Things conductors do to themselves
mainFurther to the stage accident suffered by Vladimir Ashkenazy on Thursday night, Derek Gleeson submits this evidence of some distress he suffered last year.
(c) Derek Gleeson/Slipped Disc; no reproduction without permission
Happily, says Derek, this was not during a concert. Derek is music director of the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Dublin Pilharmonic?
You couldn’t make it up.
There is an orchestra called the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra. What point were you trying to make?
Passed you by, did it, Alexander?
Never mind.
(My apologies for misspelling Philharmonic, by the way)
Does anybody else know what prewartreasure is getting at? I am trying to work out whether this is some obscure pun on the name Dublin, but I am struggling.
All I can think of is the Red Hand of Ulster, but that’s no good, as Dublin is in Leinster.
This is not the first time poor Vladimir Ashkenazy has done this. I recall him doing something similar whilst recording for Decca in St Petersburg, Russia, back in the early 1990s. Broke the baton on that occasion. I hope it has no effect on his piano playing.
The best known case of death by conducting is of course that of Jean-Baptiste Lully in 1687. More than three centuries later, there were fortunately no fatalities when in the middle of Ravel’s La Valse, Esa-Pekka Salonen stubbed the top of his head with the baton and continued very courageously while blood was streaming down his face, which made the brilliant conclusion of the piece even more exciting than usual.