May I continue? says pianist to phone disrupter
NewsMonday’s recital at the Philharmonie de Paris was broken up by an inconsiderate phone user.
At the first sound of a ringtone, pianist Arcadi Volodos waited until the device was silenced, then asked the owner politely ‘may I continue?’
Moments later, the phone went off again.
‘Get out!’ shouted members of the audience.
Report here by Alain Lompech.
No worries.
Pretty soon there will be no phone disruptions, because there will be no phones or people in the seats.
Next news: Carriage passenger disturbs horse. Well, people use cars now, thank you very much.
Before the laggard industry realizes this, it will be too late…
Really, what is the point of concerts if this kind of disruption is tolerated? If concerts are impossible without constant interruptions, they do need to disappear.
I assume you are not so uptight as to complain when your neighbor uses jackhammers at 2 am? These uptight pianists and concert-goers would complain about that, but not unstuffy you!
A narcissist will always find a reason to explain to us why they’re so important and, actually, more important than any of us. And it’s time we all learned. Right?
It’s just rude, selfish & disrespectful for anyone attending an enclosed staged event that demands the audience be as quiet as possible. Wanna’ keep your phone on during Live Music? Go where that’s acceptable. No excuse for this lack of breeding!
I think the days of people shutting off their phones are long over. Especially if you want anyone under 50 to attend your concert.
Asking audiences to turn off the ringers is the best you can do. Performers are going to have to get used to it if they want to make a living.
There have always been needy people. Soon these same needy types will be demanding to bring their pets to concerts.
I attend a Tridentine Mass every Sunday morning. There are a couple hundred people in attendance. Phones do not go off during Mass, or before. The church is silent before and during Mass; any conversation is so muted as to be inaudible a row away.
No one is making demands before the service. No one is confiscating phones. In short, people can have a sense of occasion and know how to behave.
Several weeks ago, at a concert in the Wigmore Hall, the mobile telephone of the person sitting almost directly behind me went off twice. Various people (including me) turned round and glared, but the offender (who appeared to be substantially over 50) took ages to realise that his telephone was guilty. At the end of the concert, he apologised to me with the words, “It was on silent *and* on aeroplane mode; I do not understand how it happened”.
This demonstrates how “silent” (the definition of which is tenuous, since the setting may allow for vibrating alerts) and “aeroplane mode” are utterly inadequate, even if there is no intention on the part of the telephone-owner to do something distracting (such as texting or reading correspondence during the performance, with no regard for the visual glare and the excessive movement).
When I go to a concert, as I do regularly, I always turn my mobile telephone completely off, and then remove the battery, placing the battery in a pocket which I can pat easily to reassure myself that my telephone is completely disabled. (By the way, I am still eligible for “under 35” tickets.)
the trouble some elderly
people have mobiles they
do not know how to turn
them off. because the phone is very hi tech.
No they’re not having to get. used to it – unless your at a rock concert!
In my experience it’s the older folks, who are unaware of their phone settings, whose phones go off in concerts. Younger people typically have their phones on vibrate anyway. Stop gratuitously beating up on young people. It’s getting old.
I happen to disagree with your opinion about the performers. But in addition have you given any thought to the majority of concert goers who also don’t want to put up with the disruptive rudeness of the few? They are not there to “earn a living” ( which incidentally is far from the only reason artists perform) but are actually paying for the privilege of hearing the music, uninterrupted, played by a musician whose concentration is being not being thrown off by a rude numskull.
Sorry, you lost me here. What’s the point of leaving your phone on, but turning the ringer off? Aren’t you still leaving yourself open to incoming while you’re concentrating on music? Why would anyone deliberately do that?
You would think that, by now, any half-way intelligent person would have the common sense and theatre etiquette to turn off the cellphone — or set it to vibrate — before the performance begins! There is NEVER any excuse for a ringing cellphone — even if the ringtone is the same as the piece of music being performed!
You would think that, by now, any half-way intelligent person would have the common sense and theatre etiquette to appreciate that “vibrate” is still unacceptably distracting to fellow audience members. Telephones should be completely and utterly *off*.
Or time to block phone signals in all places of entertainment. No doubt some will shout “what if the owner is needed in emergencies”? Well there was never a need for instant communication before mobile phones were invented, so what’s the difference? Those who fail to turn off or put their phones on silent should have the phones confiscated! They are selfish in the extreme.
You’d have very few people filling the seats if a concert hall planned a stunt like that.
Halls that actually *encourage* phone use have fewer rings. If people are more engaged on their devices, they’re more likely to silence their ringers.
I think the Metropolitan Opera manages to block phone signals (at least mine never works there). Maybe that will catch on with other venues.
Rude and unnecessary from the pianist. Obviously his soloist status has gone to his head
You obviously have no difficulty maintaining concentration and cool nerves when playing in front of a couple thousand people, including critics, who are scrutinising every note you play. However, some lesser musicians, like this one , struggle to provide the level ofperformance people paying up to hundreds of dollars for tickets expect.
I also realise most audience members would find it much easier to perform a two-hour recital than to turn off a phone or to stop eating or talking, and I’m sure the soloist was the only one in the hall who resented the distraction at all, but please show this arrogant artist some indulgence.
A ‘lesser pianist’ he most certainly is not!!!!!
The pianist was rude? So, it was your phone? You are what’s wrong with today’s audiences – please stay home – thank you.
“Hello; yes the Chicken Tonight is in the pantry. I’ll be home about 10. Did you remember to feed the dog? Oh yes, I’m at this boring recital at the moment; gotta go – the fella playing the piano wants me to shut off this phone. How in the damn world can I be expected to do THAAAAT in this day and age??!!”
Only question here is: have you taken a tranquilizer….gosh, its a freaking concert in an artform that matter for a very small % of the world population. Maybe 1-2%?
Dear JB ,
I was at the audience and must say I admired the pianist s courteous reaction. Three bips were heard during the very first minutes of this magical concert , other performers would have quit the stage …
On his recent concert tour through Spain a certain Nobel-Prize-winning musician required audience members to hand over their mobile phones before entry to the hall. The phones were placed in individual pouches sealed with security devices similar to those used on articles of clothing in shops. Appropriate exceptions were made for demonstrated need. Perhaps it’s time to try this elsewhere?
That sounds like an excellent initiative, although it does rely on the assumption that each audience member arrives at the hall with one (and only one) telephone on his/her person.
Out of curiosity, what were the criteria for “demonstrated need”? I really struggle to think of any “appropriate exception”. Surely, the very small number of people who really must be contactable at all times could make an arrangement whereby one of the stewards *outside* the hall acts as secretary, and takes any calls or messages that arrive during the concert. If a call or message requires the on-call person’s immediate attention or response, then the steward fetches him/her at the next suitable break in the performance (by “suitable break”, I mean during applause or during a substantial stage reset between items, and categorically *not* between movements), the on-call person having been seated in an aisle seat near the exit.
The only exceptions under which audience members were allowed to enter with an unlocked phone were medical ones. Certain electronic medical devices are monitored using a smartphone (insulin pumps, for example.) Otherwise, if an audience member were faced with an emergency need to place a phone call, he/she would have to leave the hall and go to a previously-announced place where the pouch would be unlocked. (Each audience member having entered the hall with his/her silenced or powered-down phone sealed in a pouch.)
Nobel prize? Not to date the audience of this blog but…#dementiadetected….
OP was correct. The musician was Bob Dylan.
I believe that a few years ago, at a concert in London, The Rite of Spring was to be performed. The usual announcement about switching off mobile phones had been made just before the conductor strode on to the rostrum but during the hushed opening bars for stratospherically high solo bassoon, a ringtone resounded through the hall. The conductor stopped the performance and the audience looked around to discover the source of the offending jingle. The conductor’ then took his own mobile phone from his pocket, switched it off and, when the laughter had subsided, restarted the performance.
I don’t think this is an urban myth but nevertheless I shall refrain from naming the very prominent conductor to avoid legal action for defamation! I’ll leave it to someone else to run the risk…
The offender might have called back to the Pianist shouting ‘it’s for you !’
This is excellent; public humiliation is the ideal tool for these tech-dependent, anti-social, needy narcissists.
As a professional musician, accidents happen, and phones get left on accidentally by EVERYONE–including musicians on stage. And as a former classical broadcaster who had faces made at him through the studio window by a colleague while announcing live, you focus on the job at hand if you are a professional. Not the distractions. The soloist needs to get over it.
Which is why I remove the battery from my telephone, and put the battery in a pocket that I can pat to reassure myself instantly that I have definitely not forgotten. I have a routine of patting said pocket just before the performer goes on stage. For many years, I have found this approach to be very effective and reliable.
And no, the soloist does not need to “get over it”. He/she is the only person with the authority to interrupt the concert to address the disruption (unlike fellow audience members and ushers, who have to work within the constraint that any action they take cannot be itself disruptive, meaning that it is very difficult to do much about anything).
Completely agree. You should be able to play through an errant phone ring or two without losing your s***.
Let’s face it, sometimes people forget. This pianist needs to accept this fact and do his job. Those audience members are paying his salary.
I need to see a video of this…
The mobile phone of the leader of an opera orchestra in the UK famously rang out while Mimi was in the process of dying of tuberculosis. I’m told it was a jaunty little tune, something like ‘we all like to be beside the seaside’. Not ideal.
I can’t resist.
This brings to mind the anecdote told by John Barbirolli about a performance of Aida he was conducting at a provincial opera house where the loo happened to be directly behind the stage. During the last scene, at the very moment that Radames sang “Aida, where are you?”, someone pulled the chain. And that, Sir John concluded, was the end of the opera.
Goodness! This story dates me. I remember a performance of Askenazy when he stopped playing and asked an elderly man on the front row to stop talking or he was going to stop playing. This was in the early 1970s.
I thought it was entirely appropriate that Askenazy stopped playing. The man was audible even in the balcony. If he had been deaf, one would legitimately ask, why was he at a music performance.
One might ask, why are people armed with telephones going to concerts? Can’t they be without their “pacifiers” even for a few short hours?
Many halls in the US now use QR codes to save money on printed programs, insuring that phones will be on- insanity.