Mstislav Rostropovich, 1927-2007

The NY Times has a report on his death.

From Times writer Serge Schemann's front-lines report on the fall of the Berlin Wall:

They seemed to be drawn by the sense that the object of so much drama, blood, rhetoric and politics, the barrier of concrete and steel that had figured so prominently in the history of this city and the world, might soon be relegated to history.

Some came with hammers and chisels, others with guitars, most with cameras. Mstislav Rostropovich, the great cellist who defected from the Soviet Union, came in a private jet with his cello to play Bach at the wall. ''Voila, all I need is a chair,'' he said, settling down with his back to the wall.

''I watched these touching pictures on French television and I cried,'' he said, explaining why he came.

-NY Times, November 12, 1989