Ringing iPhone stops New York Philharmonic.
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| He can kill your cell phone with his brain. New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert. Photo by Pascal Perich © New York Philharmonic. |
Tuesday night's New York Philharmonic performance of the Mahler Ninth was stopped dead by an unusual instrument--the iPhone.
An iPhone (using the marimba ring-tone) went off repeatedly in the fourth movement of Mahler's final completed symphony.
According to an eyewitness, the offending phone owner was in the front rows of Avery Fisher Hall when his phone went off. (A post by Michael Jo on the classical music blog thousandfoldecho.com specifies that the interruption happened just 13 bars before the last page of the score.) In other words, in the final moments of a 25-minute movement, that ends a 90-minute symphony.
According to an eyewitness, the offending phone owner was in the front rows of Avery Fisher Hall when his phone went off. (A post by Michael Jo on the classical music blog thousandfoldecho.com specifies that the interruption happened just 13 bars before the last page of the score.) In other words, in the final moments of a 25-minute movement, that ends a 90-minute symphony.
"Mr. Gilbert was visibly annoyed by the persistent ring-tone, so much that he quietly cut the orchestra," the concert-goer, music student Kyra Sims, reports. She related how the orchestra's music director turned on the podium towards the offender. The pause lasted a good "three or four minutes. It might have been two. It seemed long."
Mr. Gilbert asked the man, sitting in front of the concert-master: "Are you finished?" The man didn't respond.
"Fine, we'll wait," Mr. Gilbert said.
The Avery Fisher Hall audience, ripped in an untimely fashion from Mahler's complicated sound-world, reacted with "seething rage," Ms. Sims said. Someone shouted "Thousand dollar fine."
This was followed by cries of 'Get out!' and 'Kick him out!.' Some people started clapping rhythmically but the hall was quieted down. House security did not intervene or remove the offender.
The ringing stopped. "Did you turn it off?" Mr. Gilbert asked.
The man nodded.
"It won't go off again?"
The man shook his head.
Before resuming, Mr. Gilbert addressed the audience. He said: "I apologize. Usually, when there's a disturbance like this, it is best to ignore it, because addressing it is sometimes worse than the disturbance itself. But this was so egregious that I could not allow it."
"We'll start again." The audience cheered.
"We'll start again." The audience cheered.
The final movement of this symphony (marked Adagio: Very Slowly and Restrained) is a long slow meditation on death that eventually fades to silence. The work has special significance at the New York Philharmonic, an orchestra that Mahler conducted in the last years of his life.
Mr. Gilbert turned to the orchestra and said "Number 118." (Again, thanks to thousandfoldecho.com for this detail.) The band picked up the movement from the final fortissimo ending in the brass, and played the work through to its last, quiet pages.
No other phones went off.
98 comments:
I was next door watching Tosca (liked it) but sounds like the better show was at Avery Fisher.
I think the guy is a schmuck but I'm not a fan of thuggish group behavior and wouldn't treat it as a hanging offense.
I was there last night. Unreal. Never seen anything like it, and that's coming from members of the orchestra, some of whom i've known for years. Gilbert has earned a whole new level of respect from his audience, whom, tend to be on the younger side. Upon exiting the hall fter it was over, all you could hear people saying was "Gilbert was awesome!", "I live Alan Gilbert now more than before". I agree. Gilbert is a New Yorker and this is his orchestra and his town proving if you screw with Mahler, prepare to have arce in a ringer!
To humiliate the offender in public has probably alienated that person from classical music for a life. Which is a shame.
Here is one solution to the problem of rogue mobile phones at concerts
http://crosseyedpianist.wordpress.com/2011/02/19/how-to-deal-with-rogue-mobile-phones-during-concerts/
As someone who had to sit through the spectacle. I personally would not mind if the offender was at least alienated from attending such events for life. A short ring from someone who forgot to turn his phone off and discreetly resolves the issue by turning it off as soon as he hears it is one thing. This was in a class by itself. The ringing seemed to go on for hours.
I respectfully disagree with the comment from crosseyed pianist. regarding the alienation of the offender from classical music. That person may be alienated from supporting Mr. Gilbert or the NY Philharmonic. However, if that person loves or even likes classical music, he will not be alienated from the music itself. Hopefully, he will be alienated from audiences filled with respect for the music and the musicians who make it, shamed from ever being so thoughtful and indeed selfish. We all make mistakes from time to time, but it takes very little to quickly stop a ringing phone (flip it open so the call can be answered and quickly switch to vibrate). That this person did not quickly act is a sign that the music and musicians already meant very little to him and he serves as a wonderful bad example that may deter others from silencing their phones prior to the music making.
I don't get why the ushers didn't remove the man after Gilbert stopped the orchestra -- that seems like their cue to step in.
I agree with the others in disagreeing with crosseyedpianist. it is one thing if rings during a loud part, and the guy quickly turns it off.
This is Mahler. This is Mahler's 9th. It is different. By letting it ring at all, he showed the greatest of respect to ALL OF MUSIC. This is one of the deepest, purest, most moving passages of music of all time, and thousands of people in that room had that deep experience, the summation of a 'life' (and certainly the last 90 minutes of their own lives) ruined, ABSOLUTELY RUINED, by this person's blatant ignorance, apathy, and inconsideration.
No matter how earlier in the movement Gilbert restarted, NOBODY CAN GET THAT MOMENT BACK. Nobody in the audience will have achieved the feeling that music is meant to convey.
I don't care if he is permanently alienated from the NYPO or classical music. He alienated himself, and deserves the scorn.
I was in attendance last night, and no words can capture my frustration. But, what makes it worse is that if you're a bit of a tech-nerd, you will know that it was VERY unlikely that it was a phone call that was being ignored...the reality is a bit worse.
Due to the timing of the repeated ringing (I was about 4 rows behind and a section over, so I heard it VERY clearly), it was obviously an alarm that had been set on the phone for a certain time. The subsequent "rings" were the "snooze" timer that automatically goes off in intervals if the alarm is not stopped.
There were numerous times where the music itself had built to a volume where the phone could have been removed from a jacket/purse/etc and silenced, so the person in question was not only being rude, but outright dumb as well.
For me, I could not get back "in the zone" and properly appreciate the final minutes of the piece, as the interruption completely destroyed the energy in the room.
I do not believe there is any "real" solution to the issue, as it is unlikely that venues will invest in signal-blocking systems, and there will always be the one moron who ruins an exceptional evening of music. However, I was surprised that no ushers or security entered the hall before or during the incident to address the patron or remove them.
I do however give great accolades to Gilbert for how he handled the situation, as anyone who was there must agree that he had no other choice. Also, the performers remained complete professionals throughout, rarely looking anywhere but to their conductor while he handled it.
I don't necessarily blame the offender. Sometimes my cellphone turns itself back on, spontaneously, after a cold shutdown. This bug has been widely reported on the manufacturer's user forum. (Motorola). Sometimes it unsets silent mode when it does this.
All cellphones should be required to be capable of receiving a signal, sent from an auditorium or classroom, that forces them into silent mode.
The guy's phone went off "repeatedly" and he didn't BOTHER to turn it off?
He would have deserved a good stomping by the crowd. And if he is turned off classical music, so much the better. That way, he won't interrupt any more concerts.
If he had interrupted a rap or hip-hop concert, he WOULD have been stomped. That's the culture he belongs in.
However, the best punishment for someone like that would be to be banned from cellphone use, for life.
I was also in attendance last night. I believe the Daily Guru is correct in saying it must have been an alarm because we first heard it in the first pianissimo portion of the 4th movement which was shortly followed by a crescendo that lasted at least a couple minutes before another very quiet portion and it was still going off without cessation.
Knowing the 9th fairly well, I knew that there was no way Gilbert was going to continue the performance. I just wish he had started the entire movement over. I know we were almost at the end, but the cell phone fiasco totally ruined the mood of the audience and he did not go back far enough for the mood to in any way be recaptured.
Though to add something that I believe hasn't been said, someone around 10 or so rows behind the offender stood up and I believe suggested that the person with the offending phone could not actually hear it. If it was an older couple who were sitting in the front row because they are hearing impaired that could have been the case. Not sure that makes anyone who was there actually feel better about the situation but it would make it seem a little less egregious.
I said to my wife as we were exiting that a large crowd of people at an entertainment venue have not felt so much enmity toward one person in attendance since that guy caught that foul ball in game 6 of the NL pennant in Chicago.
I was sitting in the back center orchestra and the ringtone sounded loud and clear, thank you, at the worst possible moment in the score. Fearfully, i looked around for the culprit, fearing it might be my eighty-something mother, who, like the clueless guy whose phone it actually was, seems incapable of understanding how to turn off her cell phone in a concert. Lots of elderly folks have this problem, and lots of elderly folks frequent our concert halls. The best method to handle this is to make an announcement that if you don't know how to power off your phone, ask someone near you to help.
I don't think I have attended any concert in the last ten years, when a mobile phone signal has not disturbingly gone off.
Even at the Bayreuth Festspiele during a performance of "Die Walkuere," Act I, five different Handy-signals went off.
This has got to stop!
There are devices that block cell phones from receiving calls. The hall should have one in use. End of problem.
I am probably one of the few people in the world who does not care much for Mahler. I would therefore not have been troubled by this, had I been there. Nevertheless, people should NEVER let their phone ring while at any concert - if they forget to silence it and it goes off, they should shut it off IMMEDIATELY. I once left my cell phone on while performing and THANK GOD it did not ring during the two-hour show. I would definitely have been fired.
Years ago, my wife and I drove hours to see Maazel's Mahler 6, our favorite. After 75 minutes of emotional symphony, the soft ending had a chirping Scott Joplin right to the end. Annoyed? Probably a bit... but it did not "destroy" the concert. That is live performance. Hyper-edited over-powered playback is a disaster for live music. I'd still rather be in Avery Fisher (a very poor acoustic environment) than home with 1 of my 4 perfect recordings on reference speakers. Another example, we were later at Dudamel's Mahler 5. This time, the beginning had an issue as Dudamel and one of the best trumpet players in the world totally yarfed the opening. Still... concert not "absolutely ruined."
Although I'm now thinking, it's weird this all happens in Avery Fisher with Mahler. Maybe next time you want to see Mahler, go to Carnegie or to Boston (they're a much better halls at least).
With all due respect to crosseyedpianist, I fail to see how the sign you displayed at your link would have been, if carried out, any less humiliating than what transpired during the Mahler Ninth.
@ crosseyedpianist
Alienated that person from classical music for a life?
Are you projecting your own zero sum approach to assertive redress or do you really think that's how most people process shame?
And linking to your own blog? lol nope.
I'm not so dependent on my phone, so I just leave in the car when I go to a performance. In the event that I forget, I just turn the phone off. I'm not certain why people can't "disconnect" for a short time.
If the offender had an iPhone, as was indicated in the article, a simple touch of the button on the top corner of the phone would've silenced it immediately. Allowing the phone to ring continuously was disrespectful to everyone.
MZH-
It is illegal to use a cell phone jammer in the United States, as it is a radio broadcast on a private channel.
You can use a Faraday cage, but that's to expensive to build into older buildings.
@MZH: Sadly, signal blockers are Illegal in the US. A place like that would be too easily caught if they did so despite the fact. I don't think 10:48's idea of a signal that forces silent mode is illegal, however.
Now if only movie theaters would do the same thing and alienate cell phone offenders when their phone goes off or they start using it mid movie.
violinhunter: I am not a big fan of Mahler either, but I consider the unattended ringing of a cell phone during ANY concert a desecration. Not even Leroy Anderson's "Fiddle Faddle," a piece I hate as much as war, famine, and prejudice, deserves to be interrupted by a cell phone.
(P.S. If you've shut off your phone and it magically turns itself on again, then SHUT IT OFF AGAIN, AS FAST AS YOU CAN. What is so confusing about that?)
What would Cage say?
Seconds before the fourth movement began, I whispered to a friend "Jeez, I hope this audience can keep quiet for the last 10 minutes of this." I was in the second balcony and foresaw the event that unfolded. I realized it was an alarm and not a phone call early on and knew Gilbert would have to stop the orchestra before the barely audible final minutes.
It was painful, but oh so memorable.
Well, it *was* Maaaaahler.
Overrated. Overlong.
I am certain that the offender was duly chastised but I am in awe at the number of self appointed guardians of music. Good thing we have all you polka police to keep us in line
I was there.
What the article doesn't make clear is that the phone kept ringing, and ringing and ringing.
It was an alarm--not a phonecall. The phone rang repeatedly--20 times? 40 times? The orchestra, during that period, crescendoed and then became quiet and then crescendoed again. There was plenty of time for the owner of the phone to turn off the phone. But he didn't.
It was only when the music became very quiet, and the phone did not stop ringing, that it was absolutely impossible to ignore.
Sure, crowd behavior is ugly. But it was even uglier that the owner of the phone didn't do something about the problem. Why? Did he think it wasn't important? Was he embarrassed? Personal vendetta?
The phone behind me rang--and the owner immediately turned it off. She was embarrassed. That's the appropriate response.
I was also there last night. It was unfortunate for sure. My guess is that it was an elderly person that didn't hear it. I've been at other musical events where hearing aids emitted a sustained, high pitched noise, which the user was, unfortunately, unable to hear.
As for the ushers, I have to guess that they felt like it would be even more distracting to run all over the hall searching for a cell phone. I was seated in the center of the orchestra. I could tell it was coming, generally, from the front. However, given the NY Phil's strict late seating policy, I can't imagine they would have been happy with an usher walking around the front of the orchestra...the whole scene would have been like an episode of Fawlty Towers!
I'd be willing to forgive and forget if the man had recently acquired the phone and quite unintentionally allowed an alarm to ring, knowing he had silenced his ringtone, and not recognizing the sound as his phone at first. He should issue an apology and a financial gift, and we can get over it. ok?
Although the idea of using signal-blocking devices seems like a logical conclusion to a frustrating problem, it is illegal here in the US. We'll just have to rely on the courtesy and respect of our fellow concert goers...or ask people to check their phones like they do their coats.
I don't understand why the ushers didn't escort this person out of the room. And there really is NO excuse for someone to leave their device ringing on & on. Sorry, but if you can't turn it off, you can get off your butt and deal with it in the lobby, where it isn't bothering anyone else.
There is simply NO excuse for the incident to have happened! When will venues such as theatres and concert halls realized that "blocking" cell phone, etc., signals MUST be a norm. Had I paid 50 bucks for a ticket, I'd have been incensed. The NY Philharmonic should hire Patti Lupone to return-- not to perform, but to chastise and see to the ejection of such patrons who do NOT care enough for the music or their fellow audience members to TURN OFF THE PHONE!!!!!
Overrated or overlong is an opinion. An irrelevant one at that.
The issue is one of *respect*, for the music, for the musicians, for the audience. if you don't like Mahler, fine, don't go, and don't pay.
Just because you don't like Mahler doesn't mean that someone who paid tens (or in the case of the front rows, potentially hundreds) of dollars to hear the work from one of the finest Mahler interpreting orchestras in the world deserves to have a phone ring at the very heart of the work.
The man deserved to be humiliated, if not barred for life from the hall. Why didn't ushers intervene? My guess is that patrons who can afford seats in the first rows are simply not to be ordered about by a mere usher. Income has its privileges.
I have seen Alan Gilbert conduct Carl Nielsen symphonies in Philadelphia, but I obviously missed his greatest performance.
I don't buy the comment that he may have been hard of hearing. If he was, wouldn't he always have a phone or alarm on vibrate so he could feel the alarm instead of trying to hear it?
Ban him from Avery Fisher Hall for life. I cannot believe that the House Manager didn't manhandle the offender from his seat and have him physically thrown out on Columbus Ave.
To do this at the end of Mahler 9 is unconscionable. Had I been sitting near the offender, I do believe I would have confiscated the phone and removed the battery, if I could have kept my emotions in check long enough to not stomp it into pieces.
well it didnt take long for someone to want money... just let it go, i am sure he was embarrassed
enough...
CrossEyedPianist,
Since you have taken the liberty to post your inane moral equivilism on every page covering this story, I will take the liberty to respond in kind. First, did you not read the story? This was not a singe, accidental cell phone ring. This was an iPhone alarm that repeatedly rang over the course of several minutes. Second, the crux of your argument is that since coughing, hearing aids, and gas lamps (!) make noise during concerts, we should thus have no standards or complaints for anything else that makes noise; this is silly on its face. Third, you assume the best of this individual without any substantiation (He's might be a new concertgoer!) while ignoring the actual facts (him ignoring the multiple in-concert requests to silence all mobile devices, for instance.) Fourth, you make an incredible leap in logic by connecting audience disdain over cell phones with the 30+ year problem of dwindling audience size. Finally, in an amazing twist, after boohoo-ing about how this poor, aggrieved audience member was wrongfully humiliated in front of thousands, you suggest that the remedy for a ringing cell phone should be...humiliating someone in front of thousands.
Even if he was a new concertgoer (LOL at a new concertgoer being an older gentleman sitting front row center...see my "did you not read the story?" above) any individual who allows their phone to ring that many times in a venue where everyone else is being silent (library, funeral, church, etc.) has serious problems with civility and self-entitlement. This has nothing to do with the stereotype of orchestra concerts being too stuffy. Instead, it has everything to do with an oblivious (at best) or selfish (at worst) individual who uses arguments exactly like yours to justify why 2,000 ticket holders must listen to his iPhone ring for minutes on end. If anything, it is attitudes like yours that are harming audience size. Theaters have been ignoring or enabling bad behavior for years, creating a tiny subset of people who think that the price of admission gives them free reign to act as they please, driving away many ordinary concertgoers who would rather not deal with the hassle. Welcoming new audience members does not mean enabling actions (i.e. ringing phones) that are unacceptable in most venues outside of the concert hall, especially actions (ringing phones) that are addressed multiple times throughout the evening. I guarantee you that more people will be returning to the Phil because of how Maestro Gilbert handled the situation, and that many would have never returned if it were completely ignored.
Set your phone to vibrate then ring so you have a chance to turn it off at the vibration before the ring starts.
Of course, sometimes a vibrating phone can be loud enough to be a distraction as well.
Why can't people just turn off their damn phones?
Love this.
The least he could have done was get a Mahler ringtone: http://audiko.net/ringtone/Gustav+Mahler
Hmm, it's interesting to note the types of comments accepted here and types rejected.
I am hearing impaired and I know it. So I have a vibrating alarm clock for all occasions where my setting up a loud alarm could disturb someone else. That cost me a fraction of a NYPhil ticket.
"I said to my wife as we were exiting that a large crowd of people at an entertainment venue have not felt so much enmity toward one person in attendance since that guy caught that foul ball in game 6 of the NL pennant in Chicago"
Large crowds are both stupid and dangerous by their very nature.
Some of the comments here are over the top. I particularly enjoyed the comment by the fellow that whispered to his friend whether the audience could keep their mouths shut for the last ten minutes which, I believe, was made with no trace of irony.
And of course the poster who characterized it as if the transcendent return of the messiah was ruined. Rude bwhvior, probably. But we all may mistakes and without speaking to the villain you don't know why it occurred and you can't pronounce the death penalty quite yet.
Regardless of whether one "cares" for Mahler's allegedly "Overrated. Overlong." piece, it is an shamefully disrespectful move to not turn off electronic devices which may sound during a performance. Just because you don't care for it doesn't mean it's crap. Personally, I dislike the final movement of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, yet would I blast my phone (alarm or ringtone) for extended periods of time? No, because it's a matter of civilized gestures. If your opinions matter above those of others and you deem Mahler as "deserving" disrespect, it is clear that you should never step into a concert hall since you are obviously too great (and your talents too enormous) to do anything as low as attending a performance.
I would have gotten a refund. Bad meal at a restaurant..refund. Same thing here.
You guys who say that there should be a cell phone signal blocker: those are illegal no matter where.
For another account of the night's events check out:
http://mkitch.tumblr.com/post/15661821971
The Philharmonic and The Phone
This kid raises some interesting points and his description of the events as they unfolded is quite amusing.
If that cell phone had woken me up I would have been furious!
The sad reality is that people today are over-dependent on mobile phones and devices, as well as increasingly self-involved and attention-impaired. Expecting people to take a second to think about the type of venue they are attending and take provisions accordingly can be simply to much to ask. I think a loud and clear reminder/warning should be issued before the beginning of the event, followed by a full minute for people to turn off their devices, after which it should be made clear that the ringing of any device from that moment on and till the drop of the curtain will give way to a monetary sanction and the removal of the device's owner from the hall. One would like to think these type of measures should be unnecessary; what is unnecessary, however, is a ringing phone ruining everybody's experience. It's simply a matter of respect, both towards the performers and the attending audience who actually care a little. It shouldn't be that difficult to turn off or mute your phone.
What's strange to me: If the phone's owner could not hear the phone's incessant sounding, then why is this individual paying big bucks to probably NOT hear much of the NYPhil?
I don't get it.
I live in Chicago and regularly attend Chicago Symphony concerts. When our Orchestra Hall was last completely revamped in 1997, it became possible to construct a metallic screen for blocking radio signals behind the walls of the entire auditorium. You simply cannot get a usable cellphone signal in any of the patron seats to save your life. This really needs to be something also addressed when Avery Fisher is redone. We still have the obligatory announcement before each performance to silence electronic devices. I'm very surprised that I haven't heard a device alarm going off (such as appeared to be the case there in New York) for many years here.
People don't know how to prioritize anymore. The good news is, this episode has taught me how to prioritize. Yesterday, you'd walk into a Wagner or Mahler concert, and have an idiot in front of you try to conduct the orchestra from his seat. Today, you have an idiot who plays his cell phone. I want the idiot conductor back.
A number of years ago, I heard the Brahms 2, with Kurt Masur leading the NY Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, I was seated in M13 in the orchestra. During the performance, the man in M1 took out his phone and PLACED a call. In a loud voice and a Texas accent, he said "Hi! How you doin'?" I stood up and sidled past the ladies in between as Maestro Masur turned and watched. I reached the man, grabbed the phone, silenced it and went back to my seat. Masur nodded and kept conducting. After the symphony was over the ladies in the row started hitting the man. I gave him back his phone and asked him what he could possibly have been thinking. He had never been to a concert in New York but told me that when he hears music in San Antonio (clearly not classical music) he always makes calls. I tried to politely explain why one does not do that in this case and encouraged him to stay to hear the rest of the performance. He did, but was deeply embarrassed and the situation was awkward. Turns out there were media nearby watching and it wound up in the New York Times!
A couple items of interest:
1) Did he buy the phone earlier in the day and not know how to operate it? How to mute it? How to set it to vibrate? Who knows? Ergonomics?
2) Hearing impaired as MusicMike suggests. I suspect the true cause. To "blatantly" ignore after Gilbert stopped the music suggests the patron is not aware of what happened.
And since we haven't done a good job of attracting youth to Mahler concerts there's a possibility of other age-related issues relating to cognitive processing related to aging.
An unfortunate situation but no one ever said that getting older was easy, nor graceful.
Ah ha. That's a pretty good way of shutting down an orchestra. Excellent idea.
Whether it is at a $10 movie or a $100 concert it is the epitome of selfish behavior to leave your ringer on or talk on the phone to the detriment of all of those around you. I can see quickly silencing it if you forgot but to let it go on like this is beyond absurd. Consideration is an endangered species.
this never happens at the Slayer concerts I attend. just sayin.
These are all great ideas and solutions being suggested, except for one: LEAVE THE CELL PHONE IN THE CAR OR AT HOME IF YOU'RE NOT SURE HOW TO TURN IT OFF!!!!
Somehow, 20 years ago or so, we all survived 24 hours a day without a cell phone attached at the hip - and this comes from someone who uses a cell phone on a daily basis!
Years ago. I heard Giulini conduct the LA Phil in the Mahler 9th. No one in attendance dared to BREATHE during the final movement, much less shuffle feet or rattle candy wrappers.
Of course, back then we had no such devices as cell phones, but we had a worse noise-plague - coughing smokers, something rarely heard anymore, thanks be to God.
Maestro Gilbert did the right thing in stopping the concert, as painful as that must have been, until the racket could be silenced. He would probably have been happier to repeat the entire last movement, but overtime for the band is costly, so he probably calculated that beginning somewhere mid-movement would be a better fit for the budget.
As a retired person myself, I appreciate the difficulties that elderly people have to endure. Getting to know how to operate a cell phone is one of the lesser problems, but in this situation, gained an immeasurable level of importance.
Long live Mahler! And do check the Dudumel performance of the second movement of Mahler #2 last August at the Proms. Aside from the two soloists, no performer was over the age of 25, singers and orchestra alike. It is breathtakingly beautiful. The young people in that performance will never forget it, and if you go to YouTube, you won't, either.
Perhaps a relevant technical note:
The iPhone's alarm will sound whether the phone is on vibrate mode or not. I use this feature daily, as I silence the phone during the night so incoming alerts and emails don't wake me up, but the alarm still goes off in the morning.
A possible (though still inexcusable) explanation is that the owner of the phone knew he or she had silenced it, and didn't realize that the alarm could still sound, so he didn't know it was his phone, especially if it was in a purse or bag under the seat.
You know...this has an element of INTENTION about it I don't like. Why would anyone let the cell phone continue ringing like that? Why wouldn't he just silence it or turn off the alarm? It's like it was on purpose...
Folks - to clarify:
Even with the ringer switch set to "silent", an iPhone will STILL sound alerts from set alarms the same as if the ringer was on. In other words, pretty much all sounds are silent EXCEPT for alarms.
Many people don't realize this, and just set the ringer switch to "silent" at concerts. Alarms still go off at full volume.
So, for everyone talking about signal blockers - it wouldn't have worked in this case because the alarm is set internally on the phone and does not need cellular service.
In another blog, it said the concertgoer was a long-time subscriber and a senior and just got the iPhone. He DID silence it (he believed) at the start of the concert.
You could debate whether Apple did the right thing to sound alarms even with the ringer off.
Chalk it up to complex technology...
"coughing smokers, something rarely heard anymore, thanks be to God."
Maybe not smokers, but Avery Fisher Hall always sounds like a tuberculosis ward.
Chalk it up to advanced technology and call it just one more way Steve Jobs has changed the world.
Someone needs to develop a shut-up application that will silence all sounds a phone -- alarms, calls, what have you. And then the manufacturers will include an alarm that will let the user know when the shut-up feature is on.
So forget it; we're doomed to a future of slobs with phones to whom the whole world is their private space.
Why would he care if you all "got over it" or not? You should actually thank him! I haven't heard anything else about this performance good or bad. All I have heard about is this cell phone mishaps. It obviously stole the show!!!
I was there. It was astonishing. Before all this happened I heard something strange. A percussion part. I looked at the percussion section and no one was playing. My seat? 2nd tier Audience right against the right wall all the way in the back. Yes, I heard it ringing. And then it got loud and I couldn't hear it. And then it was quiet again, and I heard it again. And then it got embarrassing.
Bravo to the maestro for stopping. The only thing I could think was that someone really didn't like the Philharmonic playing Mahler.
Tough luck buddy. The Philharmonic plays ALL composer's. But never suffers a jerk with a cell phone.
Please. If the owner is so impaired that he can't hear the ring/alarm for minutes, the phone would be useless to him. This is just personal behavior being exercised without concern for communal effect. It also is continued evidence of how an involvement with the arts may be used as a proof of culture but affects one's status as a social being not a whit. Reports of the incident began appearing across America a day and a half ago. No apology from the perpetrator even yet. Is he blind as well as deaf?
crosseyedpianist must be totally NUTS! Is is NOT a shame to alienate someone like that from classical music. Not at all. That person does not deserve classical music and should stay at home - in front of their television - exactly where they belong. Alienate. Pish.
"Blogger Carla and Dan said...
You know...this has an element of INTENTION about it I don't like. Why would anyone let the cell phone continue ringing like that? Why wouldn't he just silence it or turn off the alarm? It's like it was on purpose..."
I like it. Let's just go with what it appears like. Saves a lot of time and effort looking into things.
Judging by some of the comments here, this is the greatest thing to have happened to the audience in their lifetimes. They will now have a story to bore people with forever. "I was at Avery Fisher Hall and just about to climax all over my Tux when this phone went off..."
What a classless idiot!
I am a very forgiving person but it is frustrating the way people do not realize how annoying your phone going off is. I've been to places where they request people remove their battery from the phone to avoid this situation. Although I do not like the fact that this guy was embarrassed by Mr. Gilbert, I do hope that people will learn from this mistake and begin taking our their battery before going to public events.
The poor man. If you dig around you will find that the Orchestra knew who he was. FYI- sitting in very nice seats. Schmucks that dont care about the orchestra do not usually have seats that good. The man turned off his Iphone, but did not know that there was a preset alarm. When it went off he thought it was someone else, and he was also annoyed.
I don't blame Mahler for being frustrated or even feeling disrespected. Many people are rude enough for this to happen, but all I can think about is that poor man. He probably loves the orchestra, and when you are that old, there are few life loves left that you get to enjoy. Mahler may be gifted, but it is not with grace, and it is not with wisdom.
All but the thickest person forgets to double-check that they've silenced their cell phone before any kind of theatrical performance. Having said that, a person CAN sometimes forget and that I can forgive. What I can't forgive is the person who just lets it continue to ring once it does go off, as if by ignoring it they can pretend that no one else will hear it or be able to identify in who's pocket the phone is ringing. In that scenario I'm 100% behind public humiliation of the individual. If you can't own up, snatch that phone out of your pocket and kill the noise ASAP then you deserve what you get.
Not sure how many times this happened in Concert Hall - but it happens often in Sunday Worship.
Every Sunday morning, our worship leader will remind audience before the pianist play piano to turn off the cell phone - yet many failed to tune in with the message.
Time to clear the ear wax!
There is a "shut up" switch. Turn it OFF!!
This happened in Cleveland ten years ago. Boulez was conducting Pelleas, and on her death bed Melisande apparently got a call! The word "disconcerting" was invented before its time.
"I don't blame Mahler for being frustrated or even feeling disrespected. Many people are rude enough for this to happen, but all I can think about is that poor man. He probably loves the orchestra, and when you are that old, there are few life loves left that you get to enjoy. Mahler may be gifted, but it is not with grace, and it is not with wisdom. "
Apparently, with all the hullabaloo surrounding the cell phone incident, everyone has lost sight of the real story: the performance of Mahler's 9th that was so rudely interrupted was being conducted by none other than Gustav Mahler himself!
I suggest that what is deeply troubling about this incident is that it highlights the sorry state of House Management and ushers at Fisher Hall. An usher stationed in the Hall should have immediately identified the source of the disturbance and escorted the offender out of the Hall, particularly since Gilbert had stopped the performance. It would have been a lovely "perp walk" for everyone to observe and delight in.
Wouldn't it be lovely if someone could get the Fisher Hall management / Lincoln Center to explain publicly what their policy is in such a case and why they chose to let this offender continue to disturb the other 2000+ paying customers
@1:39 who wrote the following:
"Not even Leroy Anderson's "Fiddle Faddle," a piece I hate as much as war, famine, and prejudice, deserves to be interrupted by a cell phone."
This is the reason why I don't go to symphonies. I love classical music. I'd dare say that I love it even as much as you. Yet, I can't stand the people like you who seem to overrun our symphony halls. Really? You hate a piece of music more than you hate war, famine and prejudice? I'm sure that was an exaggeration, but it is supremely disturbing that anyone would think to exaggerate in such a manner. You're quite obviously a privileged, white, rich boy who never experienced any of these things. It's truly a pity that there are so many of you filling our symphony halls. Do us all a favor and leave!
"What would Cage say?"
I love it! Thank you.
Where were the ushers? What about the person seating next to him or behind him? Couldn't anybody say something or hinted at him?
But I think we achieved the best media effects having the performance shut down half way through!
That was the highlights of the show!
There are interesting comments here back and forth but the most important thing is to ask if there's anything constructive we can do about it There've been a couple comments useful to that end, pointing out that people do not know how to silence their phone as silly as that might sound. It isn't entirely. The way phones are designed can easily fool you. For instance on the iPhone (for those of you that have resisted so far), that doesn't mean just clicking the switch so the screen goes dark, you have to hold it down until a slide bar appears on the touchscreen and then use the slidebar to shut it off. I remember a few years back, before I owned one, I went to a concert with someone who borrowed her husband's iPhone for the night -- and we momentarily panicked when we realized we didn't know for sure how to shut it off. Fortunately she had the presence of mind to realize the possibility of disaster so we asked people around us how to do it.
Knowing this is a problem despite the bumbling good intentions of members of the audience, what a Philharmonic should do is to either mention this in their pre-concert announcement or have the ushers hand out a flyer pointing out the danger and suggesting that people ask their neighbor or an usher to help them shut it off if they aren't sure how to do it. Additionally, the concert hall, as well as music journalists for the major newspapers, should contact Apple and the other major phone manufacturers and ask them if there are any alarms or other applications that will suddenly reactivate their phones even when supposedly shut off. It would also be a nice gesture by Apple and other cellphone makers if they would emphasize the importance of knowing how to properly shut off a phone in their user guides.
Craig
Los Angeles
I don't know if this has already been said, but if, as someone suggested, the ringing was actually that of a pre-set alarm, it is not something that switching the phone off or preventing phones to receive signals will solve. The problem is that many phones ring even after being turned off if an alarm has been set. One would have to manually deactivate the alarm AND turn the phone off in order for it not to ring. I know this because I once had this happening to me while in flight, and was terribly embarrassed because I thought I had forgotten my phone on, while in fact I had diligently switched it off.
Hurrah for Maestro Gilbert!
Lol! Awesome.
Gabriele says: " ...if, as someone suggested, the ringing was actually that of a pre-set alarm, it is not something that switching the phone off or preventing phones to receive signals will solve. The problem is that many phones ring even after being turned off if an alarm has been set. "
Actually turned off or put in sleep mode? I tested the alarm on my phone yesterday and if it's actually shut off (as opposed to "sleeping"), the alarm doesn't go off.
I have an older iPhone 3GS model so maybe it's different for newer iPhones or other cellphones. If alarms go off even when the phone is shut down, then the manufacturers have a problem that they need to hear about and solve.
Craig
Los Angeles
It's like the Lord of the Flies around here. Half the posts are clueless about cell phones (and the legality and uselessness of signal blockers, since this clearly was an alarm going off due to the duration) and a substantial portion seem to enjoy stirring the pot.
No doubt it was annoying, but it was very hard to imagine it was intentional. Now that you know it was someone between the ages of 60-70 (should have assumed, both due to the front row seats and presumed offense), do you feel better...?
NY Times:
Ringing Finally Ended, but There’s No Button to Stop Shame
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/nyregion/ringing-finally-stopped-but-concertgoers-alarm-persists.html?ref=music
Mahler 9, equivalent to say ... Monet ... Picasso ... yes? Silence is the canvas on which world class musicians paint (yes a bit elitist, but truthful statement). What would the reaction be if Uncle Eddie got Ketchup on Picasso's canvas, on the Mona Lisa at the Louvre?
So, I ask you, is the audience (as well as readers) reaction proportional?
Ah but this IS hilarious:
http://crosseyedpianist.wordpress.com/2011/02/19/how-to-deal-with-rogue-mobile-phones-during-concerts/
Brilliant. (Great comments too...)
Could somebody who was there clarify a detail that's not clear from the news coverage:
After the disruption, where in the symphony did the conductor resume? From the beginning of the same movement? Of the ENTIRE symphony? Or somewhere late in the last movement?
Your blog inspired me. I quoted it here. Thank you! http://amctigue.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/how-fragile-we-are/
T-bone1
Of course my first reaction was to think of my college music history prof. who adored John Cage, so the "what would Cage think?" question is very funny.
Just leave the thing in the glove compartment of your car. Can the cell phone companies come up with an app that gives people a funeral/church/concert silencing button that overrides all of the functions? I personally just turn my phone off when I go to church and silence my alarms when I know I won't be using them. This is not rocket science or brain surgery. It's all about courtesy!
Being on the podium and in the first row of the orchestra are about the most sensitive places to be during a performance. I'm glad he did what he did. This will effect many concert halls around the globe.
From what I was toldr. Gilbert resumed the piece from the last horn crescendo in the final movement.
Where's your humanity people?!? Reality is you know nothing about why the person didn't turn off the phone yet you've sentenced them for life. I am sure there was someone in speaking distance of that person who could have had the courtesy to help the person out and yet they chose to sit there and do nothing. Classic American attitude- little compassion and too much anger and judgement.
Here is an alternative response to unwanted cellular concert interruptions...!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16688007
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