Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Wow I feel bad for this guy!!!

I'd would just leave and never show my face again after this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG931XPV5VU&feature=related

I had one particular page turn where I wanted the turner to turn really quietly (as piano was tacet while the singer sang pianissimo) so I'd written QUIET on the score, and went over it with her in advance. For some reason she decided not to turn that page, so I had to grab it and flip the page over instead...

I've had that happen to me once. It's really scary playing in front of a group along with a trio, and have the wrong page turned in front of you. The page turner in this case was my own piano teacher!

John

Victor Borge ..would know what to do..

I realize that page turners should be able to read music as fast as the pianist, or at least work out a set of gestures with the pianist beforehand to avoid miscues that we observed on this video. Learned this during CC2's party where I turned pages for one pianist...

- Mark

A mistake yes, but I don't know if I'd come down that hard on him. We're all human... I'll say this, Berezovsky did a fantastic job of just keeping going and turning the page back on his own while he kept the RH going. That's the best way to handle it - just keep going and don't sweat it.

My son was playing a duo piano piece once at a recital and I was his page turner. I turned two page instead of one.

He has forgiven me ..... I think.

I agree with 8ude: the page turner made a mistake. What's the big deal?

Regards,

If he never asked you to turn pages for him after that, you have your answer...I think. :p

The big deal is that it's Berezovsky...lol, ok ok so its not really a big deal, but what gets me is the look that he gives the guy after he turns the page.

If you guys want a laugh at a loser... you got to listen to this recording..

Messiah Organist on Crack...

BLOODY HILARIOUS!!!!!

http://www.btinternet.com/~tim.johnson77/rambler/Messiahorganistoncrack.mp3

I wouldn't laugh at any loser. I don't think there are losers in this world, certainly not for the wrong chord or the wrong timing of turning a page.

Relax, like you've never done anything stupid!

But the recording was actually very funny! The applause got there in delay of a few secs, which showed the immense, staggering shock the audience went through! OMG! It was awful!

Considering this was a professional accompanist who was playing the organ for a wedding...

he/she IS a loser...

I mean it's a 4 - 1 plagal cadence... 2 bloody chords... How could you screw that up.

I don't know what to say about the organist.

I had the page turn thing happen to me once. Unfortunately, I didn't notice it immediately, because the music was the same at the top of each of the successive pages. I stayed with the choir for around 4 bars, then they went one direction and I went another. There was a certain amount of scrambling at that point. It wasn't pretty.

You make way too many assumptions.

It is actually rather easy to do, if you are playing an unfamiliar organ that has one of those wretched transposing devices, and if it is installed as a thumb piston rather than a harder-to-reach knob. I have a feeling I know the exact model - it is a pretty bad design flaw for unsuspecting organists (who often have to play unfamiliar instruments without much prior preparation).

My guess is that he went to change his registration with a thumb piston, and hit the transposer instead.

It is also possible that someone else hit the button for him.

It is also possible the organist was not a professional, although that shouldn't be an issue. People make mistakes.

How do you know it was a wedding? Large choirs at weddings are not typical.

It is also possible that he is a she.

It is also possible that the recording is a fake.

The only thing we can be relatively sure of, is that this person is not a "loser".

I am trying to be as diplomatic as I can in asking this. Are there unspoken conventions among musicians to be followed when a colleague has a mishap or makes a gaff, especially a public one? Musician etiquette, so to say?

I've done a fair bit of page turning and had this happen to me once or twice. It usually relates to something like a repeat that wasn't discussed in advance. Sometimes, though, nothing is discussed in advance, or it is given a cursory review. The problem can be the fault of the performer, and not the page turner. I've also seen scores so thoroughly marked up by the performer that you can't follow the notes easily.

Page turning is a bit of music and a bit of choreography. It works best when it is rehearsed before the performance. A professional pianist should insist on such a rehearsal before any public concert.

exactly... i have more than once hit this one button while playing that 'turns on the horns'.... shudder

I feel worse for this guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW6wJ8LaOfE

HE can thank Clara Schumann for that! Yikes, unfortunately in this field every little mistake is magnified into a colossal failure and that's a shame. Nerves can be the pianist's worst enemy. Sometimes I think the best way to practice to overcome nerves is to play absolutely naked in front of a group of nuns that are throwing ping-pong balls at you the whole time.

Or so I've been told, cough.