Philadelphia rolls out ‘kill those phones’ tote bags
OrchestrasYannick stopped the music again last night when a cellphone went off. Just one phone this time.
He told the audience they could now buy merchandise from the orchestra shop bearing the legend ‘Can we live without the phone for just one damn hour?’
Peter Dobrin was there, as ever. Read him.
if he can damn the audience, can the audience damn yannick with better conducting skills?
How can you attack someone with so many followers? That said, I’m with him on mobile phones.
No one knows the difference anymore, unfortunately. Just one of the many charlatans working at major orchestras around the world.
So nice to hear from George Cell after all these years… We still miss you in Cleveland.
It does sometimes seem that this site is being taken over by those only prepared to offer silly childish comments!
I’m just wondering how this comment address what NL surely indeed as the subject of the post: the ringing of cell phones during a concert?
I’m just wondering how this comment addresses the subject of this post which I am sure NL intended to be about cell phones interrupting concerts?
That’s not nearly as clever as you seem to think it is. It doesn’t even make sense.
This is a really great example of sloppy and elitist public relations damage caused by artists who aren’t seeing the forest, only specific trees (that accidentally forget to turn off their ringers).
The merchandise is a disaster waiting to happen. That slogan — “Can we live without the phone for just one damn hour?” — accuses anyone that accidentally (negligently) lets their cell phone make a blip, as the type of person who insists on using their cell phone during a music performance, for live Tweeting, for Instagramming, for TikToking every move. Yet nearly every case of an errant ring is just a negligent mistake, assuming especially that the house provided the usual pre-show announcement/printed warning to silence phones.
This is one among many examples of how classical music is damning itself into obscure elitism.
And this is one of my many examples of how you can be so wrong, and not even have the decency to cut it short.
How very clever are those Philadelphians! Great that they have such great creativity (in their shop…).
Yannick paid someone to call during the concert so he can stop the orchestra and get more publicity about it.
What is wrong with people these days? Why even bring your phone to a concert? Would it kill you to go without a phone for a few hours? People went without them for 100s of years without inconvenience.
I, for one, bring my phone to the concert because that’s how I adjust my hearing aids.
Soon we’ll be saying it was all planned.
But if he makes a habit of this, he’ll soon have people doing it just for the show of provoking him. They’ll livecast it.
I take the ‘kill those phones’ tote bags over the dreadful Muti coffee mugs, anywhere, anytime. (not that you would find the coffee mugs since Alexander got this brilliant project shut down by Muti’s lawyer.)
At any account, even the remarkable and consistently courteous Maestro Nézet-Séguin can lose his cool. Let’s remember that he’s working multiple jobs; he’s working very, very hard and could even be under stress.
However, when he loses his cool, he’s vastly more classy then the Bill Clinton of classical music (who is, most definitely, not overworked nor usually courteous).
According to the Chicago Tribune (https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-met-muti-cso-muti-halts-performance-disruption-20180625-story.html), Muti halted a performance and witnesses heard him utter an expletive. Some witnesses say he spoke very “angrily”.
The Tribune, in an uncontrolled and surprising burst of investigative journalism, tried to uncover more and called on the CSO PR head, Eileen Chambers:
“This type of situation does not happen often,” CSO spokeswoman Eileen Chambers said in an emailed statement. “However, if there is a significant disruption during the performance, a conductor may choose to stop the performance, allowing the musicians and the audience to regain focus.”
[…] Chambers said Muti didn’t curse. A review of the CSO’s archival recording of the performance and first-hand accounts of those at the concert prove “no profanity was used during Maestro Muti’s remarks” once he paused the performance, Chambers wrote in an email. She declined to provide the recording and, when asked, did not comment on what Muti said.”
Remember folks, life is uncertain; but where there is a race to the bottom, you know on which winning Stallion you can bet!
******* ******* ******* *******
Oh by the way, if you may pardon my digression, the last Muti’s concert in Chicago this week was yet another dumpster fire inside a train wreck – here are some excerpts from the Chicago Classical Review:
“There have been some superb events at Orchestra Hall in recent months marking Rachmaninoff’s 150th anniversary year, including Evgeny Kissin in the Russian composer’s solo piano works and, especially, Daniil Trifonov’s blockbuster account of the Third Piano Concerto. Thursday’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 wasn’t one of them.”
” […] oddly […], Muti never quite seemed at home in the rich and surging Romanticism that is at the core of Rachmaninoff’s art.”
“Muti’s tempo, while just fractionally slower than the Allegro moderato marked, repeatedly sacrificed momentum and […] dramatic tension”
“Further, the conductor kept a tight rein on Rachmaninoff’s melodic riches, tamping down the soaring middle theme of the second movement and especially the warm-hearted lyricism of the Adagio.”
“In a rendition that passed the hour mark, by the time the performance reached the jubilant coda, one felt more a sense of relief than exhilaration.”
Nice job, Riccardino.
Minus 45 days ….
Just ordered one,and quite a few of my friends did. Fits in many situations…concerts,sacred services,funerals,weddings,
Great work from this conductor. There should be more of it!!
Having to teach people manners is his second job – all of our second jobs!! Many have obviously been brought up by wolves.
Should I spend 1 hour of my life to listen to Yannick or to scroll aimlessly on my phone for mildly entertaining cat videos?
They’re about the same.
Fortunately, my phone never made itself heard at a concert or an opera. But recently I was teaching a seminar, and a phone rang. It was mine. I had forgotten to turn it off.
The admonition to “live without the phone for just one damn hour” assumes that people leave their phone on with a purpose.
And this is, of course, in most cases rubbish. Is total moral condemnation really necessary when one in hundreds and hundreds of people forgets to silence his phone? I’ll wager the guess that that person is already properly ashamed by that incident. As he should be. But there is no need to pile on, as if that person had just committed a heinous crime against humanity.
He is a sensitive little fellow, isn’t he ? Maybe instead of fighting cellphones, he could try and improve his conducting …