Concertgoers at the New York Philharmonic Tuesday night did not have to be musicologists to work out that the marimba was not part of the famous work.

Conductor Alan Gilbert halted the performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony when the offending iPhone ringtone sounded -- and persisted -- a media contact at the symphony confirmed.

Just minutes from the end of the hour and a half-long piece, Gilbert turned to the phone's owner, seated close to the front of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, according to an eyewitness account published by "Superconductor" blogger Paul Pelkonen.

In the ensuing pause, some in the audience reportedly called for blood, shouting: "Kick him out!" and "$1,000 fine!" the witness recounted.

Gilbert quietly employed shame until the offender -- described as an elderly man by another blogger -- confirmed that the phone was off. Before continuing with the concert, Gilbert apologized and explained that normally it’s best to ignore such disturbances, but he said this was "so egregious that I could not allow it."

This was the first time Gilbert has stopped the orchestra for a violation of the "cell-phones off" rule, the symphony media contact said, but at least the second time that it has happened in the symphony’s history.

For classical music buffs who witnessed it, there was some satisfaction to be gained from the incident, which occurred in what is otherwise a quiet and mesmerizing part of the Mahler work.

"In a way, it’s great that that schlimazel’s iPhone happened to go off at such a sweet spot in Mahler’s Ninth on Tuesday. All of us… got to exercise some righteous indignation, schadenfreude, and the adrenaline rush of watching a fight," wrote a classical music blogger on "thousandfold echo."

The downside, said the writer, was that after "Mahlergate" there was just no turning back the clock.

"After this kerfuffle, it’s impossible to talk about the actual music, just as it was impossible for listeners to return to the symphony’s transcendent stillness after the cellphone," with news coverage focused on the man with the marimba, and "nary a pixel spent on what came before or after."

I need video confirmation of said fail so that I have something to watch while working!!

"The Artist" is earning acclaim, including three Golden Globes. But not everyone appreciates the black-and-white, almost entirely silent film.

British newspapers are reporting that some moviegoers there demanded refunds after starting to watch the film and discovering it's silent (a few lines are spoken near the end).

The U.K. paper The Telegraph said that theater staff had issued a "small number of refunds" to patrons who complained. The article also noted that patrons buying tickets to "The Artist" at one Liverpool theater were now being asked if they understood that the film was silent to stave off any future confusion.

A spokesman for the Odeon theater chain told the paper that "the cinema is happy to offer guests a refund on their film choice is they raise concern with a member of staff within 10 minutes of the film starting."

In a similar incident from October of 2011, a Michigan woman actually sued the studio that released Ryan Gosling's "Drive," claiming, among other things, that the trailer billed the dark drama as an action film along the lines of the "Fast & Furious" series. The suit actually called out the movie for having "very little driving."

The "Drive" and "Artist" incidents raise the question: Why do people who don't bother to research a movie before paying money to see it think their ignorance is the moviemaker's problem?

We can imagine the future lawsuits this trend could produce. "I thought 'Easy A' was a guide to rocks-for-jocks college classes!" "I believed 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' was a rock concert movie filmed from the front row!" "I expected 'Friends With Benefits' to be an instructional dating film!" Or even: "War Horse" had too much "War," not enough "Horse!"

Perhaps the movie title that applies here is "Dumb and Dumber."

JoeNY

Holy stupidity Batman! The liberal PC BS intolerance goes to new heights.

It used to be that being a "pioneer" was a noble thing, now it's oppressive. It used to be that a "chief" was an honorable position, now it's racist. It used to be that a "cougar" was an animal, now it's slang. It used to be that an "entrepreneur" was something to aspire to be, now it's an oppressive boss. It used to be that "work" was a good thing, now it's not worth your time. How completely lame.

You wonder why

Penny Can...do whatever the hell she wants with me.