"Last week, Mstislav Leopoldovich was hospitalized from the health rehabilitation center in serious condition," the source said.
The musician spent several months in the hospital earlier this year after falling ill during a December tour to Voronezh, in southern Russia.
Dignitaries from around the world gathered in Moscow March 27 to honor the world-famous musician, who had been forced into exile and deprived of his Soviet citizenship in the 1970s for supporting Soviet dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn and criticizing the lack of artistic and intellectual freedom in his country.
The Times has called Rostropovich one of the greatest living musicians, and he is a member of the French Academy of "Forty Immortals." In addition, the maestro is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Rome-based National Academy of Santa Cecilia, the British Academy, the Swiss Royal Academy and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, and holds the title of honorary professor in 50 universities around the globe. He also holds the Imperial Award of the Japan Art Association and a number of other awards.
The musician was given the supreme national award, For Distinguished Service to Fatherland, 1st class, before his 80th anniversary on March 27.
