.

it was an accident. im sure that the dude didnt will someone to call him on purpose so he would interrupt the blessed philharmonics performance. i cant believe this is news...

There was an announcement to turn off your stupidphones.  And it was not a call, it was an alarm.  It went from accident to willful disrespect when you just sit there after being told to turn your phone off.

Perhaps if you attended a Philharmonic concert you might understand. It is assumed that attending one of their concerts is a sign that one appreciates the music, and wishes to hear it where it can be presented most pleasingly. That there would be one jerk there exercising inconsiderate behavior may not surprise you, but it's effect on this event was serious. That it persisted ruined the concert for many people. Mr. Gilbert deserves some praise for holding back for as long as he did but perhaps he should have spoken out sooner. But that he did eventually respond is news. Why? Because it's the NY Philharmonic!.

Someone should've taken a pic of this douchebag and posted it all over the internet....

I was at the concert and it was the most intense scene I've ever experienced at a performance.  I've never ever seen anything that intense at a sporting event.  If this had been one of those concealed carry states someone would have shot this guy. 

Firstly, the phone rang a lot, more than once that marimba sound started and continued, then would stop and start again, like somebody really wanted to talk to this guy.  We thought maybe it was some sort of alarm the guy had set - maybe his alarm to go to the concert and he just never turned it off.  It continued through a lot of the second movement.  Actually, my feeling was that the sound was coming from my row (I was in the upper tier on the left) and hopefully we in that row were the only people who could hear it (that turned out not to be true, clearly).  By the third time the phone started sounding (can't really call it ringing when it's going thunkety-thunk thunk thunkety thunk) it was mortifying (but laughable) my son who is a big Mahler fan knew that the situation would be untenable given how quiet the last 5 minutes of Mahler 9 is. 

Let me digress on the topic of sound to note that through much of this concert the audience sounded like a hospital ward.  There was hardly a second where there wasn't a cough of some sort.  Given the geriatric skew of the crowd at these things it could hardly be surprising.  I'll come back to this later.

Sure enough as the piece started in on the quietest part of the piece, the thuknety-thunks started and there was no choice but to stop.  But that's when it got intense.  I couldn't see the person because they were below my row, but I'll accept the account that had them nodding and assuring it would not happen again.  The whole disruption just went on and on with the crowd getting very restless and definitely ANGRY! 

An older gentlemen in the row in front of me stood up and with veins throbbing and spittle flying screamed "GET OUT" twice at the man.  They wanted him escorted out. 

Finally, with Gilbert assuaged, he turned back to the orchestra and they started again.  And this time it was quiet.  Even the coughing had stopped.  You could hear a pin drop in that hall as the Philharmonic finished what has to be one of the quietest endings of a symphonic piece ever written. 

This is a problem that's only getting worse and worse. School is back in for the spring semester and in the first three days of classes, every single one of my teachers and TAs has had their phone go off in class. Only one of them kept it from being a distraction by joking that he had his brother call him to remind us to turn our phones off. What's annoying about this from my perspective is that I haven't heard a single student's phone go off, but since we aren't receiving the "silent" respect, I can imagine we won't be as persistent in silencing our phones for the remainder of the semester.

There are some Catholic churches in Mexico (and probably elsewhere) that have signal scamblers at the doors which disable the phone's ability to make/receive calls while inside.
The NYP could benefit from this.

what's sad is that those things are pretty cheap. you can buy them online for 20-50 dollars, but the range is limited. I've contemplated planting them in people's cars before.

Well, it's good to know that Alan is still the same insufferable snobby tool he was when he was younger....

Nice place to get your petty personal attack in.

But he's an insufferable snobby tool who has obviously delivered the goods....

Only to the offending cell phone owner.  Certainly not where the music is concerned.

You don't like how he conducts?  Don't go listen to them.  Move to Vienna.  Ok?

No, I most definitely do not like how he conducts. As music director of one of the (arguably) top 5 orchestras in the country, he's an embarrassment. It's a position he should not normally have ever even been considered for, but his peeps lobbied long and hard for him and he got the gig. Having a parent in the orchestra was probably not a hindrance.

If only I could move to Vienna.

Just speculating - but maybe it wasn't his phone ringing, but rather the alarm clock going off? I think Iphones have that "marimba" ringtone as the default for the alarm function. More plausible that the guy didn't know how to turn that off as opposed to getting his phone to stop ringing?

Not sure how this really changes things, he's still an idiot.

you know it!  iPhone users are the worst. they have no idea how to use a smartphone, never bother to learn it, but gets one anyway because its "cool".

Not a fan but good for him - that's something that Lenny would have done....

Would be fun if that person was force to pay back everyone for their ticket.