I blame Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), the Russian composer for a minor accident that happened here at my home in Lewes, UK. Ironing is a dangerous game if you take your mind of it and that is exactly what I did when ironing a linen shirt on full heat with my usually fairly tame steam iron. Maybe it didn’t like Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto (1878) or maybe I was playing it too loudly but when I wasn’t listening, it came up and bite me. Ouch!
No great damage, apparently, once the blistering has cleared up but whose fault was it? Tchaikovsky or the iron? If you promise to put that iron away while you listen, here’s Joshua Bell playing the work’s appropriately mournful slow movement. Ouch! Never iron and listen to the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto – too much fun all at once can be lethal.
