LONDON — They had rehearsed the piece only once, but already the musicians at the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra were suffering. Their ears were ringing. Heads throbbed.

Tests showed that the average noise level in the orchestra during the piece, “State of Siege,” by the composer Dror Feiler, was 97.4 decibels, just below the level of a pneumatic drill and a violation of new European noise-at-work limits. Playing more softly or wearing noise-muffling headphones were rejected as unworkable.

So instead of having its world premiere on April 4, the piece was dropped. “I had no choice,” said Trygve Nordwall, the orchestra’s manager. “The decision was not made artistically; it was made for the protection of the players.”

“Composers should bear in mind that they are dealing with people who are alive, and not machines,” said Mr. Nordwall of the Bavarian orchestra.

(From Sarah Lyall’s article “No Fortissimo? Symphony Told to Keep It Down” in today’s New York Times.)

It does not take much imagination to realize that if these new European Union regulations were in place in May of 1913, some orchestra manager would have told Stravinsky that the decision to cut Le Sacre du printemps was not made artistically, but rather for the protection of the players. On the bright side, it would have prevented a riot and saved the Paris police the trouble of heading down to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

That’s not really the point though because anyone who knew about these new laws could see this coming from miles away. What really caught my eye was the irony in the comments of Mr. Nordwall. It’s funny that he would presume to advise composers on the nature of life and death as it relates to the performance of classical music. The program for his orchestra’s concert this coming Thursday:

Johannes Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Franz Joseph Haydn op. 56a
Alban Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra op. 6
Pyotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor op. 74 “Pathétique”

Under normal circumstances, I would say that it looks to be a fun program and one that I would be happy to attend. Unfortunately, after Mr. Nordwall’s comments and because I have no problem recognizing the difference between musicians who are alive and those who are not, all I can see on that program is 1897, 1935, and 1893.