Ian Crisp wrote: [abridged]

>The cellist began with a broken hair dangling off his bow.  When he broke
>the string and had to go off to change it, he came back with the broken
>hair still there - strange that he didn't find a moment to tweak it off.
>At the end of the first movement there must have been twenty or thirty
>broken hairs dangling off each end of the bow - more than I think I've
>ever seen.  ...

Curiously, I had two different solo violinists almost ten years apart
 [same orchestra] break their E-strings at almost exactly the same place
just after the beginning of the declamatory section which links the slow
movement and the finale of the Mendelssohn E minor concerto.

Each went on to an unflustered performance of the finale.

Anything other than sheer coincidence at work here?

Cheers-Joel