Famous Russian cellist Rostropovich dies at 80

Moscow, Apr 27 (UNI) Famous Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich died today after a protracted illness here at the age of 80.

He is survived by his wife, the renowned opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya, to whom he was married for more than 50 years, and two daughters and grandchildren.

"Regrettably, Mstislav Rostropovich has died," the press service of the Russian Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography told Interfax news agency.

Rostropovich was taken to a Moscow oncology centre several days ago. He spent several months in the hospital earlier this year after he fell ill during a December tour to Voronezh, in southern Russia.

His illness had not been disclosed, but Russian media said Rostropovich had his liver operated following a course of therapy in Switzerland and France.

The maestro was discharged from the hospital at the beginning of March to celebrate his 80th birthday, but he looked frail at a Kremlin reception later that month, when he was given the supreme national award, for Distinguished Service to the Fatherland. Dignitaries from around the world gathered in Moscow on March 27 to honour the renowned musician, who had been forced into exile and deprived of his Soviet citizenship in the 1970s for supporting Soviet dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn and criticising the lack of artistic and intellectual freedom in his country.

As one of the greatest living musicians, the maestro was a member of the French Academy of "Forty Immortals." He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Rome-based National Academy of Santa Cecilia, the British Academy, the Swiss Royal Academy and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, and held the title of honourary professor in 50 universities around the globe.

After the restoration of his Russian citizenship in 1994, he divided his time between homes in Russia, Western Europe and the United States.

Vishnevskaya's opera centre in Moscow said the great musician would be buried in the Novodevichy cemetery, where many famous Russian and Soviet dignitaries are buried, and where Russia's first democratically elected President Boris Yeltsin was laid to rest on Wednesday.

UNI