While waiting for their delayed KLM flight to be released, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta took their instruments down from the overhead compartments and started playing a spontaneous concert for their fellow passengers.
As long as they’re not flying RyanAir, Europeans just seem to know how to have fun better on their airlines. Witness the pillow fight on a Lufthansa in which a flight attendant was a gleeful participant.
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All kinds of awesome.
So awesome.
I guess they too the “united breaks guitars” campaign to heart and brought their instruments as carry-ons. As a musician, I can totally sympathize.
Awesome on them.
Actually, musicians (particularly classical stringed instruments) never check their instruments because there is always a baggage handler in the chain who doesn’t realize or care that throwing musical instruments is a great way to destroy someone’s livelihood. A trombone or a flute may survive such a tossing, but a cello or a viola certainly will not.
Very cool, but the audience was probably about 10 people once you eliminate the musicians, lol.
I bet the coach passengers were all sorts of jealous.
Well, apparently they didn’t have to pay for extra seats for the instruments, they used the overhead compartments, so there were a few more passengers.
I suspect those 10 are the percussion and double bass section
So it wasn’t a concert. It was a dress rehearsal.
Hell, if I were in this situation, I’d do it for fun, and as a way to kill time on a delayed flight.
A few years ago I’ve read that a well-known Violinist, Uto Ughi, was flying from a concert venue when some turbulence hit the plane.
People were really scared and starting to panic.
He took his violin and started to play until the turbulence ended.
I hope the carrier thanked him.
reminds me of the musicians that played while the titanic was sinking.
same thought
The difference is that in this case, everybody survived.
How do you play an instrument while undergoing enough turbulence to make people panic?
1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a pillow war….
*Paff*Paff*Paff*Paff*Paff*Paff*Paff*Paff*
NOT ON ME!
Bravo!
Maybe I am showing my age but I would be pissed. I don;t care ifs its music or a screaming kid, loud sound is loud. Esp in a small closed in place like a plane.
definitely your age showing. absolutely no reason to get pissed. you’re not flying (yet). if someone got pissed about that, they either have some serious problems or need to take an extremely heavy dose of “chill out man”.
Also, violins and what not are not loud. It’d be awesome to see it in person!
Duh, it’s a CHAMBER orchestra – they’re designed for small spaces!
I think considering the number of people who would be pissed off at this (you?), those people may confine themselves to the lavatory during the performance.
I do like classical music, so I’d be ok with this. But being forced by circumstances to listen to music I don’t like is one of my biggest pet peeves, so if I was on a flight and someone started playing pop, modern rock of any sort, hip-hop, or rap (or anything but classical, traditional country, and classic rock) I’d be extremely upset. Really, really angry and enraged, actually. I spend my entire life trying to avoid music that I dislike, which means avoiding most stores, including most grocery stores, and most restaurants, and even many gas stations. I do NOT want to hear music that I don’t like.
What is it about plane travel that brings out the humorless grouch in so many people? Planes are inherently obnoxious–but so much of that obnoxiouness is linked to people who can’t seem to lighten the hell up. What’s the harm in a spontaneous, joyful musical event? I read that during the Sydney Olympics, when Australia won an event, complete strangers in public would start singing Waltzing Matilda together–I suppose you would be throwing a tantrum, shrieking, “I have a right to silence!” instead of enjoying the magical, fleeting moment.
It’s not your age, it’s your personality. As long as the orchestra wasn’t super loud, I wouldn’t see the problem, and I’m old.
I would think you should/would be glad they are professionals, and not some crappy, screechy dive club rock band.
Not to be the pessimist here, but I hate to think what would’ve happened if this orchestra tried this on a US based airline, like Delta, Southwest, or United.
They would’ve all been detained by the TSA for disrupting a flight or some such nonsense.
The airline would have added an ‘onboard entertainment’ fee to everyone’s ticket.
+1 to you.
Southwest might have organized a singalong…the others, not so much…
Yeah, but the best performance one could expect from Southwest is a quintet– and the cellist would need to sit it out or sing. Those 767s aren’t exactly spacious.
lawsuit
I would be more awestruck if they played while the plane was going down, like the brave chaps from Titanic.
For some reason this is one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen on YouTube.
Neat, but I can’t help but think being 2 feet away from an orchestra would be a bit loud and unnerving.
Somehow the instrumentalists manage to survive.
No, seriously, this is epic.
I doubt that they were playing as loud as possible.
Will you assholes stop that racket? I’m trying to read SkyMall!
Did anyone notice the cello case? How did they get something large onto the plane as carry-on? I had to repack my camera bag twice to shift things around to get it to conform to that stupid-metal-frame-sizer-thingy (it was like an inch over originally). So how does a cello, which is many times oversized, get onboard?
Usually by buying a ticket. I’m sure your camera is welcome to do the same.
As a friend of a bassist, they are required to purchase a seat for their instruments. Yes, the Symphony where she plays pays for the extra seat when they travel out of country.
A cellist/bassist would never allow “Fragile, handle with care?? Eh, just toss it in” baggage handlers anywhere near their instrument, so they’ll pay for the extra ticket.
if this was the U.S they’d all be arrested on terrorist related charges.
My first thought, too. It’s sad how “Land of the Free” has now become false advertising.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVJW4lDV59E&feature=related
part 2
@packcamera – many cello’s were on board, i probably would buy a ticket for mine too considering the cost of replacing one if it was lost or damaged… and if they were on their way to a concert then they probably wouldn’t have had the time in order to go get a replacement in a hurry.
THIS IS WHY OVERHEAD STORAGE IS ALWAYS OVERUSED. Seriously, check your damn Trombones so I can keep my purse in the cabin without paying $25.
It’s possible they bought a seat for the cello. Look a few posts up from yours.
Unfortunately for you, those “damn trombones” and other musical instruments of a professional caliber are the musicians means of living. I am not checking my concert instrument, which is worth thousands of dollars, so that you can have a place to put your overcharged status bag. Get over it.
It’s also why we buy extra seats for our instruments, which is what the cello players had to do.
I’ll ask the next obvious question: Can anyone identify the piece they were playing?
Now I see it: Mozart’s Symphony No. 29
Now I see it: Mozart’s Symphony No. 29
That’s one delayed flight I would not have minded being on.
Well, if there’s one plane I wouldn’t mind being stuck on the tarmac in, it’d be this one.. how cool is that?
Non-US carriers are so awesome. On Qantas they showed Mr. Bean and Monty Python for entertainment, and the food was terrific. Sigh…..
I’m surprised at the number of grouches complaining about how they would hate to have to listen to the music in the plane. Can I get a major dose of wah waaahhhhhh? Lighten up!
Too awesome. I just KNEW they weren’t American…(sad).
I love the passengers holding up the sheet music!
An American-based airline would’ve charges the passengers an extra “listening to music” fee
Where’s the outrage, the lawsuits, reprimanding, and threat to security? Behavior like this is too human and personal for comfort. Someone, somewhere must have a stick up their ass about this.
Good thing United didn’t break all the instruments first…ope different airline, never mind
For the complaints about the cello in the seat…
Most airlines require that expensive, large musical instruments (cellos, etc.) be transported in the cabin, and a seat has to be purchased for the instrument. One should be happy, since there isn’t a complaining passenger sitting there.
I’m just glad there were no ASCAP lawyers in the audience– if there were, they would have demanded every passenger to pay for that performance.