Audience Member's Phone Rings During Mahler Adagietto, Ringtone Is Also Mahler

A mobile phone belonging to an audience member at the Zurich Tonhalle rang during the Adagietto fourth movement of Mahler's Fifth Symphony on Saturday evening, and its ringtone — the trumpet fanfare from the first movement of the same symphony — created an accidental polytonal collision that has since generated more critical discussion than the performance itself. The phone, belonging to retired dentist Werner Klingelton, activated approximately four minutes into the Adagietto, a movement scored exclusively for strings and harp and performed at a hushed pianissimo that makes even the sound of breathing seem intrusive. 'The opening trumpet call of the first movement came blasting out of row H at what I estimate was approximately ninety decibels,' said concertmaster Annaliese Leitmotiv. 'The strings were playing in F major at pianissimo. The phone was playing the funeral march theme in C-sharp minor at what I can only describe as phone-issimo. For about eight seconds, we were performing a Mahler bitonality that the composer did not intend and would likely not have approved of, though given his personality, he might have found it darkly funny.' Klingelton, 67, was visibly mortified. 'I set the ringtone because I love Mahler,' he told reporters in the lobby. 'I thought it would be off. I specifically remember thinking I should turn it off. I did not turn it off. The irony of disrupting Mahler with Mahler is not lost on me. I will carry this shame to my grave.' Critic Helena Fortspinnung, reviewing the concert for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, devoted an entire paragraph to the incident, noting that 'the superimposition of the martial first-movement theme over the tender Adagietto created a momentary Ivesian texture that, while entirely accidental, raised genuine questions about the work's internal dramatic relationships.' Conductor Maestro Erich Auftakt paused for approximately three seconds after the phone was silenced, then resumed the Adagietto from the point of interruption. He has since requested that the Tonhalle install a cell phone signal jammer, a request the venue has denied on legal grounds. Klingelton has changed his ringtone to vibrate. 'I've lost the right to have a Mahler ringtone,' he said. 'I know that now.'