“One of the wildest moments she said she remembers of her tenure was the day in 1981 when she got home, turned on her television and learned that Maxim and Dmitri Shostakovich, the composer’s son and grandson, had defected. Rostropovich was due back in the office the following Tuesday, but on the Monday, “I opened the door to his office,” she recounts, “and Maxim Shostakovich was staring me in the face. There was Dmitri; there was Slava. Slava said, ‘I think you see what we need.’ ”