# Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra--Medical Emergency



## JeffersonNickel (Oct 9, 2014)

I attended the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra this evening. Jean-Yves Thibaudet was performing Khachaturian's Piano Concerto and with about 10 minutes remaining in the 3rd movement, a woman was helped out of the theater by 2 ushers. She really wasn't walking, it was more like they were carrying her. I doubt if most of the people in the theater even noticed because she was in an aisle seat towards the rear of the orchestra section of seating. In addition, they removed her very quickly and with almost no noise. It did not distract any of the musicians on stage. At intermission, an ambulance arrived and she was taken away on a stretcher.

Has anyone ever seen a full blown medical emergency during a performance? How does the orchestra resume playing after the person in need of medical attention is given treatment?

Thanks,

Paul


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

"...and the band played on." 

Just like on the Titanic, almost just like in those western movies where a bar-room brawl starts and the piano player / band "plays on" -- the orchestra plays on, or finishes the program.

One conductor had a fatal heart attack mid-concert (I'm sure another member could tell you who) and I don't know if that concert continued after he was hauled away... (I'm sure if the other member who could tell you which conductor that was shows up in this thread, they can tell you that, too.) because even then, that band may have "played on."


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

That must be the Jansons, I have a faint memory that Senior (Arvid) died from a Heart attack on the podium while conducting the Hallé Orchestra (1984, might be a myth?), and Junior (Mariss) had a Heart attack while conducting the final page La Boheme in Oslo in 1996..

/ptr


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Giuseppe Sinopoli died while conducting Aida and Dimitri Mitropoulos died while rehearsing Mahler's 3rd. They should really ban this classical music, it's dangerous.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

No medical emergency but highly dramatic all the same was:

I was attending a Mostly Mozart concert in NYC in the 1970's and they stopped the concert to make an announcement that Richard Nixon resigned the presidency of the US. Unforgettable.

I have heard a few hearing aids give off deafening high pitched noises though at concerts.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

hpowders said:


> No medical emergency but highly dramatic all the same was:
> 
> I was attending a Mostly Mozart concert in NYC in the 1970's and they stopped the concert to make an announcement that Richard Nixon resigned the presidency of the US. Unforgettable.


Did half the crowd leave to go home and place calls to the answering machines of their stockbrokers?


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## nightscape (Jun 22, 2013)

JeffersonNickel said:


> I attended the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra this evening. Jean-Yves Thibaudet was performing Khachaturian's Piano Concerto and with about 10 minutes remaining in the 3rd movement, a woman was helped out of the theater by 2 ushers. She really wasn't walking, it was more like they were carrying her. I doubt if most of the people in the theater even noticed because she was in an aisle seat towards the rear of the orchestra section of seating. In addition, they removed her very quickly and with almost no noise. It did not distract any of the musicians on stage. At intermission, an ambulance arrived and she was taken away on a stretcher.
> 
> Has anyone ever seen a full blown medical emergency during a performance? How does the orchestra resume playing after the person in need of medical attention is given treatment?


Coincidentally, I was attending a Philadelphia Orchestra concert last year and a woman passed out and hit her head on the balcony railing. Her husband got her back in the seat and she looked dazed (obviously). Eventually they got the attention of an usher and they helped her out. During intermission I saw they had an ambulance outside.

"The Philadelphia Orchestra: Causing musically induced medical threats since 1900."


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Here's an interesting story about preventing a medical emergency.

During a performance of the Cleveland Orchestra, in the middle of the piece, the concertmaster stood up, slapped conductor Christoph von Dohnányi on the back, then sat down.

After the concert, the conductor asked the concertmaster, "What were you doing?"

The concertmaster said, "I saw a bee hovering over your back. As I watched it, I wondered if you were allergic to bee stings. I killed the bee because I felt it was my duty as concertmaster to protect your health."


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## nightscape (Jun 22, 2013)

BTW, this thread scared the crap out of me because I'm seeing them on Saturday (same program as the OP). At first I thought something happened to a member of the orchestra, Yannick, or Thibaudet.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

hpowders said:


> I was attending a Mostly Mozart concert in NYC in the 1970's and they stopped the concert to make an announcement that Richard Nixon resigned the presidency of the US. Unforgettable.


And unforgivable. Interrupting Mozart for news of some sleazy politician? No thanks. In fact, they shouldn't stop for any reason. If nuclear war had just broken out, we'd all know about it soon enough anyway.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

brianvds said:


> And unforgivable. Interrupting Mozart for news of some sleazy politician? No thanks. In fact, they shouldn't stop for any reason. If nuclear war had just broken out, we'd all know about it soon enough anyway.


Many folks in the first three rows voted for him.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

hpowders said:


> Many folks in the first three rows voted for him.


Ow! That's sharp!


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## rrudolph (Sep 15, 2011)

I hate to be pedantic (but I will anyway), but there is no "Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra". It's just Philadelphia Orchestra.

An orchestra I've played in, the Trenton Symphony, once had a trumpet player die on stage during a concert. I wasn't involved in that concert but I had worked with him previously. A lot of people said "at least he died doing what he loved", but I'm not sure I'd want to go out that way...


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Last year, a violinist at the Bolshoi fell into the orchestra pit and died. Not sure if the band played for that one.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Ow! That's sharp!


They voted to maintain the status quo, while the rest of us were begging in the streets.
I myself wouldn't stoop so low. I was merely asking....never begging.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Saw Karajan give his last concert in London in 1988. 
The BPO were superb but you couldn't help noticing that Herbie didn't move very much, but I'm pretty sure he was still alive at the time


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Perhaps it was just a wax replica.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Did half the crowd leave to go home and place calls to the answering machines of their stockbrokers?


No. They just sat there asleep as they were before the announcement.

The wives' eyes were open; the husbands' eyes were closed. Guess who dragged whom along.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Perhaps it was just a wax replica.


Never occurred to me before but they may have simply been running a few volts through him from time to time


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Ow! That's sharp!


I coulda been Prokofiev!


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

You mean there's classical music that people have died conducting, playing, and listening to?

Maybe there should be a warning sign on the concert hall doors:








I'd be intrigued to see a concert listing of works that have proved fatal. I'm not saying I'd attend the concert, just that I'd find it an interesting proposition. Don't let me stop you from attending, though.

And good luck.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Btw, it is The Philadelphia Orchestra, not Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. 
I have been at several concerts with Medical emergencies. The Classical Music audience is a somewhat older crowd, after all.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

You better check that ticket. If you are going to hear the Mahler 8th, it had better be with the Philadelphia Orchestra, not the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.

During summer concerts the Philadelphia Orchestra became the "Robin Hood Dell" Orchestra. Good grief!!!


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

hpowders said:


> Many folks in the first three rows voted for him.


And let me guess: when afterwards they played back the recording of the concert, parts of it had mysteriously been deleted...


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

JeffersonNickel said:


> ans on stage. At intermission, an ambulance arrived and she was taken away on a stretcher.
> 
> Has anyone ever seen a full blown medical emergency during a performance? How does the orchestra resume playing after the person in need of medical attention is given treatment?


A couple of years ago I saw one of the chorus members collapse on stage in the final movement of the Mahler 3rd Symphony in Boston. The conductor kept on conducting, but after a few seconds the orchestra ground to a halt. Daniele Gatti was the conductor and he just stood there for a few seconds. "Get that dead person off the stage!" No he didn't say that. But that's what it looked like he was thinking. After a few seconds he walked back to the chorus and they took the unconscious woman off the stage. Then they finished the performance.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The conductor kept on conducting??? Man, that's cold!!!!


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

hpowders said:


> The conductor kept on conducting??? Man, that's cold!!!!


It's possible that he didn't even know it happened. When I sit at the side and can see Gatti's face he often looks to be in some kind of trance. He's a grunter too. But keeping the orchestra long costs a lot in overtime pay. Maybe he sound have had some faster tempi!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Radames said:


> It's possible that he didn't even know it happened. When I sit at the side and can see Gatti's face he often looks to be in some kind of trance. He's a grunter too. But keeping the orchestra long costs a lot in overtime pay. Maybe he sound have had some faster tempi!


That's true. I wonder if the Prince noticed the musicians were all leaving during Haydn's Farewell Symphony?


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## nightscape (Jun 22, 2013)

In an odd bit of coincidence, I attended tonight's concert and there was, you guessed it....a medical emergency.

About midway through the second movement of Khachaturian's piano concerto, a man sitting in the conductor's circle (which is behind the orchestra) passed out. It would have been in Yannick's field of vision (off to the right a bit, above the trombones) and when he saw the ushers come down into that area he gestured to Thibaudet and waved off the orchestra, bringing everything to a halt.

There was breathless pause from the crowd as everyone waited to make sure the man was okay. He was lying down on the seats with his wife fanning him, and the rest of the row giving him space. No one was annoyed; you could hear a pin drop. The man thankfully got up on his own but needed some assistance getting out.

Thibaudet and Yannick agreed to rewind just a bit and pick it back up at the second movement cadenza.

It seems Khachaturian has the taste for human blood.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

hpowders said:


> You better check that ticket. If you are going to hear the Mahler 8th, it had better be with the Philadelphia Orchestra, not the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.
> 
> During summer concerts the Philadelphia Orchestra became the "Robin Hood Dell" Orchestra. Good grief!!!


Could be a problem if members of the Nottingham Symphony Orchestra turn up with the Sherrif in tow.


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## JeffersonNickel (Oct 9, 2014)

nightscape said:


> In an odd bit of coincidence, I attended tonight's concert and there was, you guessed it....a medical emergency.
> 
> About midway through the second movement of Khachaturian's piano concerto, a man sitting in the conductor's circle (which is behind the orchestra) passed out. It would have been in Yannick's field of vision (off to the right a bit, above the trombones) and when he saw the ushers come down into that area he gestured to Thibaudet and waved off the orchestra, bringing everything to a halt.
> 
> ...


That is spooky! I wonder if anyone passed out on Friday as well. And thanks again, your story answered my question which I admit was a little vague. I knew they would continue the performance but I didn't know if they start the entire movement over or just pick a starting point from within.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

With Khachaturian you can be sure that the weren't just sleeping! You'd have to be in a coma to be unconscious with all that going on!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Badinerie said:


> Could be a problem if members of the Nottingham Symphony Orchestra turn up with the Sherrif in tow.


Playing some music by the enfant terrible Forrest Sherwood?


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## nightscape (Jun 22, 2013)

I'm beginning to think I'm cursed. I attended another concert today and the woman right next to me had some type of minor seizure in the middle of Dvorak's _The Golden Spinning Wheel_. We were in the first tier and it did not disrupt the performance, but her husband went to get help. I was at the end of the row so when he came back with ushers I got out of the way.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

^^^Please let me know the date and concert you will be attending so I can make other plans. :lol:


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