Don't Rustle Your Gum

[Joe Guy]

A concert-goer rustled a bag of gum during a Mahler symphony. A 'violent attack' ensued.

It is said to represent the composer's love letter to his new bride. And, like love, the Adagietto transports those who receive it - its atmospheric notes offering release from the grim foreboding and frenetic outbursts of the earlier movements of Gustav Mahler's 5th Symphony.

But worldly concerns have a way of intruding: an iPhone light, a candy wrapper, one too many trips to the restroom.

The rustling of a gum wrapper at a performance of the symphony last week in the Swedish city of Malmo brought a section of the audience back down to earth, and brought several concertgoers to blows. Mahler's late Romantic epic became the occasion for an epic clash over candy.

As Andris Nelsons, an eminent Latvian conductor, coaxed the quiet notes from the string section of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, a woman in the balcony rustled a bag of gum, the Sydsvenskan newspaper reported. A young man sitting next to her glared a few times and then lost his patience. He snatched the bag from her and threw it onto the floor.

Witnesses told the daily newspaper published in southern Sweden that the woman sat stoically through the rest of the Adagietto, which typically lasts about 10 minutes ("very slow," Mahler instructed in the score), and the vigorous and triumphant finale. The symphony, composed in 1901 and 1902, has been described as a "large-scale journey," similar to climbing Mount Everest. Leonard Bernstein conducted the Adagietto at the funeral services for Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.

But as the concert hall vibrated with the final, resounding notes, and as applause rang out, she exacted her revenge.

The gum-rustler turned to her neighbor and uttered something, eyewitnesses told the newspaper, and then proceeded to smack him in the face, knocking his glasses from his face. The woman's male companion then grabbed the other man by the shirt and began to punch him, as the seizer of the gum sought to defend himself.

"It was very unpleasant actually. I've never seen anything like it," said Olof Jönsson, who was sitting in the row behind the brawling patrons. He described the salvo from the woman and her ally as a "violent attack." At one point, as the tension seemed to ease, the woman's companion walked toward the younger man as if to converse with him, but then punched him in the stomach.

Other patrons intervened, establishing a ceasefire.

After news of the fracas appeared in Sydsvenskan, the concert venue, Malmo Live, publicized a list of reminders about etiquette, according to the Local Sweden news site. The announcement took a genial tone. While it is "wonderful to sit at a hockey or football match and drink a beer or coffee and eat little snacks," it cautioned, this behavior doesn't suit "a concert hall with world-class acoustics."

"We seized the opportunity and felt that it was a good situation to write something up about etiquette and correct behavior," Anna-Maria Havskogen, a spokeswoman for the venue, told the news site. She said the venue had no plans to play host to other high-risk concerts.

Except, possibly, Verdi's Requiem next month. "Extremely powerful, will awaken strong feelings," she said.

source

[BoSoxGal]

I'm not at all surprised by the assault, considering the class of a person that would totally ignore the etiquette rules of the symphony at the very time when the breaking of those rules would be most disruptive to the enjoyment of the rest of the audience.

I hope the Neanderthal couple are barred from the concert hall in future and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for the physical assault.


The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is one of the best in the world, and seeing them in concert in person is very often a once-in-a-lifetime experience for classical music enthusiasts who see them on tour. I am insanely lucky to have seen them twice, as they came twice to the performing arts center at my undergraduate university over my 7 years' time there earning 3 degrees - the second time I worked at the venue and had backstage access to the musicians, it was terrific. They were conducted then by Kurt Masur.

The LGO's performances were SUBLIME; I wouldn't have hesitated to do the very same thing if a seat neighbor started crackling food packaging during anything but a fortississimo portion of the score. Snacks aren't appropriate at all, but at least have the common sense and basic decency not to detract from your neighbor's enjoyment of the music, which is supposed to be a transcendent experience.




Oh, look, BSG knows music! What a cunt!

[Big RR]

the Metropolitan Opera has had similar problems; apparently, in some eastern European countries (including Russia, as I have heard) it is a custom to applaud whenever one hears something one likes (even if it is in the middle of an aria or in the middle of a dramatic moment) and even talk to your neighbor during the performance. The Met has taken to trying to educate audiences as to American etiquette, but it is difficult as they do not want to drive these people away, as they are a significant part of their audience, but are trying to avoid the same thing that happened in Malmo. I find the talking annoying, but then I find the incessant "Shhushing" annoying as well.

[dales]

A Polite Society Is An Armed Society

[Big RR]

Only after they arm bears.

[Burning Petard]

What about cough drops?

snailgate

[Big RR]

My guess is that's like an unscheduled bathroom departure due to an imminent need; the minor inconvenience would be preferable to the alternative.