Cellphones in Concert Halls

A ringing iPhone in New York brought a performance of Mahler's 9th to a screeching halt:

When we reached that passage, as Alan Gilbert turned to the first violins and the sound grew ever more hushed and veiled, the unmistakable chimes of the iPhone Marimba ringtone resounded loud and clear throughout Avery Fisher Hall.  (Checked on my iPhone afterward to confirm which one it was.)  And it kept on ringing, and ringing.  Gilbert kept on conducting for a few bars, but unbelievably, the sound kept on going.  (Doesn’t this guy have voicemail?)

Of all places, the offender was sitting in the very front row, center section, on the aisle (stage right).  In other words, right in front of the concertmaster.

Finally, Gilbert dropped his hands and stopped the orchestra, turned to the offender, and looked at him.  To everyone’s disbelief, the sound just kept on going, and going.  Someone shouted, “Thousand dollar fine.”

Gilbert said something like, “Are you finished?”  The guy didn’t move a muscle.  Gilbert: “Fine.  We’ll wait.”  And he turned to the podium and lay down his baton.

As the marimba kept on clanging, someone shouted, “Kick him out!”  Another echoed.  Some started to clap.  But then others shushed the hall down, preventing pandemonium from erupting.

Finally, it stopped. Gilbert: “Did you turn it off?”  The guy nodded.  Gilbert: “It won’t go off again?” Another nod.  Gilbert turned to the audience, and said, “Ordinarily in disturbances like these, it’s better not to stop, since stopping is worse than the disturbance.  But this was so egregious, that . . .” (I lost his words here), and the audience burst into boisterous applause.

Gilbert turned to the orchestra, said “Number 118,” and started up again, at the point where the trombones enter fortissimo for the last big climax.  I wish I could say you could have heard a pin drop from then on, but there were a few coughers; this is New York, after all.  Still, there was a palpable sense of tension from orchestra and audience, as Mahler’s Ninth finally found its way home.

I wonder if this has happened in Germany yet? My guess would be no. I have always wondered why someone hasn't yet invented a device that will override and disable all cellphones in concert halls. I mean, we can put a man on the moon but not this? What else are we paying all these spy agencies for?

Alternately, we could go for a purely legal approach. I would favor a law requiring anyone who permits a cellphone to ring during a concert to eat that cellphone. On live, nationwide television. Before being drawn and quartered. Along with his or her entire family. Tough but  fair!

Comments

[Alex]

> I wonder if this has happened in Germany
> yet?
I'm quite sure it had happen. The ringing phone and the stop of the concert.

Few days ago I was in a concert in Berlin (Carmina Burana from Orff), where the conductor, listening badly timed applause, stopped, gave a look to the people until the applause faded away and only than continued with his concert.
I suppose he would have made the same with ringing phones.

[Dennis OChei]

I think the devices are illegal

[Stefan]

You can have much more fun with an imsi-catcher: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI_catcher

[Dan Richter]

And I wonder why nobody sued that guy. I thought in the US you can sue anybody for anything, can't you?

[Marcellina]

I have been in Austrian cinemas which jam phone reception, so it could work in theaters and concert halls too, I suppose.

Thomas Hampson gave a recital in Innsbruck a few years back, and someone's mobile went off right at the end of one movement. It kept ringing through the silence, until finally Hampson looked out into the audience and said "Answer it."

[FJM]

"I would favor a law requiring anyone who permits a cellphone to ring during a concert to eat that cellphone. On live, nationwide television. Before being drawn and quartered. Along with his or her entire family. Tough but fair!"

--> Have you turned retributivist lately?

[Andreas Moog]

" I have always wondered why someone hasn't yet invented a device that will override and disable all cellphones in concert halls":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_jammer

They do exist and work.