Family recital strikes wrong note, say police
POLICE officers closed down a family of musicians playing classics to cheer up neighbours in their street, it emerged yesterday.
Violinist Rafael Todes, 53, a member of the Allegri String Quartet, his wife Helena Newman and their children Isabella and Max, had been performing Shostakovich’s String Quartet No 4 when officers told them to stop.
The police were said to be concerned that too many people were gathering outside their house in Bayswater, west London.
Mr Todes, who is a teacher at the Royal Academy of Music, said: “Just before we played I gave a little speech about Shostakovich.
“The irony is, he wrote this piece and had his suitcase packed at the time, terrified of being arrested by Stalin.
“We were playing this and the history of the piece came rather to life when the police arrived. It’s a friendly street and people have warmed to having music during desperate times.”
Rafael and his family originally got together to attempt the Beethoven string quartets. He said: “About five weeks ago a neighbour asked us during lockdown, whether we could do a little concert for the lady who lived upstairs.
“So we did that and people in the street watched and somebody said, ‘You’ve got to do this again next week’.”
In a clip of the incident, an officer can be heard telling the family: “I don’t enjoy this part of the job but obviously it’s going to keep causing the street to keep gathering.
“I hear what you’re doing, it’s good music but obviously it’s going to keep causing the street to block. I do apologise. It’s very good.”
Simon Messinger, who is silver commander for the Metropolitan Police Covid19 policing operation, said: “The officer can clearly be heard explaining, in a polite and informative manner, his rationale for asking the performance to stop.
“No matter how positive the sentiment, if groups of people start to gather in public places, then it is our officers’ duty to encourage people to move on for the safety of everyone.
“On this occasion, those involved were happy to act on our officer’s advice.”