Sometimes you're about to play something, anything -- and it doesn't even matter whether it's a solo piece, or you're with, say, a chamber ensemble, or an entire orchestra -- and maybe for a split second you think, will I be worthy of the greatness set down in this score, will I be worthy of this genius, will I be worthy of what has been written with such beauty, such perfection -- sometimes doubt tempts you to do just a bit too much, a bit too loud, because the border between subtle and just plain begins to appear blurry in those moments -- well, the best antidote, for Opera Chic, is to think of Rostropovich and the adagio from Schubert's string quintet in D.
Slava is there and you realize, as the infinite beauty of Schubert's farewell to this world embraces you, you realize that it's not even really what Slava does with it -- it's that, even with different quartets -- you hear that in the one with the Emerson string quartet (UK link here) and in the super-slow rendition with the Melos quartet (UK link here) -- Rostropovich makes you realize that it's not even about his technique, about what he does with his hands -- it's that he wills that sound into existence.
Maybe that's why he's almost been gone for two years now, and Opera Chic misses him exactly as she did the day after he died.
(Opera Chic's Slava-less favorite version of this piece is in the hard-to-find DVD with William Pleeth and the Amadeus Quartet recorded in the Sixties, UK link here)