A few years ago, the renowned German violinist, Anne-Sophie Mutter (photo), during the middle of the famous concerto for violin by Ludwig van Beethoven, suddenly interrupted because, as she said, her gaze “caught” a glare from someone’s mobile phone in the audience and immediately stopped playing.
According to eyewitnesses, Mutter is said to have said to the audience member (it is not reported whether it was a man or a woman) sitting in the front row: “Either I will leave, or you will close the phone and the recording application.”
As I read retrospectively on the classicfm website, after a brief exchange of words of a few minutes, the artist escorted the specific person to the exit of the Music Hall in Cincinnati, whose Symphony Orchestra she was playing with in the concerto.
Mutter was applauded by the audience, and later by social media for her stance against the use of mobile phones in such venues.
After the end of the concerto, she said the following:
“Someone was sitting in the front row holding a mobile phone, shining it right in my face. I find it extremely disrespectful to the orchestra, the conductor, and myself. And very offensive to the music itself.
The concert hall is the last place – perhaps along with the Church – where we can, for once, without any device in hand, let the work penetrate our skin and penetrate our soul. The music. Not the device.
Nothing is as beautiful as your memory of something you experienced. No mobile phone in the world, no photo, no post on any social media can reproduce that. And why would you want to reproduce it?
Is it not the most beautiful the first time that the love of your life told you “I love you”? What if you had recorded it on your iPhone? Would you listen to it every day? It’s not the same, trust me. Memory is always more powerful than sharing and likes.
“Some things, like music, are so beautiful without recording,” continues the violinist. “Yes, there are recordings, under ideal conditions, where the sound approaches what the artists want. But apart from that, let’s truly keep the live moments sacred – here (points to her head) and there (points to her heart).” Not on the phone.
But, pay attention now, because the story didn’t end there. It had a continuation. In a subsequent post on the classic site, people who were present at the concert then and were sitting near the person who provoked Mutter’s reaction, who turned out to be a woman, said that she stood up straight, was extremely embarrassed, with broken English immediately apologized, made a bow of respect to the artist, and left voluntarily, crying.
This is a first-hand testimony, from a person who was sitting just three seats away from the young woman and who, as noted on Facebook, “in no case argued with Mutter,” stood up and said how embarrassed she was for what she did, apologized to her, and told her that she is her fan and respects her.
This story is a strong lesson. Reading the first part of it, Mutter’s reaction, I was angry with the “beam of light from the mobile” that “hit” her in the eyes.
And I made it the “theme” in the introduction to my show yesterday on ERT, finding her right to get angry and signing what she said. Starting, moreover, to write the piece here, I put the title “Enough with your mobile phones!”
Digging deeper into the issue, however, I found another link on classicfm.com, with the other side of the story. That of the girl who was embarrassed, who apologized and left crying.
Both are “pearls” for me. We – and I’m the first – should not rush to judge people at first glance…
