Bach Just Because

Being a string player, I was always partial to Bach's violin and cello music, though his works for voice may be his greatest.

Consider the Allemande from the first cello suite, here played by the extraordinary Mstislav Rostropovich near the end of his life-long career. A rigorous, thorough composition full of intricate arpeggios that nonetheless sounds improvisational throughout, as if the cellist were making it up as he went along. Rostropovich does a special turn on some very restrained and delicate bits of rubato at just the right moments: