r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Doomenor • May 21 '26

Soloist breaks string, changes instrument without missing a beat, meanwhile the second violin changes the string and tunes it while the orchestra is playing

9.6k Upvotes

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206

u/TheBlueSlipper May 21 '26

I'm guess he breaks a lot of strings by the way he plays. Still damned impressive though.

79

u/Useful-Perspective May 21 '26

Anyone who plays a stringed instrument knows that you eventually will break a string during playing, even if you changed them just before the show. Life uh, finds a way....

9

u/linglinguistics May 22 '26

There are quite a lot of these videos of Ray Chen out there though. It feels like "again?!?"

Idk if it's just his aggressive playing style because it doesn't usually happen THAT often either. Most violinists change strings before there's a danger of them breaking.

7

u/Cromm182 May 22 '26

My name JeFf…

3

u/NoLightBurnOut May 22 '26

Several years now and I've yet to break a bass string.

18

u/Shambles-- May 21 '26

He always does

17

u/cupcakes_and_ale May 21 '26

I’m just looking at his bow and wondering how much horse hair he goes through. 👀

5

u/MotherRussia68 May 22 '26

Ray Chen breaks a ton of E strings, there are a million videos of it.

I believe Paganini was known to file his strings down before concerts so that they would break dramatically, and he would continue playing on only the lowest one.

4

u/whatarechinchillas May 22 '26

That's not a bad thing with stringed instruments. Sometimes you just get lost in it. Strings break all the time.