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Anne-Sophie Mutter Stops performing Concerto in mid Concert!


Amer

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Millennial here too. I've been to a couple of live music events in the last few months (one a small music festival and the other an organised street performance type thing).

 

The festival one said not to try to film/photograph with any sort of obviously professional equipment, and I assume the latter one would have a similar 'understanding', but as far as phones or small cameras were concerned - go crazy.

 

I've also been to a few more civilised concerts in London, and those are the sorts of environments where holding up your phone to film starts to interfere with those around you. However, I don't agree with a blanket 'no photos/video' policy because it feels like they're preaching that we should be enjoying 'the moment', and I don't like being told how I should absorb something I'm watching.

 

Bottom line for me: if you are able to film/take picture without affecting anyone around you or the artist, then I don't see the problem. If you're doing it in a way that the artist or an audience member is distracted or uncomfortable in any way and asks you to stop, STFU and enjoy the rest of the performance.

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1 hour ago, Richard Penna said:

Millennial here … it feels like they're preaching … I don't like being told how I should absorb something I'm watching.

 

Poor little snowflake.

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I've noticed that so-called millennials have now begun their fight back against generational prejudice by enacting order Old Coot: literally anyone a few years older than themselves is called - with authentic and absolute sneering levels of dismissal - a "boomer". I'm seeing it everywhere, it's a massive srike back which has levelled the playing field.

 

Can't really blame 'em.

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There's definitely a double standard here. If some incredible performance was recorded and put on YouTube, no one would have a problem with it. Many JW live performances have been recorded, for instance. So what the hell.

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If you’re doing it right orchestral concerts are much easier to film without distracting others than rock concerts.  Everyone’s sitting down so you don’t have to hold the phone way above your head like at a rock concert.

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Bloke next to me at the Royal Albert Hall in the very front row got ejected for filming the performance of Empire Strikes Back the other day - after multiple polite warnings for prior filming.  He missed the climax and end credits suite!

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I went to St.Vincent's Digital Witness show in 2014 and she made sure no one was recording it and damn straight, you shouldn't be recording. The lyrics in Digital Witness speak to this phenomenon:

Quote

Digital witnesses, what's the point of even sleeping?
If I can't show it, if you can't see me
What's the point of doing anything?

Everything has to be seen through a phone nowadays that it's changed the way people experience events like live performances. It begs the question, are they really experiencing the event at all?

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Did Amer take the s out of her last name in the the thread title but still leave her first name wrong?  What the hell man? 

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I hate the hypocrisy of not being able to film live performances, but I understand why the rules exist. 

 

You bought the ticket and are in the seat. They have your money. 

 

You want a recording for later. They are not filming it or making a recording of the audio, so you aren't robbing them of tangible money. But you are impinging on their right to do so later, and the fear is that if enough decent bootleg recordings are in circulation, less people will pay to attend the concert hall or buy the (non-existent) authorized recording. Also, even though she was playing Beethoven, who is in the public domain, the musicians and concert hall all want paid, and SHE whatever-her-name-is is the center of attention. She's entitled to be narcissistic about not having unauthorized recordings of her. 

 

Camera lenses are reflective surfaces. The performer's eyes are sensitive on a brightly lit stage. They do not want to be distracted by hundreds of little points of light pointing back at them from the darkened audience. Especially if the cameras use red AF beams or people think flash is a good idea. I know I've crossed the argument from video to still photography, but the analogy is still valid. (Fortunately they don't make the same argument with corrective eyeglasses.)

 

If they allow open season on recording, then people will bring in cameras and tripods and overall be a distraction. 

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4 hours ago, Jay said:

Did Amer take the s out of her last name in the the thread title but still leave her first name wrong?  What the hell man? 

Yikes! I did it again! Basically my laptop is gone for repairs and I don't type well on smartphones. 

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29 minutes ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

^She's an incredible violinist, but this is just bizarre behavior on her part. This quote in particular comes off as almost borderline egotistical.

 

You clearly opened the article linked to in the main post, in order to find this quote, but you also clearly didn't actually read the article very carefully, because it was not Anne-Sophie Mutter who said the this, but Austin Larson.

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10 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

You clearly opened the article linked to in the main post, in order to find this quote, but you also clearly didn't actually read the article very carefully, because it was not Anne-Sophie Mutter who said the this, but Austin Larson. 

I did read the article, but I was somehow confused by the way the page was laid out (I "skim" read really fast, so that can be an issue sometimes). Somehow I thought that was a quote from her. I'm glad it was not. Thanks for clarifying! :P

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if the phone bothered her performance fine, she might get distracted knowing she's being filmed

 

if it was for some idiotic piracy /copyright infringement reason then it was stupid to stop

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On 10/3/2019 at 2:39 PM, mstrox said:

There's no need to apologize to Beethoven.  He's already dead.

 

Does that mean he was a better composer than Williams?

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No matter the circumstances, I still think it was an unprofessional move. Musicians are often praised for continuing on with their performances no matter what. Musicians have made mistakes, gotten sick and almost passed out, I think Madonna or someone had a bird shit in their mouth a couple years back; and they all soldiered on as if nothing happened. As they say, "the show must go on".

 

In this case Anne-Sophie came across as being a bit of a diva. It would be even worse if we found out it was indeed over copyright infringement, and not just her feeling either distracted, or as though her performance wasn't being enjoyed "properly". Either way I think it was a bit low, but the latter explanation would be at least a bit forgivable.

 

Personally I filmed the entirety of the Star Wars in Concert performance in Green Bay, WI back in 2009. I don't feel my experience was lessened at all just by simply filming it. And on top of that I have the benefit of reliving that experience with the footage I have, and can study all aspects of the performance if I want. The belief that filming something will lessen your experience is a BS myth

 

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I'm quite puzzled. It was my impression that we all agree that people texting on smartphones at the cinema (during the film) are a nuisance, and now we're arguing that it should be perfectly fine for people to be even more obtrusive during a concert?

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1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I'm quite puzzled. It was my impression that we all agree that people texting on smartphones at the cinema (during the film) are a nuisance, and now we're arguing that it should be perfectly fine for people to be even more obtrusive during a concert?

 

 

1. Arguing that Mutter's actions are wrong isn't the same as arguing that the girl was completely in the right.  If I was sitting near her, I'd be way more annoyed (maybe even angry) at Mutter for stopping the performance midway than with the minor annoyance of just seeing the phone.

 

2. Orchestral concerts aren't dark like a movie theater (at least the ones I've been to), so the screen isn't nearly as annoying and newer phones that sense ambient light have made the issue not nearly as bad as it used to be

 

3. I'm not distracted if someone is just sort of holding their phone at chest level and close to themselves instead of raising it above their heads.  There are less distracting ways to do it.  I say this without disagreeing that filming in the first place is a selfish thing to do.

 

The girl should not have been filming if she was sitting close enough to the front to be noticed by the performers and filming at concerts can be very selfish and entitled, but Mutter handled it poorly.  Like a diva, as someone said above.

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Most of them were probably not paying attention anyway!

 

17 hours ago, King Mark said:

if the phone bothered her performance fine, she might get distracted knowing she's being filmed

 

if it was for some idiotic piracy /copyright infringement reason then it was stupid to stop

 

It would guess the reason is that filming makes her feel more self-aware, impairing her playing.

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It's a sticky situation; on one hand I sympathize with Mutter who was obviously distracted by the sight of the phone, on the other hand, the offender clearly didn't understand what she was doing was wrong and was crushed by Mutter's callout. Imagine some artist you adore singled you out and told you to leave, it would be heartbreaking for sure. Perhaps Mutter will apologise? Perhaps the offender will write something?

 

Hopefully this serves as a warning to future concertgoers: put your phone away. Save yourself and the performers the embarrassment of this situation.

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I wonder if Anne-Sophie was ever a middle school teacher. Sounds like something they'd do. "Put your phone away or I'm making the whole class stay an extra 30 minutes!"

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Eh, I don't really buy that either. She's recorded during performances all the time (for official purposes).

 

I'd like to see a video of this actually happening, just to see exactly how it really played out, instead of just listening to hearsay. But obviously since she was probably the only one recorded, I doubt that'll be possible.

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I would be very surprised if Anne-Sophie Mutter stopped her performance due to concerns about copyrighting.  It was clearly distracting her enough that she felt it was affecting her performance for whatever reason, therefore I completely understand her stopping the performance and asking the young woman to stop.  It might be that she was in a crabby mood that day and might otherwise have let it go, but that is her prerogative as the performer (Williams himself has gone on record as saying that she is a woman you cannot say no to).

 

It might be partly a generational thing too.  I grew up in an age without smartphones whereas many youngsters nowadays are used to having every aspect of their lives recorded for posterity as soon as they emerge from the womb (literally in some cases!); they therefore see nothing wrong in videoing anything and everything that happens to them and are less bothered by others that do so.  I still feel a little self conscious just taking a couple of still photos with my camera at the end of a performance during the applause and cannot envisage myself ever recording during a performance in a classical concert.

 

For me it is not a question of whether or not I can still enjoy the concert at the same time as videoing it, it is a question of whether or not I could do so without affecting other people's enjoyment of the concert.  I usually do find the use of smartphones during a formal performance very distracting.  At somewhere like the Royal Albert Hall where the seats in the stalls and circle are very steeply raked, you can easily see when someone in the rows in front of you turns their phone on.  It seems that so many people cannot sit still for three quarters of an hour without checking their phone.  I was at a Proms concert a few weeks ago where a man actually took a telephone call during a magical performance of John Luther Adams's In the Name of the Earth, until he was quickly taken to task by the people sitting around him.

 

That said, I am open to accusations of hypocrisy here given that I have enjoyed the occasional video taken by concertgoers and indeed have linked to them plenty of times here.  For example there was a video of the final scenes of E.T. live in concert that was brilliant, although I am glad I was not sitting behind the person taking it!

 

 

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This just came up at a the opening season concert last night at Mercury Houston (https://www.mercuryhouston.org/). Although their policy in the past was camera/video/audio recordings are prohibited, the President of the Board announced before the concert that recordings were encouraged and gave the hashtag to use when posting on social media. For the 1st time in the 12 years we have gone, people had their phones up recording (4 in my line of sight). Just cameras would have been ok, but the bright screens on the phones were distracting in the dark theater.

 

Tickets are not cheap (~$70 where were sitting). We’re there for the music – not sure we want to put up with the distraction of the screens.

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