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THE CONCERT HALL — There are appropriate times to fall asleep, opportune times, strategic times — and bad times.
An appropriate time would be when it's the end of the night and you climb into bed having brushed your teeth and put on your jammies.
An opportune time is when your kids are out of the house for an hour and there is peace and quiet for the first time in a fortnight.
A strategic time is like when I was in a meeting with a few people and our boss was video conferencing in from Philadelphia. A coworker of mine positioned his chair in the conference room so the camera couldn't see him and he caught some Z’s.
A bad time is caught in this video.
The North State Symphony in Redding, California. was playing back in 2017 and captured this incredible moment on video so all of us could both learn from it and cherish it for generations. The symphony was performing "The Firebird" by Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky.
In one section the music gets very low and slow and almost sounds like it could be a lullaby. Then there is a moment of silence quickly chased away by a crash when the instruments all seem to come alive all at once. It's a rousing and beautiful piece. But if you're asleep, it can be downright terrifying — or at least that's what I assume considering what happened when the North State Symphony hit that moment.
The crescendo hits hard, and the only thing louder than the ensemble of musicians is the person who screams when it happens. The composer can hardly keep his laughs in as he realizes he jarred an audience member back from slumberland. You can even see a few of the musicians trying to keep it together.
I think one commenter on YouTube said it best with, "I think that’s the finest compliment of that conductor’s career."
This person may just be right. You nearly killed an audience member with a heart attack, conductor. Congratulations.
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