Maestro, I just broke my bow
OrchestrasA Times reporter was tipped off about an incident at a Bournemouth Symphony concert.
Violinist Stefan Jackiw was playing UK premiere of a concerto by the Ukrainian Reinhold Glière when his bow snapped – not a violin string, but the actual priceless 19th century bow.
In time-honoured fashion Jackiw borrowed a bow from the concertmaster and finished the concerto with barely a hitch. Jackiw said: ‘I think the conductor (Kirill Karabits) stopped the orchestra but it was just a split second.’
That’s what the Times were told. There was only one reviewer at the concert. David Truslove wrote on the Bachtrack site: ‘(The work’s) bravura manner momentarily foiled soloist Stefan Jackiw whose bow hair suddenly came adrift but, with barely a pause, he valiantly continued (borrowing the leader’s bow) to unveil the concerto’s pyrotechnics with aplomb.’
So which was it?
Did any of our readers see the incident?
photo: Sophie Zhai
It was in Poole on Wed 10th May, not the weekend. It looked as though the tip plate suddenly fully detached from the tip of the bow. The entire bow hair thus came free now being attached only at the frog end.
The bow itself appeared undamaged, at least from a distance. A bow swap with the leader took just a few seconds. Jackiw continued mid-phrase as though nothing had happened, with the orchestra picking up seconds later.
Thank you, Tim.
Something which happens occasionally, has nothing to do with “the bow broke”….
Rebecca Franks and Richard Bratby were also there. So not ‘only one reviewer’.
There were at least four reviewers at the concert on Wednesday night.
I was about 12 rows back but it did not look to me like the bowhair merely came loose. Jackiw left the damaged bow on the front desk and the bowhairs hung straight down in a bunch, as if they were still held together at the far end, eg by the detached tip of the bow. I have had several bows unhair themselves during my career and they do not, generally, look like that.
He certainly did recover quickly, however – barely missed a bar.
Ruggiero Ricci had a similar accident in early 1960 playing the Sibelius concerto with the BSO with Richard Burgin conducting in the orchestra’s Cambridge series at Sanders Theater, Harvard. I was there. It may be on videotape in the Evening at Symphony series, as many of those were TV broadcast.
Stefan’s bow broke… He was not “foiled ” by the piece. He borrowed the leader’s bow, (who in turn borrowed the No 4’s bow)and barely missed a beat. Amazing recovery but irreparable damage I think.
The moment was captured on BSO’s Fanta livestream. https://www.facebook.com/100044801133411/posts/pfbid0godpjzYK8hthhQG13AFfwxhmhQRCavdYWfeRDDSTmZA1g3qkuJHZ4z9svqLP5H75l/?app=fbl
We were sitting in the front row in seats A17 & 18, a couple of metres from Stefan when it happened, and the bow definitely did break. There was an irregularly shaped (splintered) piece of brown wood still attached to the ends of the bow hair, clearly visible and dangling down in front of us from Amyn’s music stand where the stricken implement spent the rest of the performance.
Facetiously disappointed at the time that he didn’t toss it into the crowd at the end of the gig like a sacrificed Hendrix or Townsend guitar, but understandable finding out afterward that the bow was worth £24,000. And besides, he might have flung it into one of the many empty seats that night. Sad to say that the popularity of BSO classical performances in Poole continues to decline, and this has accelerated dramatically since Covid.
I am sure the bow will be expertly restored.