Disturbances at Berlin’s Abbado memorial concert

A cellphone went off and there was a barrage of coughing during the Berlin Philharmonic’s memorial concert for its past music director. An eyewitness report:

A very large and international group from a convention in Berlin thoroughly disturbed tonight’s Philharmonic concert in memory of Claudio Abbado. A non-ceasing barrage of coughs and cell phone sounds accompanied all the music making – with one cell phone ringing just as the last note of the Mozart violin concerto’s second movement was completing. The receiver, sitting on the second row, got up and left the hall to answer the call while Frank Peter Zimmermann and Daishin Kashimoto exchanged confounded glances. The first half of the concert was without conductor, with a rose placed on the podium to commemorate Mr. Abbado, and it took so long to get the audience quiet that a member of the viola section was forced to stand and call for silence. Intendant Martin Hoffman made an announcement in English before the second half, sternly saying “We are glad to have such a large international audience tonight – but it is definitely irritating to have cell phones, cameras and coughing going the whole time. If we can limit the coughing and beeping, I’m sure we can have a nice concert this evening, thank you. Now please enjoy this 65 minute Bruckner symphony.”