Sunday, March 11, 2012

Brahms and Liszt

Harry Hutton brings news of a stoush where one would least expect it:
It gets so quiet during the second movement of the Brahms Symphony No. 2, you could almost hear a pin drop.
Or a sneeze. Or a fist hitting a face. 
Such was the case Thursday night at Orchestra Hall in a ruckus the Chicago Symphony Orchestra officially described as “an incident” between “two patrons.” But shocked concert-goers and police called it a fist fight in one of the boxes — where the elite typically sit and expect a more refined experience. 
Just as the second movement was drawing to a gentle close — with Music Director Riccardo Muti at the podium — a man in his 30s, according to police, started punching a 67-year-old man inside one of the boxes.[. . . ] 
The concert never stopped, but Muti shot a glance over his left shoulder toward the box where the punches were thrown. One concert-goer described the look as “dagger eyes.”
I wonder what the Italian for “dagger eyes” is. Riccardo Muti was born in Naples. The fighters are lucky he wasn’t born in Palermo.

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