Next month for example I will finish vaccination for children in Petersburg [for Hepatitis B]

“Next month, for example, I will finish vaccination for children in Petersburg [for Hepatitis B]. Two hundred and sixty thousand children, plus 4,000 orphans! And after that there will be great dinner, and I will be completely drunk – my friends must carry me home. And after few hours I woke up really warm, weighed down with warmth And people had put their blankets on me. Again, I must repay.”And he hasn’t deserted Baku? “No! Baku is very close to me, because it gave me life, and the house where I was born now makes my museum. Each year I give master-classes.” Then he launches into a convoluted tale. “You know I celebrated my 75th birthday here at Buckingham palace, and Emperor Hirohito of Japan plays the cello with me, and Empress Masako plays the flute, piano, and harp.” Yes, he’s always consorted with the mighty: dangerously with top Communists who wanted to get off with his wife, the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, sweetly with the former US President Bill Clinton, and collusively with the former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, whom – at great danger to himself – he flew to Moscow to save from the armed plotters of 1991. Maybe if the Emperor gives instruments to me, I give them to the players in Baku.

So he replies that he would like me to make the presentation in Baku I not ask how many instruments he give. “And the Emperor of Japan asked what present I would like from him. So I phoned Baku’s resident orchestra and asked about their instruments And some very bad, specially woodwind and percussion. I was so depressed I thought it best to sleep, and not wake up. And I looked up to heaven and said I would repay that kindness to other people, later in my life.”Then another great story: “On the night train to another place, six of us in compartment, so cold, each of us had just one blanket.

After his death was the most difficult time of my whole life. My mother, sister, and I were without money, the winter was very cold, the water was stopped, and – I don’t know how it happened – there was a knock on the door, very strong, it was a muzhik, a peasant, and he said: ‘Here, it’s cold for you, maybe I give to you some wood.’ Then someone else bring a stove Not because we were musicians; from simple kindness. Last year won great competition in Israel, never before did Russian win prize in that Her brother Gleb – piano – will play Ginastera. And Bronnikov – trumpet from Rostov – he send to me record, and letter from his teacher, very great technique, very clean and clear.

And Aidar Gianullin – Russian accordion – no keyboard, only buttons – another miracle.”Rostropovich was born, with precocious gifts, into a musical dynasty in Baku. His father, Leopold, who he insists was a better pianist and cellist than he, took him (plus his mother and sister, also both musicians) to study in Moscow, where they lived on the breadline and practised together in their one-room home. In the winter of 1942 Leopold’s heart failed.”A great shock, because I loved him so much. Last year her mother wrote to me letter, that her daughter’s situation hard. No good teacher in her small town, need study in Vladivostok, but Vladivostok two hours from home with train.