Richard Todd <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Was it a string she broke, or a bow hair? Bow hairs routinely break and
>are routinely plucked off at the first opportunity.  You can't pluck off a
>broken string, though a good violinist can play most things with one broken
>string, as long as it's not the G-string.

I believe that it must have been a bow hair.  I mean, Ms Mutter is a
brilliant virtuoso, I am not quite as clever as I used to be in my sprite
years, but if she can handle the spectacular octave shifts closing the
Sibelius concerto without the E-string, wow:-)

Bow hairs often break indeed, but they are not totally harmless.  There
is a small probability that you might put a left-hand finger on a flying
hair still connected with the bow, and if this happens in a finale alla
zingaresca, it should be a lot of fun -- in a sense.

What did happen to me once (not purposedly) was that my E-string broke
on the very last pizzicato of Ravel's Tzigane.  Of course, this was quite
dramatic:-) On the other hand, the show must go on, and since it was a
recital with piano and not with an orchestra, I had to change my string.
This is tiresome, because new strings tend to reach their final length and
tension (and therefore pitch) only after a day or two, and it is not
necessarily an ideal solution to replace a broken string with a used one.
Thus, the next short Sarasate piece ended in an almost baroque fashion.

Ever since I have adopted the alternate ending for Tzigane.  With a bow.

Best wishes,

Thanh-Tam Le