Disaster: Conductor’s baton knocks violin out of soloist’s hands
OrchestrasThe Czech violinist Pavel Šporcl was playing the Mendelssohn concerto with the Mlada Boleslav Chamber Orchestra when a sideswipe from the conductor’s baton knocked his precious blue violin out of his hands.
Only a swift leg movement by the soloist stopped the instrument smashing onto the floor. Pavel picked up the violin and carried on playing, to the conductor’s evident relief.
He’s in Jerusalem this week, jumping in for Victoria Mullova in the Beethoven concerto. With the same trademark blue violin, made by the Prague luthier Jan Spidlen.
You can watch two versions of the incident here … real time and slow-mo.
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The conductor is nameless?
Marko Ivanovic
Ouch! Hopefully there’s no serious damage!
Pavel Šporcl should include “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” in his encores
Shouldn’t the headline be “Disaster Averted?” BTW, a blue violin? WTF?
The blue violin is his thing.
As is the sequin jacket – just to let you know he thinks he’s the cat’s pyjamas. His playing tells you all you need to know. Blue violin, pah! Sequin jacket, pah pah!
You dont have to have taxido to play classical music. I never did… We are in 21st century …
And so is the Michael Jackson jacket?
Complete with what appears to be amplifying cable?
That’s just for when he does ‘pops’ concerts and the like. Check out his recording of the Korngold concerto…
Not the first time this happened. I witnessed one incident like this many years back.
But this is probably the first time it happens to a blue violin.
it would not happen
with fritz reiner he
never moved
It happened, because the conductor here is a left hander.Baton in the left hand.
Yet another reason conductors’ beat-giving should always be with the right arm. (I’m left-handed.)
Not exactly the same but I remember one of Nigel Kennedy’s strings snapping during the Tchaikovsky concerto. He simply commandeered the leader’s violin and continued with admirable aplomb.
I saw this happen with Isaac Stern playing the Beethoven at Carnegie Hall. The concertmaster replaced the string and handed it back to Stern at an appropriate moment!
Stern + Beethoven + Carnegie Hall = bliss.
One of my favourite performances on YouTube is Stern playing the Beethoven in Paris, Abbado conducting. Just wonderful.
I did that few times as well
It’s good to see that his violin wasn’t damaged.
In conducting classes many years ago it was drummed into us that the baton is always held in the right hand, even if one is left-handed. I recall seeing the late Paavo Berglund hold the baton in his left hand, and there must be others. It’s probably not “wrong” to do so, but it doesn’t seem to be very common.
I never thought about it before, but as one watches an orchestra on stage, the soloist is to the conductor’s left. Perhaps this is another reason why it’s advised that the baton should always be held in the right hand!
Donald Runnicles is also a prominent left hander.
I never thought of that but it is a good point. Or the soloist should stay on his right
Here’s a classic happening in early 1980’s Puerto Rico: Rubén González, then CM in Houston, was invited to play the Dvořák with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, conducted by its MD at the time, John Barnett. The newly minted Fine Arts Center Festival Hall was the venue for the performance. Going into the last three bars of the concerto, the pegs of Mr. González’s violin got tangled with the shirt cuff of Mo. Barnett’s left arm, resulting in Maestro Barnett literally pulling the instrument out of Mr. González’s hands. Fate intervened: the instrument landed squarely on the conductor’s music stand; the last chord was played, and silence ensued until Mr. González pronounced the instrument safe after the unscheduled transit. The incident has been enshrined in the orchestra’s lore as “The Flying Violin” which was the headline of that concert’s review, published 48 hours later. Mr. González was later appointed concertmaster in Chicago and never played with the PRSO again.
I was part of the audience that night, I haven’t recovered yet from the shock… Thanks for recounting so clearly the experience!
The reason of course was that the conductor was using his left hand for the baton. I am left handed also a violinist but when I have conducted I always use my right. It must be difficult too for the orchestra.
Did the performance continue uninterrupted (maybe with a slight unplanned fermata on the bassoon’s C?) — the incident occurred at the transition into the 2nd movement, which runs /attacca/, of course, but there are several bars’ rest in the solo part…
Yes, we continued right away. Nothing happened, my left leg was vety fast
Well it was a concatenation of unhappy factors. The conductor had the baton in his left hand so the closing gesture he made, normally in no danger of hitting the violin if it was his left hand alone, clipped the scroll at the very moment that Šporcl was changing his grip on the instrument for the upcoming long wait before his 2nd mvt entrance.
I have seen other videos where this happens. Hard for the conductor to say “sorry I didn’t see the violin” when it’s BRIGHT BLUE, however
Not a good idea to stand on that side of a left-handed conductor when you come to think about it.
This would not have happened with George Szell conducting.
i mean the guy didn’t move much while conducting.
Szell??? You shouldn´t confuse him with Reiner…Szell had a rather erratic beat and used sometimes sweeping gestures
The concert was ineptly led by the left-handed composer Marko Ivanović who I have always found terribly awkward to watch. Soloists need to stay clear of left-handed conductors both figuratively and literally.
Paavo Berglung and Donald Runnicles are examples of excellent left handers.
In the 1980s, we played with Paavo Berglund several times and I remember him as being a fine musician and a perfectly pleasant gentleman. The biggest problem with his left-handed conducting was that on every second beat his baton went left in 3 but right in 4 – which was extremely confusing!
What’s the baton doing in that hand?
Beating time.
His recording of the Tchaikovsky is my favourite. Absolutely the very best.
Thank you Rob
Either the conductor needs to hold the baton in his right hand or cut out the wild gestures or the soloist needs to stand to his right.
That is a great idea
Pavel Sporcl is an excellent violinist
Thank you
Gyles Brandreth once dropped Yehudi Menuhin’s violin, so there’s that.
Peter Cropper one trod on his Stradivarius. You can imagine the headlines.
If it were somehow destroyed, he could get another one… the maker is still in the violin-making biz.
A video with a close-up of the heavily-antiqued instrument can be seen on his page.
https://www.spidlen.com/cz-en/index.php?l=en
It reminds me of something you might see in a still life, intentionally chosen for its worn appearance.
Nice leg catch for the save!