Rostropovich, RIP
The New York Times has, not surprisingly, an excellent obituary for master cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. After being charmed by recordings of his performances of the Dvorak and Shostakovich concertos today, this passage from his famous 1970 open letter is my Quote of the Day:
“Every man must have the right fearlessly to think independently and express his opinion about what he knows, what he has personally thought about and experienced, and not merely to express with slightly different variations the opinion which has been inculcated in him.”