NEW YORK (AP) — As Simon Rattle found out, conductors can't control everything.

The music director of the Berlin Philharmonic stepped off the podium, turned around and spoke to the audience at Carnegie Hall after the first movement of Mahler's Ninth Symphony on Tuesday night.

Apparently perturbed by repeated coughing, Rattle reminded the crowd that "this piece starts with silence and returns to silence. The audience can help to create the piece by remaining silent."

He then pointed out his handkerchief as an example of how coughing could be muffled.

While there was a noticeable drop in crowd noise during the remaining three movements, as the strings faded in the final notes of the closing adagio, the mood was disrupted by the sounds of a siren from a passing emergency vehicle on Seventh Avenue.

An eight-day residency by the Berlin Philharmonic and Rattle is the centerpiece of Carnegie Hall's "Berlin in Lights" festival, which continues through Sunday.

Carnegie Hall is located at upscale 57th Street.

On the Net:

Berlin Philharmonic:

http://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/home/

Carnegie Hall:

http://www.carnegiehall.org/