When I started learning the cello, I fell in love with the instrument because it seemed like a voice - my voice.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the deep emotional connection one can have with a musical instrument.
Mstislav Rostropovich reflects on the intimate bond he formed with the cello during his learning process, likening it to a personal voice that resonated with his own identity. This suggests that art, particularly music, can be a powerful medium of self-expression and emotional exploration.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of music education, one might quote this to highlight the personal impact of learning an instrument.
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.
People are craving this great progress in electronics, going after computers, the Internet, etc. It's a giant progress technologically. But they must have a balance of soul, a balance for human beauty. That means art has an important role.
The artist must forget the audience, _x000D_ forget the critics, forget the technique, forget everything but love for the music._x000D_ Then, the music speaks through the performance,_x000D_ and the performer and the listener will walk together_x000D_ with the soul of the composer, and with_x000D_ God.
I know that after my letter there will be undoubtedly an 'opinion' about me, but I am not afraid of it. I openly say what I think. Talent, of which we are proud, must not be submitted to the assaults of the past.
Now I come to 75 years of age, I think what's most important in life is your conscience. If you told a lie and made other people suffer, I think that's very difficult when you reach this age.
All my life I wanted to play music with love to every member of the audience.
I spend my days kneeling in the muck of language, feeling around for gooey verbs, nouns, and modifiers that I can squash together to make a blob of a sentence that bears some likeness to reason and sense.
Under Stalin, artists weren't dissidents; all they hoped was to survive and write.
All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.
I have been given a lot of roles that are downtrodden, mammy-ish. A lot of lawyers or doctors who have names but absolutely no lives. You're going to get your three or four scenes; you're not going to be able to show what you can do.
The process of writing has something infinite about it. Even though it is interrupted each night, it is one single notation.
In a long meter hymn, a singer - they call it 'lays out a line.' And then the whole church joins in in repeating that line. And they form a wall of harmony so tight, you can't wedge a pin between it.
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