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Scroll down to watch as <\/em>a cat makes its way on stage during Beethoven<\/a><\/strong>‘s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony at the 52nd Istanbul Festival<\/em>…<\/p> When nature encroaches on classical music, the results are sometimes disastrous, sometimes wondrous, but never dull.\u00a0<\/p> I remember a particularly atmospheric performance at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival<\/strong><\/a>, in which an audibly stormy and windswept backdrop leant great atmosphere to a performance of Haydn<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Symphony No. 59 given by the musicians of Chamber Music Berlin-Vienna in the outdoor Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater\u2026 though the orchestra looked less than pleased as sheets of rainy mist made their way towards them through gaps to the side of the stage roof.<\/p> I\u2019ve also had the misfortune of being dive-bombed by bats when performing at a wedding with my own string quartet<\/a><\/strong>. Not our finest hour, though being the professionals that we are, we soldiered on as best we could.<\/p> But on Friday I witnessed perhaps the best example of art and nature in synchronicity when a stray cat wandered on stage during a performance of Beethoven\u2019s \u2018Pastoral\u2019 Symphony<\/a><\/strong> given by Festival Strings Lucerne<\/a><\/strong> at the 52nd Istanbul Music Festival<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p> The people of Istanbul love cats, and set up food and play stations for the city\u2019s wild felines. Apparently, this cat is a regular in the Lutfi Kirdar International Convention and Exhibition Centre, where the concert was held, and the assembling audience members were charmed \u2013 even giving a hearty applause \u2013 when she coolly walked across the stage before the performance began.<\/p> But as the concert\u2019s second half started (following a fluid and elegant performance of Beethoven\u2019s Third Piano Concerto by Maria Jo\u00e3o Pires<\/a><\/strong>), our feline friend appeared on stage again before walking through the audience and attempting to leap onto the lap of a most unimpressed man in the row ahead of me.\u00a0<\/p> When she next appeared on stage, the circumstances couldn\u2019t have been better for her star appearance. As cuckoo calls in the orchestral part sounded, she reacted as if to live birds, much to the delight of the crowd.<\/p>‘A stray cat wandered on stage’<\/h2>
‘She reacted as if to live birds’<\/h2>