Blow fly

There was an ASO subscription series concert program in the Adelaide Town Hall in the 1980s that attracted a special visitor. The program included Berloiz ‘s Symphonie Fantastique. The third movement, ”Scene In the fields” involves a dialogue between two shepherds being the off-stage oboe and the on-stage cor anglais. It was during Peter Webb’s cor anglais solo that a big blow fly appeared and visited everyone individually in the woodwind section. Up and down the row he went and at the end of the movement when the timpani created the sounds of distant thunder, he disappeared. At the next performance, we were all recalling our special visitation the evening before as we approached the third movement and then amazingly the blow fly reappeared and again said hello to everyone in the woodwind section only to disappear before the inclement weather.