It's bad enough when it happens with a drink or plate of food. Now imagine doing it to a 200-year-old violin. 

An orchestral performance in Portugal was brought to an abrupt halt after the conductor gesticulated just a tad too animatedly, knocking the violinist's instrument out of his hands.

The crash the violin makes as it hits the ground will have musicians grimacing, and the stunned silence that follows the accident suggests the audience was equally shocked. 

But as first violinist Romulo Assis and conductor Nuno Côrte-Real inspected the damage, the audience showed its appreciation for the performance of Tchaikovsky's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra up to that point.

The video is of a performance by the Orquestra do Norte in Amarante, northern Portugal. Mr Assis subsequently finished the concert on a colleague's violin. 

Thankfully, the lengthwise crack from the 'f' hole upwards that the violin suffered is repairable: a violin similar to the 1809 Nicola Lupot violin he plays was valued at around €90,000 by auction house Bromptons. Ouch.