to the gates of the estate, from which it was still a kilometer to the house, at exactly seven in the evening. At this point, we should have lit candles in every window of the huge house, turned on the St. Petersburg-style lanterns that illuminated the road to the mansion, and turned on the loudspeakers on the street at full power, from which the recording of the overture to Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet" was to flow. performed by an orchestra conducted by my father - we even had rehearsals to do everything on time. A Japanese married couple, hired as a butler and cook, could not help us in any way, as well as a mannered decorator - he only wringed his hands in excitement before the arrival of the mistress of the estate. Therefore, I had to deal with everything with my husband. And then we discovered that the estate was attacked by a whole army of mosquitoes this summer evening - there were swamps nearby. My husband was driving our little Toyota, and I leaned out of the car window, spraying insects around so that mosquitoes didn’t eat my mother.
We don't have a family home. At one time, our family was uprooted and we did not put down these roots anywhere else.
Her father arrived earlier, so he drove her around the estate for another hour, until finally, at seven o'clock, he drove up to the wrought-iron gate with the monograms "GV" and "MR" on them. The gates open, dad gets out of the car and disappears somewhere from mom's field of vision - he knelt in front of the car to read a poem in her honor and shouts: “Light the headlights brighter!”. “I don’t know how,” Mom replies. He told her: “You never know anything!”. Finally, the high beam is lit and dad begins to read poetry written on a roll of toilet paper - he did not have another one at hand.
We don't have a family home. At one time, our family was uprooted and we did not put down these roots anywhere else. My children live somewhere: in Berlin, Paris, Düsseldorf, Switzerland. And nowhere abroad do I feel at home: everything there is foreign to me - both the language and the people. But even in Russia I don’t feel like myself, I’m not used to the local way of life, it doesn’t suit me, I come here only to see my mother. Here I can spend three or four weeks, and then I have to return to Switzerland.
I nevertheless received my basic education in Moscow, at the Central Music School, then I studied at the Juilliard School in New York, which I graduated from as an external student, because I decided to go to perform with my father - playing with such a genius as he was the best practice.
Two children were born in America, I traveled a lot around the world. All children and grandchildren meet in Russia only on the occasion of the grandmother's anniversary. I have never pushed children to musical career because having such grandparents is difficult. The child himself should strive to become a musician, understand what he is going for and what name he bears. But now my youngest son, 21-year-old Alexander, is still studying piano - even Mstislav Leopoldovich wanted to study with him and thought that he would become a conductor.
Text: Vitaly Kotov
According to the magazine "Sobaka.ru":
No. 126 (July 2011) "Dinner reconstruction"
No. 143 (December 2012) heading "Interior"