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Slava has left the room
Mstislav Rostropovich, 1927-2007
In the bound liner-note pamphlet (that is my book angle here) to his recording of the six Bach concertos for unaccompanied cello, the Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, whose death was disclosed today, told an interviewer that he could not bring himself to imagine that musical giants such as Mozart and Bach were truly dead. "I prefer to think of them as dear friends who have left the room," he said.
I'll think that now about the man called Slava, whenever I listen to his recordings.
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