During the second movement of the LA Philharmonic’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, one woman reported a “loud and full body orgasm.”
Several concertgoers described the woman’s climactic moment from the balcony of the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Friday.
“Everyone kind of turned to see what was happening,” Molly Grant, who was sitting near the overjoyed woman, told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.
“I saw the girl after it had happened, and I assume that she … had an orgasm because she was heavily breathing, and her partner was smiling and looking at her — like in an effort to not shame her,” she said.
“It was quite beautiful,” Grant added.
An audio recording purportedly capturing the woman’s euphoria has gone viral.
Magnus Fiennes, brother of actor Ralph Fiennes, was also in attendance.
“A woman in the audience had loud and full body orgasm during the 5th’s second movement… Band politely carried on,” he said on Twitter.
However, some social media users expressed their doubts about the incident, with one who was present suggesting that the woman had a medical emergency.
Fiennes insisted “it absolutely happened,” writing that he “ran all possible scenarios.”
“Was in close proximity and had no less than 8 other friends coincidentally attending- all had reached a similar conclusion. She remained for the rest of the show, her demeanor was in evidence. My corroborated take is merely an observation. Respect maintained,” he said.
Journalist Jocelyn Silver wrote on Twitter that her friends said the woman “had a SCREAMING orgasm, to the point where the whole orchestra stopped playing. some people really know how to live.”
In a tweet, classical pianist Sharon Su said she “checked with someone who works at the LA Phil and they confirmed” that the event was true and that the orchestra did not stop playing during Tchaikovsky’s 5th.
The LA Times reported that its sources and the audio clip corroborated the accounts that the orchestra did not miss a beat during the explosive moment.
It noted that the philharmonic’s online program notes included the following description of the second movement.
“The … luscious main theme was adapted for a popular love song; Tchaikovsky’s skillful orchestration, however, lifts the mood from sentimentality to high Romanticism. The movement’s principal melody is presented in a memorable solo by the horn, followed by other appealing woodwind solos.”
“One can’t know exactly what happened, but it seemed very clear from the sound that it was an expression of pure physical joy,” Burton told the paper.
“A sort of classical music equivalent of that scene in a movie where someone is talking loudly in a party or a nightclub, and then the record suddenly stops and they say something that everyone hears,” he said.
Burton went on to say that the traditional show of delight was “rather wonderful and refreshing.”
“A sort of gasp in the audience,” he added, but “everyone felt that was a rather lovely expression of somebody who was so transported by the music that it had some kind of effect on them.”
The Times stated that it was unable to identify the woman and that the philharmonic did not reply promptly to its request for comment.
Classical music historians have remarked that the tune of John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” — which includes the words “You fill up my senses / Come fill me again” — is the horn solo from Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony.
