Vishnevskaya, Galina and Mstislav Rostropovich

Recital Programme: Canadian Concerts & Artists Inc. Presents Galina Vichnevskaya, Soprano of the Bolshoit Opera; Mtsilav Rostropovich at the Piano. 24th February, 1975. [SIGNED BY BOTH ARTISTS]

Montreal: Les Presses Elite, 1975. 1st Edition. Soft cover. 8vo. Very Good. Item #017388

Blue photographic wrappers with picture of Galina Vichnevskaya on upper front cover and period CP Air advertisement to the rear ("Maestro, a little traveling music?"), Stapled Wraps.[14]pp, text in English and French, INSCRIBED BY BOTH ARTISTS on title-page in Russian in blue, ball point pen. The inscription in Rostropovich's hand reads: "To dear Ranya, as a fond keepsake, with wishes of happiness," signed by Galina Vishnevskaya and, beneath, "Slava" (Rostropovich's lifelong diminutive) the latter with his characteristic bold flourish. Light wear and handling from creasing, some smudges to wrappers and a small tear along lower spine strip. Very Good. A poignant survival from the earliest months of the couple's Western exile. Having sheltered Solzhenitsyn and spoken openly against Soviet repression, Galina Vishnevskaya [1926-2012) and Mstilav Rostropovich (1927-2007) were forced from the USSR in 1974 and formally stripped of their citizenship in 1978 (later restored in 1990). Dated barely months into that exile, this warmly inscribed, jointly signed program is far scarcer with the whole arc of their story with it. Unusually, Rostropovich here appears not with his cello but at the piano, accompanying his wife.

Price (CAD): $475.00