It happened again.

Just as I was settling in to enjoy a concert, one person in the audience committed the kind of breach of etiquette that I found deeply disturbing.

To be specific: Last Sunday afternoon, I attended the free concert by the five winners of the annual UW student Beethoven sonata competition.

The various players were all talented and all performed well in such Big Beethoven as the "Waldstein," the "Appassionata" and Op. 109. They seemed thrilled, if a bit nervous, and so did we family, friends and fans.

But two rows in front of me, a woman took out books on Finland (not a booklet with program notes or lyrics to the songs she was hearing) and started to read them and underline passages in them throughout the entire concert.

Now, Morphy Recital Hall (pictured above) is small enough that people can be distracted by seeing that and even hearing it - though the woman took apparent pains to turn pages during louder passages, of which there are many in Beethoven.

She seemed to be sitting next to her husband or at least a very good friend or partner.

I'm only guessing, but my guess is that he really wanted to hear the sonatas (because he, in contrast, seemed very attentive) and she really didn't, but went along with it.

But, man, was I steamed. I was going to say something to her during intermission, but she put the books away in a bag and I thought that was the end of it.

But I was wrong.

She started again as soon as the second half began.

Her action was rude to other members of the audience, especially those sitting right near by her, and extremely disrespectful to the young performers who had invested a lot of time and effort and thought to offer the public their vision of Beethoven.

I wonder how she would have felt if they started to play Beethoven sonatas on the piano while she was lecturing about Finland?

Anyway, the last time I wrote about concert etiquette, I got a lot of replies, including people who said it's a live event and one shouldn't ask for perfect audience behavior.

But this really crossed over the line for me.

I say: If you don't want to hear the music, then stay away,

If you're at home listening to a CD and you want to read and use the music as background, that's fine.

But a live concert is wholly different event. You're there to pay attention to the music-making.

So what do you think?

Should The Finland Lady have put away the book or else left the concert?

Should she apologize to the performers and other audience members?

Should I have been upset by her behavior, which may or may not have been noticed by the performers and by other audience members?

What would you have done?

Let me know.