Violinist Daniel Hope hits sour note over vulgar video spoof

One composer said that Daniel Hope had suffered a sense of humour bypass
One composer said that Daniel Hope had suffered a sense of humour bypass
ULLSTEIN BILD/GETTY IMAGES

In the classical music world, where seriousness dominates the saturnine concert houses, arguably there should be some space for levity. Not, it seems, for one of Britain’s leading violinists.

Daniel Hope became so offended at a satirical “shred” of one of his performances that he fired off a legal warning to the perpetrator. The creator of the shred — where typically footage of a musician has new audio dubbed over, often with funny results — promptly lost his job at a concert house where Hope happens to be a star performer. The Konzerthaus Berlin said the shred created by its presenter Arno Lücker was “offensive and disrespectful”.

In Lücker’s shred, created with his fellow composer Carlotta Joachim, he overdubbed Hope’s introductory remarks “with pornographic and