Then the conductor pulled a revolver and pointed it at the audience…
December 24, 2010 By
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Norman Lebrecht on shifting sound worlds
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an ArtsJournal blog
Yikes! If I had been in the orchestra, I would have avoided playing with any “audible wobble,”
if I could have played at all after seeing THAT!
Must have scared the players into doing a bang-up job…and the audience into paying close attention and putting away any cell phones!
History: A 19th century French Conductor (I can’t recall the name at the moment) once pulled a revolver on his orchestra, and, closer to our time, it’s said that Artur Rodzinski kept a loaded gun in his pocket. There’s also a story that he had to be either pinched or kicked in the butt before he went on stage to lead a performance. I think the idea of applying a gun to the cell-phoners has merit.
Not ALL of us have anger management issues… maybe other issues, perhaps.
In his autobiography, Antheil recounts how he, sick and tired of audiences walking out on recitals of his own compositions, had the doors locked at the beginning of one of his concerts in Germany, whereupon he took out a pistol and placed it on top of his piano. Apparently, he never had a more quiet and attentive audience in his life.