Suffered cerebral hemorrhage age 56 while playing Richard Strauss's Oboe Concerto.

WHILE playing the concerto?

Oh, how sad. :(

Amazingly, he was able to gently hand his oboe off to another musician while collapsing. :/

Do you think he knew what was happening to him?

At 56 he must have known a lot about his brain and its reaction to things.

You know that something very bad and painful is happening.  Unconsciousness comes pretty quickly in my experience.

One thing about bursting aneurysms is that it often seems to happen while the person is doing something they really enjoy. Athletes not infrequently are training or competing when struck down, musicians are playing, ordinary people are having sex or conducting business or dancing.  It's not the kind of thing that seems to happen when you're taking a nap.

I guess unconscious is good. Less painful, right?

Is it correlated with exertion / stress?

All those activities could be considered high exertion / stressful...

Unfortunately he passed away 4 days later.  :(