Only a single police car was stationed outside the concert hall on Tuesday, September 16, as Parisian music lovers gathered to attend a Munich Philharmonic Orchestra concert led by Israeli conductor Lahav Shani, who will become the orchestra's music director in the fall of 2026. On September 10, the Flanders Festival in Ghent, Belgium, announced that it was canceling an appearance by Shani scheduled for September 18, arguing that the musician, who is also the music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, had not sufficiently distanced himself from his government's policy in Gaza. When this was announced, Baptiste Charroing, the new director of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, issued a statement confirming that the Munich orchestra's performance at his venue would go ahead as planned. Amid numerous statements of support for the artists, especially in Germany, the music community also expressed its outrage with a petition on Change.org: Among its 16,000 signatures was pianist Martha Argerich, who said she was "dismayed," echoing other signatories.

At the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the conductor went on stage to enthusiastic applause, accompanied by Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili, who opened the evening with Beethoven's Violin Concerto. The music was just about to begin when a voice rang out amid the silence. The voice spoke in Hebrew, expressing support for Israel, only to be immediately drowned out by protests and heckling: "Shut up, idiot!" and "Get out of here, you fool!" It was a rather unsettling start: The concerto's introduction felt unusually long and flat, until the miraculous sound of the soloist's violin finally broke through.

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