(28 Apr 2007) SHOTLIST
1. Wide exterior of Moscow Conservatory, people and press gathered outside
2. Various of mourners walking along sidewalk, some holding flowers
3. Mourners passing police cordon
4. Pull out from mid of photo of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich displayed on screen to wide of the concert hall UPSOUND: Music
5. Wide of coffin holding the body of Rostropovich ++Audio as incoming++
6. Tighter shot of coffin ++Audio as incoming++
7. Mourner placing flowers in tribute
8. Musician's widow being comforted
9. Cellists playing in orchestra
10. SOUNDBITE (Russian): Aleksei Maslennikov, personal friend of musician:
"He was a miraculous man, a man with a big letter (a great man) and a great musician. I call him Paganini (referring to Italian violinist Niccolo Paganini) of cello. It is a grand and terrible loss to our art."
11. SOUNDBITE (Russian): Svetlana Kholmogorova, music fan, Vox pop:
"I am terribly sorry that my granddaughters who are very small now, never could see and listen to this outstanding musician. But I have records and discs (of Rostropovich's music) and I think that my granddaughters will remember this name."
12. Wide of the concert hall
STORYLINE
Dozens of people, some carrying floral tributes, queued outside the Moscow Conservatory to pay their last respects to one of modern Russia's most compelling figures, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who passed away on Friday at the age of 80.
The memorial ceremony began on Saturday morning, with mourners filing past the body of the celebrated maestro as he lay in state in the grand hall of the concert hall, where he had performed for many years.
His widow, famous opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya and his two daughters Olga and Elena accepted condolences from mourners.
Representatives of art and culture who worked with Rostropovich gathered to bid farewell to the acclaimed musician on Friday, remembering him as an unusually bright person, always ready to help and give support.
"He was a miraculous man, a man with a big letter and the great musician," said his friend, Aleksei Maslennikov. "It is grand and terrible loss to our art."
Music fan Svetlana Kholmogorova said she was sorry her small granddaughters would never be able to watch and listen to "this outstanding musician".
"But I have records and discs (of Rostropovich's music) and I think that my granddaughters will remember this name," she added.
The cellist was widely admired for his musical mastery and his defiance of Soviet repression.
Rostropovich stirred souls with playing that was both intense and seemingly effortless.
He fought for the rights of Soviet-era dissidents and later triumphantly played Johann Sebastian Bach suites below the crumbling Berlin Wall.
The composer, who returned to Russia last month after years of living in Paris, had suffered from intestinal cancer.
He is to be buried on Sunday in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery - where the graves of his teachers Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev also lie - after a funeral in Christ the Saviour Cathedral.
The arrangements echo the prestigious farewell that Russia accorded Boris Yeltsin, the first leader of post-Soviet Russia.

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