Daniel Hope recounts a Moscow String Quartet concert in Paris in April 1975. During a performance of Shostakovich’s Thirteenth String Quartet, a loud bang, smoke and released white mice interrupt the evening.
Hope describes the action as a protest for Soviet Jews’ freedom to emigrate. His account relates Kuschnir’s fright and the support he received from violinist Michel Schwalbé.
The episode comes from Hope’s book about mishaps in musical life. It is presented here as his account; the original does not establish that the bang was a gunshot.