With a loud pop, the A string of cellist Leonard Elschenbroich broke during the finale to the Tchaikovsky Trio, such was the vigour that he was playing his seventeenth-century instrument.
First he, then violinist Nicola Benedetti, then pianist Alexei Grynyuk left the Bristol Old Vic stage, leaving a young page turner by himself in front of a packed auditorium.
With a small bit of encouragement, he shuffled onto the piano stool next to his seat and played the first few bars of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, to be greeted with a rich round of applause.
It was a perfect example of what the Bristol Proms has been all about, with the crowd often as much part of proceedings as the musicians, regardless or not whether their name is in the programme.
Benedetti was the headline act on Friday night and told us what a wonderful honour it was to playing Paganini’s music on the same stage on which he had once performed.
The former BBC Young Musician of the Year was alone in the first half, composing herself before the start of a piece like Johnny Wilkinson composes himself before taking a conversion on the rugby field.
Standing at the front of the pit, I was so close to the 26-year-old Scot that I could hear her breathe.
The graphics behind her had been devised by an atomic physicist at Bristol University, who explained to us before the performance that what we would see would be based on vibrations, something that in physics can be found right from the anatomical to the astronomical level.
On the screen there were what looked like tadpoles, splodges of paint, shooting stars, aeroplane flight paths in colour, a moving sheen of oil on water; but I have to admit that the musicians were so engaging that I barely looked at the screen.
Benedetti glanced behind her when beginning Paganini’s Caprice No. 24, well known enough to provoke an audible gasp from the audience.
“It’s been fascinating for me to watch it and try not to watch it,” Benedetti said.
After a longer than scheduled break due to the broken string came the last of the late-night Proms – In A Town by The Beautiful Machine, directed by Jennifer Bell with choreography by Dan Canham.
The acapella chorus repeated some songs last heard as part of Temple Songs during Mayfest, but here in the grandiose setting of the Old Vic auditorium rather than a deserted office building on Victoria Street.
With songs about office romances and eating lunch at your desk, the office building setting actually worked better for a few of the pieces – but it was magical all the same as the historic theatre fell silent to hear The Beautiful Machine’s finely-tuned harmonies.
