Here’s a poster for the Bach Society’s upcoming performance of the Rachmaninoff Vespers. I’m looking forward to this performance very much, since I have never had the privilege of singing this wonderful music before in my life. and that reminds me that this morning’s New York Times carried a piece about a lost Boris Godunov which has been rediscovered and mounted by Princeton’s Berlind Theater.

I wish it were possible to be more sanguine about Russia these days. His fulsome praise for Mstislav Rostropovich makes Vladimir Putin sound almost like an American. But associating himself with Rostropovich’s heroism willl not make Putin a good man or a decent head of state. Nor have Rostropovich and his wife had a smooth time of it since they returned to their native country to live.

“Many of his compatriots openly detest them and are jealous of their successes, riches and talent. Many can’t forgive them their civil courage,” the cinematographer Alexander Sokurov, who is making a documentary on Rostropovich, told AFP recently.

“Many can’t forgive them their civil courage” is a telling sentence.