Applause after a first movement

[Peter1953]

I am wondering what members, listening to a symphony or a solo concert in a concert hall, think of applauding after the first movement (or even after each movement...). Do you think that disturbs the musicians and/or you as a listener? Personally it usually irritates me, but maybe musicians feel it as an appreciation of their good performance.

[thalbergmad]

I do not attend many concerts now and I only remember this happening once and the performer looked round with as much fury as if a mobile phone had gone off.

We seem to live in a World where everything is routinely cheered/applaused and it gets on my nerves. It is destroying tennis, ruins snooker matches and will get on my wick during the upcoming golf championships at Augusta where one will hear "in the hole" x 10 million.

Personally, any one who applauses after a first movement should be shot on sight. On completion of the performance naturally.

Thal

[Mark Thomas]

What he said.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

The phenomenon doesn't merely occur at the end of the movement. I deplore the behaviour of those characters - always a hearty male - who seem desperate to demonstrate to the rest of the audience that they really know the score, and hence are obviously very superior gentlemen, by shouting or applauding when the very last notes are still in the air. Musicians always indicate that the end of the performance hasn't yet been reached, even though the last note has been played, by holding a bow in play position or fingers across a keyboard or baton still in the air....and yet those unmusical thugs still want to rush in and disrupt the often magical atmosphere at the end of a piece.

In the past I have identified people in the audience who do this, and have (politely) asked them to refrain from such behaviour and explained what is so offensive about it. Maybe I'm just no good at furnishing a clear explanation, for these attempts have been met by considerable rudeness and even in one case threats of violence.

Perhaps better to stand with Thal, murderous axe in hand, by the door?

One qualification: the phenomenon occurs only at orchestral concerts (and of course in opera houses). I always find audiences at chamber concerts far more musical, and there's always far closer 'psychological' contact between performers and audience at chamber concerts than at orchestral events. Yes, the latter begin to resemble football matches. Hum, wonder how these hearty types would react if, whilst they were still exerting themselves and panting furiously, their lady friends emitted a 'well done, dear' and turned away and resumed reading their bedside book?

[kolaboy]

It has always irritated me. I hate to say it but my experience has been that a good number of those who are there are there to be seen, and to be seen appreciating something that they don't sincerely appreciate.

[Christopher]

Hum, wonder how these hearty types would react if, whilst they were still exerting themselves and panting furiously, their lady friends emitted a 'well done, dear' and turned away and resumed reading their bedside book?

There was just such a fatty, clearly an ex-collective farm manager who had never had anyone in his life tell him when to shut up, behind me in the Bolshoi once, just before it closed for renovations, who kept shouting "bravo" etc even as the notes were still lingering in the air.  I think it was a performance of Khachaturian's Spartacus, when there are some magically quiet parts, each of which he sledge-hammered to show his masterly appreciation of the poor ballerina. Then, at the end, as soon as the last notes were out, he gathered his massive self up and exited in haste, presumably so as to be first at the coat-check and not have to queue.  Those are the ones I would axe-murder first, the ones who really can't wait that extra 5-minutes to show their appreciation to the artists.

[Alan Howe]

Banish 'em to an island where the only radio station is ClassicFM.

[Hilleries]

Ugh, reminds me of Callas' Medea of 58, because it's one of the last cds I received.

I heard wonders about the performance, and being a sucker for Medea, I bought it. Indeed it is a superlative performance (even though the extreme cuts in the score are too much for me), but not only are people applauding after anything has been sung, they applaud when Callas enters the stage, does anything menacing etc. The whole coda is behind a thick fog of applause.

I understand she is famous, I understand many must have paid for the tickets based on that alone and that score is indeed ferocious and dramatic. Must it become a sitcom?

As a performer, applause between movements doesn't bother me as much as an audience member, in fact. As an audience member it bothers me to insane levels, as do people trying to show everyone how much they know the score - specially when they don't. I remember watching Schubert's string quintet and a lady in front of me would start to 'bob' sideways as if "I'm so moved by this, I must dance!", only to be surprised time and again by the music, ending out of sync or dancing when there was nothing happening (and vice-versa). After much bobing, the guy two seats from her felt compelled to partake.
I had to refrain from slapping them both on the back of their heads.

[mbhaub]

Try sitting next to the ignoramus who liked to hum the tunes. Can't wait for Rach 2 this weekend.

Bad, uncouth, rude behavior is just the sorry state of society today. Politeness and concern for others is a thing of the past. Maybe that's why I just don't go to so many concerts anymore. I sure play a lot, though, and audience rudeness really gets to me. Clapping between movements is annoying (esp after the 3rd movement of Tchaik's 6th), but the worst offense of all has to be the cell phones.

[Christopher]

Banish 'em to an island where the only radio station is ClassicFM.

Are there any presenters or other employees of Classicfm on here?  I really supported this radio station when it launched (in the UK) in 1992, but it has just got so stale. They play the same pieces over and over again, ad nauseam.  They have ruined certain pieces for me, including Rach 2, Dvorak New World, Bruch VC1, Rimsky-Korsakov Sheherezade, etc. Of course these are popular pieces, but do they really need several playings a day, and for snatches to be used in constant promotion?  And then they have this ridiculous thing called the Hall of Fame: listeners are invited to send in their 3 favourite pieces, and on the basis of this the station compiles a Top 300.  They then play the pieces from this Top 300 with very high frequency over the next 12 months, especially those in the top 10, whereupon they conduct the same exercise and surprise surprise the same pieces are voted in again, because precious little else has been played! If this was a general election or a referendum, observers would denounce it as biased, unfair and flawed.

And their jingle "Relax, it's Classicfm"....Did Shostakovich labour under constant fear of arrest and death so that someone could breathily say "Relax, it's Classicfm". Was it for this that Beethoven struggled with and triumphed over his deafness to produce some of the greatest music ever written?

I've heard the station is losing advertisers at a steady rate, and if this is true I am not surprised: as an advertiser I would be reluctant to be associated with something that had become so stale. And there's so much music, much listed on this website, that they could play....


There's a rant I've been meaning to get off my chest for a long time....

[Alan Howe]

The problem's with any enterprise that's led by its audience's uninformed preferences rather than by knowledgeable experts and educators. Same in many walks of life. People don't want to be taught or have their minds stretched: let's all just share our ignorance instead...

[TerraEpon]

And now, for some different takes on the matter:
http://www.musicaltoronto.org/2012/02/18/its-high-time-to-reconsider-applause-at-classical-concerts/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/mar/08/classical-music-applause-rule-obama
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/uncategorized/applauding-the-relaxing-of-rules-of-clapping-in-classical-concerts-470751/

And perhaps most telling:
http://www.artsjournal.com/sandow/2012/10/the-power-of-history.html

[Mark Thomas]

What an enjoyable thread. Magnificent to see the (mostly, I guess) middle aged male in full flight, glorying in his curdmudgeonliness, egged on by his peers 

Needless to say, I agree with all that has been said, and would add my dislike of the "obligatory standing ovation" at the end of a piece. I used to think that this was a purely American phenomenon, but it is creeping into UK concert halls now. You sit through a perfectly competent, but hardly outstanding, performance of some warhorse or other and at the end people jump to their feet cheering. Others reluctantly rise to their feet until most of the audience has to do so, because not to would seem like criticism of what was an OK rendition. Of course, in another creeping practice, by that stage many people are not only standing, but almost running for the exits. At a Boston Symphony concert I took in a couple of years ago, fully a quarter of the audience had left before the conductor took his second bow.

Ba, humbug!

[FBerwald]

Applauding after the first movement of a virtuoso concerto wasn't out if practice. I believe that von Bülow said that he had applause in between his performance of Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto. Lets look at the baroque and classical period multi-movement pieces where the applauding between the movement's would not have been a problem as opposed to the pieces [e.g. middle - late Beethoven.. I'm sure there are others] where a certain musical climate or idea would be broken if there were clapping between movements ... Applause between a Mahler symphony is murder! There is also another factor. In a country like India where western Classical is not the regular staple people do not know that sometimes you HAVE to wait for a piece to end before clapping. Now a days they make an announcement at the beginning of a concert requesting that the audience familiarize themselves with the printed program and not clap between the movement to fully appreciate the piece. I am happy to say that it seems to be working here!

[giles.enders]

I find applause both between movements and before the last note at the end of the concert has died away, very irritating.  More recent irritations are people looking at their mobiles, rummaging for their bottled water and unwrapping sweets.
On the plus side, there is far less audience coughing, than twenty years ago.

Come to a Sunday Concert at Conway Hall, the audience behave very well.