I was saddened to see the news that longtime cellist of the Juilliard Quartet Joel Krosnick had passed away yesterday. I never worked or studied with Krosnick, but one of the summers that I was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center I went to a concert of the Juilliard Quartet. The highlight of the concert for me was Schubert’s great D minor quartet “Death and the Maiden”. There is a variation in the great slow movement (based upon the theme of his song which gives the quartet its nickname) which features the cello dancing in ecstasy while the other three instruments outline the theme in shimmering sixteenth notes. I remember vividly to this day the passion and sheer joy with which Krosnick played that variation. That is what music is all about: touching people through impassioned interpretations.