Album DescriptionThis album features top Russian artists: Mstislav Rostropovich, the Borodin String Quartet, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and the Leningrad Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. Mstislav Rostropovich has performed and recorded nearly the entire cello repertoire and inspired the creation of an unprecedented large quantity of new compositions for the instrument. Composers who have written music for Rostropovich include: Britten, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Boulez, Berio, Messiaen, Schnittke, Bernstein, Dutilleux and Lutoslawski. The distinguished Borodin String Quartet was named after a pioneer composer of Russian instrumental chamber music, Alexander Borodin. The brilliance and cultural background of the musicians, who are devoted enthusiasts of chamber music, and their never-ceasing and self-denying efforts aimed at mastering an inexhaustible treasury of music, have won the gratitude of music lovers around the world. Gennady Rozhdestvensky, USSR People?s Artist, Lenin Prize winner, is an outstanding musician of today. An artist of universal ideas and wide artistic interests, Rozhdestvensky has paid tribute to the art of the 20th century and mostly to Russian music, works of his contemporaries, from the very beginning of his career.