A cellist in glasses and a sweater vest sits on a raised wooden platform in a rehearsal room, set between a music stand and a mirror reflecting his back. Before playing, he speaks briefly to the camera, saying he assumes everyone has seen the popular YouTube video of the Pachelbel rant, and offers his own arrangement as an antidote. At 00:12, he starts out by strumming and plucking chords directly on the cello like an acoustic guitar, before transitioning to his bow around 00:30 to lay down the familiar ground bassline.
From there, he weaves a solo cello rendition of Pachelbel's Canon in D, using double stops and open-string resonance to sustain both the bass foundation and the melody simultaneously. The arrangement gradually increases in complexity, introducing swift scalar runs around 02:00 and moving into intricate high-register variations past 03:00, before finally resolving to a quiet finishing chord at 04:35.
It is a clever and impressive piece of arranging that turns what cellists usually dread into a rich, self-contained solo work. The warm acoustic tone of the instrument and his effortless execution make for a thoroughly satisfying listen.