I am in Russia and it has been a rainy, melancholy evening here in Moscow.
The Moscow Conservatory, a few yards from my Marriott hotel, has cancelled today’s musical function.
At 8 p.m., I was inside Coffeemanía, one of the most interesting places to see the Moscowian’s of the future, and I decided to say my last Goodbye to Maestro Rostropovich.
His body is on the third floor of the building.
You take 62 steps, turn to the right, enter the Great Concert Hall and there are the family and more than 800 people sitting silently waiting for the last concert for the Maestro of Maestros.
This is the traditional place for memorial services for celebrated musicians.
But now there are no celebrities, kings, queens, ambassadors, politicians, oligarchs or bureaucrats.
Just regular people.
Young musicians.
Old Russian ladies.
And me, sitting a few meters from the stage.
It’s a 30 minute concert with 40 violins, 40 cellos and more than 80 singers there for the last farewell to Rostropovich.
The conductor ends the dramatic concert and Rostropovich’s body leaves the hall.
These magic 33 seconds are my first video on YouTube with my Canon photo camera.
There were no TV cameras, so these must be unique images and sounds.
I leave the hall and in one of the books, I write my message:
BRAVO MAESTRO, BRAVO!
Back at the hotel I turned on my cellular phone.
I had turned it off during the concert, but another one started to ring while the violins, cellos and singers were playing…
Oh well, nobody protested.
Nobody complained.
All of us knew that the Maestro’s body was here but his soul was in Heaven, and fortunately, you don’t get calls there.
This was an unique, memorable and free concert.
We paid the last tribute to the Maestro of Maestros and we were in Heaven, too, and you don’t need tickets or reservations to go there.
