Tír Na HiFi

At a concert in Gothenburg Concert Hall on October 23, 2013, Christian Zacharias stopped playing in the middle of Haydn’s Piano Concerto, after a phone went off in the audience. The faces of the orchestral players are a study in horror, affront and incomprehension.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAaU8yPXA1A

He's dead right.

Haydn would have been more alarmed by the sound of the modern Steinway than by the ringtone.

Jose Echenique wrote:Haydn would have been more alarmed by the sound of the modern Steinway than by the ringtone.

That's probably true, but it doesn't make it right.

Diapason wrote:

Jose Echenique wrote:Haydn would have been more alarmed by the sound of the modern Steinway than by the ringtone.

That's probably true, but it doesn't make it right.

Of course not, maybe one day a device will be invented that can silence all cellphones in concert halls.
About a decade ago watches with beeps were even worse, but it seems those have gone out of fashion. I remember when at 9 o´clock dozens of those wretched things beeped to announce the hour.

Yep, and we thought THAT was annoying! Little did we know...

Christian Zacharias is a lovely musician, perhaps Papa would have appreciated Zacharias' interpretation of his music on the Steinway.
It is extraordinary that someone would enter a concert hall with their cellphone on.

Seán wrote:Christian Zacharias is a lovely musician, perhaps Papa would have appreciated Zacharias' interpretation of his music on the Steinway.
It is extraordinary that someone would enter a concert hall with their cellphone on.

Unfortunately not Seán. I have heard ringtones even during performances at the Metropolitan Opera and in Avery Fisher Hall with the New York Philharmonic and Bernard Haitink conducting. There is always an idiot who "forgets" to turn off his cell.