It doesn't seem possible that Rostropovich is dead. How can it be that a man so life affirming, so heart warming and so giving to all should have died? Almost certainly the finest musician of my lifetime, we shall not see his like again, and should count ourselves privileged to have lived when he was alive.

I heard him play so many times, and every concert was special in its own way. I was once - relatively recently - lucky enough to have met him and spoken for a while. I was sitting in the Eurostar departure lounge and spotted him straight away as he arrived. To my amazement, he sat down next to me. I had a dilemma. I hate intruding on the private space of public figures. But I could not let the chance go by to thank him for the years of pleasure he had given me. So that's what I said, and then said I did not want to disturb him further and good bye.

'No, no, come back', he said as I bid to leave him. And we then spoke for what seemed like hours but was probably no more than twenty minutes. And then his train to Paris was called. 'Will you sit next to me? I would love to carry on talking', he said. I was despondent - I was off to Brussels for a meeting I couldn't miss.

With hindsight I can't believe I was such an idiot and didn't accompany him to Paris. To have had the chance to talk to one of the great men of the age - not just a great musician but a great man - for an entire train ride; and I missed it.

If you are going to listen to only one of his recordings, try this: the famous live recording from the Prom of 21st August 1968 when he played the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the USSRSO on the night when the Soviet tanks rolled into Prague. It's far from being his most technically accomplished performance but you can almost hear his cry of pain for the people of Czechoslovakia.

Rest in peace, Slava.