During the Cold War, Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich's haunting lyricism transcended international boundaries, acting as a musical force of peace. A student of Dmitri Shostakovich at the Moscow Conservatory, Rostropovich championed Russian music: the chromatic freedom of Scriabin, the elegant neoclassicism of Prokofiev, and, of course, the sobering works of his own teacher. Rostropovich hit all corners of the repertoire, his Bach Cello Suites achieving a brisk, lucid perfection and his Brahms Cello Sonata No. 1 in E Minor bearing a mortal expressivity that few cellists have attained.
