Turn It Down!

It's never a good sign for an audience when an orchestra's members start reaching for their earplugs. But that's what members of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra were driven to by "Halat Hisar" (State of Siege), by Dror Feiler, before they cut the piece from their program due to its "adverse health effects."

"The piece begins with shots from a machine gun that are played from a tape," Trygve Nordwall, the orchestra's manager, told the German dpa news agency on Saturday, April 5. "And that's the quietest part [of the 20-minute piece]."

Feiler said he was angry the orchestra cut his piece, even though Nordwall said the piece was not dropped for artistic reasons.

But he also said it wasn't difficult for him to make his decision after one of the orchestra's members complained of ringing ears three hours after a rehearsal.

"It was my decision," Nordwall said. "I had to protect the orchestra."