The only cellist to have studied under both Mstislav Rostropovich and Gregor Piatigorsky, Mischa Maisky—born in Latvia, then part of the Soviet bloc—is a world-renowned musician with a difficult past. He studied in Russia and, in 1966, won the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition. However, in 1970, he was arrested (on the evidently pretextual charge of having purchased a tape recorder on the black market) and sentenced to 18 months in prison, a labor camp, and later a psychiatric hospital. After emigrating to Israel, he continued a brilliant artistic career that led him, among other places, to the United States and Belgium.
Maisky considers himself a citizen of the world: “I play,” he said, “an Italian cello, with French and German bows, Austrian and German strings. My daughter was born in France, my eldest son in Belgium, the third in Italy, and the youngest in Switzerland. I drive a Japanese car, wear a Swiss watch, an Indian necklace, and feel at home wherever there are people who love classical music.”
Over his long career, he has recorded dozens of albums for Deutsche Grammophon with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. A guest at major international festivals, he has collaborated with renowned conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Carlo Maria Giulini, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, James Levine, and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
