jhnbrbr
New member
Have you ever been to an organ recital by a professional when something has gone horribly wrong? I can remember two such experiences, but I won't name names as I wouldn't want to destroy anyone's reputation! The first was a very emminent British organist giving a recital at Birmingham Cathedral. Reaching the end of Franck's "Cantabile", the volume was fading away nicely towards the end when his toe pressed the wrong piston and we enjoyed a mighty blast of reeds on the final chord. The second was another extremely talented performer playing "Toccatina for the Flutes". Now that isn't a work where you expect to hear dramatic changes of registration, but that is exactly what happened. It turned out his fingers were bumping into the pistons while he played, so it became toccatina for the flutes, then the diapasons, then the mixtures, then the reeds, then the flutes again ...
However, in a strange sort of way, I think these incidents can actually be quite inspiring to we accident-prone amateurs, because it proves the top level players are only human after all ...
However, in a strange sort of way, I think these incidents can actually be quite inspiring to we accident-prone amateurs, because it proves the top level players are only human after all ...