AllMovie

On April 27, 2007 the world lost one of its most renowned classical musicians: Azerbaijanian Mstislav Rostropovich, who carried equal weight as a conductor and violoncellist. The classical performance film Rostropovich: Life and Art features several renditions on violoncello by the late Rostropovich: one on Schumann's Cello Concerto in A Minor; another on Ernest Bloch's Schelomo (where he is accompanied by the Orchestre National de France under the leadership of Leonard Bernstein); and one on Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, with musical accompaniment by violist Ulrich Koch, and the Berlin Philharmoniker under the direction of Herbert von Karajan.