Sheku breaks a string twice in Paris concert
NewsOur friends at the French music magazine Diapason report a rare double-break in a concerto last night when the English soloist Sheku Kanneh-Mason suffered not one but two string mishaps in the first Shostakovich cello concerto.
This is a lovely report:
en anglais…. Everything goes well, until the second movement. After the soloist led a fierce fight against the orchestra: chklong ! A string of his precious Goffriller has just broken. Sheku Kanneh-Mason signals to Nathalie Stutzmann who stops the orchestra. Brief exchange: conductor and soloist decide to leave the stage…
Read on here en francais.
It seems tha Sheki K-M missed twice a chance to have a Paganinni moment in the same concert.
Shades of Guy Johnston when the same happened to him in the same concerto (only once, not twice) in the 2000 final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year. He left the stage, came back with his cello restrung, and went on to win the contest (and start a glittering career).
He was so obviously going to be the winner. The presenter burbled on about the difficulty of the judges deliberations and my family, (pro or skilled amateur musos) turned to each other, saying, “Not difficult at all, it’s a given!”
Hmm, surprised to get a thumbs down to my previous comment! I wonder who the thumbsdowner thought should have won instead of Johnston!
Same thing happened recently when he played that concerto in Birmingham, but only once. Must be something about that piece.
Good that he doesn’t play a bass viol. . . or a harp. . .
When I saw the headline Cellist Breaks String Twice I thought, “Shostakovich, right?”
If you’re going to break strings on any cello concerto, it’s going to be Shostakovich.
Maybe the strings were made in China? 😉
Only two strings?
John Philip Sousa once broke all but the G string on his violin but managed to finish the performance without pausing, none-the-less.
Drone music rules ok, then.
Peter Cropper broke a string at the Wigmore hall during the Grosse Fugue. It took him 2 minutes to replace the string, and 10 minutes to work out where to restart [ok I exaggerate, but].
Well I don’t think I will sleep again, I am a massive fan ,but breaking 2 strings is hardly news headlines !!!!!