Listening to a beautiful piece of music, Variations on One String on a Theme By Rossini: Moses Fantasie - Janos Starker - Janos Starker: Virtuoso Music for Cello, on Qobuz the other night, and I found myself somehow connected with what felt to me like the soul of the music. Rossini and Starker are long dead, yet as I focused on this lovely work it pulled me into the moment of both composer and performer. It is, of course, only a fantasy in my head. I cannot know what Rossini was feeling or even, for that matter, what he was trying to communicate through his composition but I can get a glimmer through Starker's translation. One might suggest what we sometimes experience through the power of music is a unique and personalized connection with the soul, the essence, the root emotions of artists of the past. A time machine of sorts—like a literary work only with a voice. As long as the reproduction's not flawed or draws attention to itself, I can float away on the notes that capture music's soul.