Waiting for the train

I think it's safe to say that most buskers, or street/subway performers, are men playing the guitar, and usually are accompanied by vocals or the panflute.  Most of them are decent musicians and provide background music that is entertaining enough to help pass the time while waiting for my train to pull onto the platform.  If I have change in my pocket I typically toss it into the busker's open instrument case; if not I'll try to at least smile or nod in appreciation.
Recently I went into the city and had to change trains.  As I went up the stairs to the next platform I could hear someone playing something but paid no attention to it.  But when I got there and stopped to wait I realized that I knew the melody.  And that it was being played by a very talented violinist.  The only other time I saw a violinist busker it was in Italy and he was a forelorn-looking child, also playing a piece that I had played before.

I was stunned and slowly turned my body in the direction of the violinist.  As I walked to him the piece clicked in my head: Bach's Partita no. 3: Preludio.  He had reached the very end, about the last minute of the piece where it recapitulates the musical phrases from the beginning.  It's a very showy piece, a solo that stands alone; very technical, bright and harmonious.

The busker played it effortlessly and without any dramatic movements with his arm or head or anything like that.  I was not the only one drawn in; there were easily twelve people around him and looking at him as he played.  I went to my back pocket for the dollar that I had accidently left when I put those jeans through the wash and dropped it into his violin case.  He easily had $30 bucks of bills and coins in there-- all well-deserved, in my opinion.