Pianist Stops Concert Due To Mobile Phone

Hearing a phone ring during a classical concert would put any performer off – and pianist Christian Zacharias is no different.

The world-famous German maestro was playing Haydn’s ‘Piano Concerto’ at the grand Gothenburg Concert Hall, Sweden, earlier this week, when he found himself playing over an unwelcome musical accompaniment.

Just a few notes of the digital ringtone echoed through the hall before Zacharias halted his performance.

As the crowd muttered its disapproval the pianist, who was onstage with a full orchestra, told his fellow musicians: “Don’t answer. Let it ring.”

After a few more excruciating seconds the ringing stopped and Zacharias calmly continued.

Speaking after the concert he said: “If you are in a big moment and the orchestra is playing and you hear it faintly in the distance something, I mean you just go on.

“But if the music comes to this moment where it is getting more and more silent and more magic and then this thing starts – then of course it doesn’t stop – then I say no.