MUSIC REVIEW : Rostropovich, Orkis Bring Intensity to Ambassador

The recital by Mstislav Rostropovich Tuesday at Ambassador Auditorium was no more relaxing than any other encounter with the supreme cellist, for whom the heat of the moment can last an entire evening.

Before the usual packed house, Rostropovich displayed again--and again and again--that no other living cellist, perhaps no other living instrumentalist , can so consistently perform at fever pitch. And so consistently find otherwise critical listeners willing to have it no other way.

In short, an evening with Slava is terminally exhausting, at times even off-putting in its (and his) intensity. It is also quirky, sloppy, thrilling, inspiring, ultimately hugely satisfying.

As usual (too), this concert was not an occasion to be cherished by the perfect-pitchers. The opening unaccompanied Suite in G of J.S. Bach found Rostropovich too frequently sliding up to notes, and its Sarabande was played so slowly and dreamily that it threatened to stop in its tracks. The faster dances, however, kicked up their heels riotously.

You want Baroque style? Listen to some wimp playing the gamba.

The chaotic Sonata in A minor of Grieg, one of numerous dubiously viable works in which only Rostropovich can make you believe, found the cellist in most fiercely energetic form, and blessed with an equally fiery partner in pianist Lambert Orkis, as assertive in his opportunities for individual display as he was sensitively retiring and sure-fingered in support of the nominal star of the evening.

If the tender Adagio from Prokofiev’s “Cinderella” was drowned in huge, dark waves of cello tone, the same composer’s gently, sometimes darkly jokey Sonata in C--written for Rostropovich--assumed greater stature than it does in a more casual and relaxed interpretation than these artists’.

Vociferous audience response elicited two encores: a weepy Tchaikovsky Nocturne and Rostropovich’s own finger-busting Humoresque.