Blessed Slava, play on!

Photo by Alex Waterhouse-Hayward

Music by and tributes to Mstislav Rostropovich, RIP:

Music at Padre Rob's (cello solo) and at MadPriest's (cello accompanied) -- both Bach.

Fine BBC story here.

And this earlier piece announcing his death, also from the BBC.

From NPR (with stories, interviews, and a link to yet another movement from Bach's cello suites).

"The best step was not found in music, but in one page of this letter," he said. "Since that moment my conscience was clean and clear." [Referring to his 1970 letter to Pravda in support of dissidents including Solzhenitsyn.]