Cellist plays Bach to full flight at 35,000 feet
OrchestrasCellist Frances Borowsky offered to entertain bored passengers. She tells slippedisc.com:
‘Navigating the tight spaces with my bow and instrument was no small feat! Even sitting diagonally into the throughway required that I tilt the instrument left or right according to the strings I was playing on, so as not to hit the bow into either wall.’
Anyone else tried it?
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Tired, done for views. Nobody on a flight i asking for music and most want to be left alone. If someone started sawing away while I was onboard I’d pop in my airpods as soon as I saw it happening.
What are you doing on a music blog? Why are you here? Bach under any circumstances, in a subway, on the street, in an airplane, in space, is to be blessed.
Under any circumstances? Even if you have to trap them in a metal tube at 35,000 feet? Does the same apply to Beethoven:
https://youtu.be/Gbeji0Rqz5Y?si=tWshmePxUp1qFzxg&t=96
So agree, Margaret! Just spent three days in Amsterdam, mainly doing Anne Frank stuff, but was fortunate enough to catch a lunchtime organ recital in the Westerkirk, almost next door to the Anne Frank House – two lovely Bach pieces in the programme in beautiful surroundings as well!
Beautiful! And finally a good airline story.
Whatever it takes, to make people stop and listen to the sublime! Bravo!
Yes, we must make them…..whatever it takes. I know in concentration camps they pumped in the Wagner. And now some of those ingrates don’t want Wagner to be played anymore. That’s the problem when you give people too much freedom of choice. Whatever it takes…..
I’d need it if I had to fly with Southwest!! Look outside the windows and see the tape holding those wings together.
Commented earlier, that hearing Bach anywhere is a sublime experience. In fact, any unexpected encounter with great music, whether on the street, subway, or coming from an open window as you walk by, amounts to connecting, spiritually, with another person: the musician and the composer. It is simply, a gift from something higher than ourselves.
This young cellist is not doing this for extra clicks; she is doing this because she was asked to, by empathetic airline attendants. In a world where attacks on the streets, the internet, and, woefully, on airplanes are frequent, it is simply a blessing to hear a counter-“argument” from Bach and his cellist.
Giving a performance to people inclosed in a metal tube at 35,000 feet, i.e. a captive audience, is tactless in my opinion. I’m sure many people enjoyed it but…..but you’re not giving people the option to opt out. If the guitar player on the plane then wants to get up and sing Highway to Hell then maybe it might not seem like such a good idea. I say….just let people be.
Some of them were asleep and others would have had noise-cancelling headphones if they needed to avoid Bach. I’m doubtful about this kind of audience anyway.
A quick walk down the passageways of any aircraft with entertainment screens in full view you readily discern the intellectual level of the passengers!!
That was my experience recently on a new A350. The man and his child flopped in next to me and immediately put some trash movie on before the plane had left the ground. Next to the spouse two women sat reading all the way, despite stomach-churning turbulence. They were completely unperturbed.
not everybody likes
classical music
An entire Suite would (probably) have annoyed some people, but the Prelude alone is the right length for such an audience. The flight attendants no doubt asked the passengers via the PA system if they’d like to hear it, and if anyone had dissented vocally, they’d probably have dropped the idea.
Ryanair would’ve charged passengers for listening
Nice to hear GOOD news about Southwest Airlines and their treatment of cellos!