Life
100 Musicians - number 27: Mischa Maisky (1948 - )
At 75, this true cello great not only still looks youthful, but plays with none of the ponderous heaviness that can afflict some older artists
March 2, 2023 18:00
At 75, this true cello great not only still looks youthful, but plays with none of the ponderous heaviness that can afflict some older artists
March 2, 2023 18:00It somehow seems impossible that Mischa Maisky is 75. One of the true cello greats, Maisky not only still looks youthful, his playing has none of the ponderous heaviness that can afflict some artists who enter the elder statesman part of their career.
If you want to listen to music-making of the finest quality imaginable — and sometimes better than imaginable — listen to his recordings (and, better still, live concerts, with Martha Argerich).
Maisky was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1948, and in the 1960s was taught by Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatoire. An obvious star in the making, his card was, however, marked with the authorities as his sister had emigrated to Israel and they suspected he would attempt the same (which, eventually, he did).
Mischa Maisky (Photo: Alamy)
