Resonate

Musicians rarely get public recognition for helping eachother. But this weekend French musicians helped the London Symphony Orchestra avoid a minor disaster.

The LSO was in Dijon, in eastern France, to perform Mahler’s Seventh Symphony. The only problem? A strike by French ferry workers kept the orchestra’s instruments, sheet music and clothing from reaching Dijon.

Kathryn McDowell, the orchestra’s managing director, announced that the concert would not be canceled and began requesting that French musicians and music schools loan nearly 100 instruments to the orchestra.

The orchestra received the instruments they needed — more or less. The tuba players had to play on a different type of tuba from their usual, as did the bassoonists. And the principal flutist made do with a tin flute.

But perhaps this paragraph from The Times describes the most interesting part:

A third of the players went on in jeans and T-shirts. Midway through the symphony the violas found a page missing in their hastily printed scores and were forced to improvise.

Sounds like quite an interesting rendition of Mahler!