Applause after a first movement

[kolaboy]

OK, now I know not to visit the forum whilst having dinner.

[JimL]

...In Convent Garden I shall keep quiet, although I remind you all that this is the same venue that diplayed a graphic oral sex scene when Anna Nicole in the opera of the same name goes down on her 90 year old lover and then wipes the semen off her mouth with a hankie. Not totally romantic, I must admit, but I certainly felt like giving a round of applause for the old buffer.

Shouldn't that be "duffer"?  And she didn't swallow?  No, I guess that would have been insufficently theatrical.

[Alan Howe]

Well we're getting into so many split hairs now I think we all need a good soak of conditioner. I tell you what, if appreciation can be expressed within and doesn't need to be uttered, don't say "Thank you" any more when people give you a present, then explain your theory to them at that time. You'll be able to experience first hand what people think about that.

No split hairs here. Just a careful laying-bare of a poor argument. So, just to clarify:
1. Appreciation is not applause. We might think of it as a feeling or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received. In other words, it begins inside the self.
2. Applause is simply one of the ways in which this feeling of appreciation can be expressed. Others include thanking, kissing, a handshake, etc.
3. I nowhere said that appreciation doesn't need to be uttered; I merely distinguished it from the means of its expression. Of course appreciation should be expressed: the question is how and when. In the context of this thread, the debate has centred - quite rightly - upon these matters of how and when.

[eschiss1]

... oy, when the argument becomes are-you-saying-that-music-can't-be-fun we have entered reductio ad absurdum territory for good and all (admittedly, sometimes contested territory, but not its existence so much as... oh, plenty of things. But then... that parrot is long dead.)

(I should Hoffnung so?)

[Mark Thomas]

Perhaps we can move on? This discussion is getting tedious and repetitive.

[ChrisDevonshireEllis]

APPPLLAUAAASE

[Alan Howe]

Indeed. Back to the debate...

[Delicious Manager]

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

At least then they will only HAVE one movement after which to applaud.

[BerlinExpat]

It's de rigueur in Russia.

Not only in Russia but it's still normal throughout the ex-DDR and I've heard it and joined in (it's hardly possible not to) in Budapest and Prague, so, I guess is commonplace throughout eastern Europe.

I've also experienced the opposite extreme to premature clapping - silence. After Poulenc's Dialogues des carmélites and Penderecki's The Devils of Loudoun   the audience mutually felt it was totally inappropriate to clap after the horrors that had been portrayed. They only showed their appreciation when the artists returned to the stage for their bows.

[Gauk]

One thing you read about in music history which actually requires applause after a movement, are those rare occasions when the audience is so swept away by a particular movement of a new work that they applaud to demand that the movement is repeated. I have actually witnessed such an event, and it must be even rarer today than it was 100 years ago. The occasion was the UK première (rather a late one) of the 2nd symphony of Hendrik Andriessen, given by an amateur orchestra in Edinburgh some years ago. The audience was not one inclined to applaud between movements ever, but the scherzo was followed by a storm of applause that continued until the conductor agreed to play the movement again. Everyone was quite happy!

[semloh]

A scholarly paper I encountered yesterday (not on a musical topic) suggested that there was something mystical, if not divine, about the very short silence between the end of a great musical performance and the start of applause. It certainly can be a magical moment, wouldn't you agree? 

[ChrisDevonshireEllis]

Indeed. My point about Gergiev. The "magical silence".
I once attended "Rite" at the Met and the end was ruined by overly and immediate cheering. Inappropriate, a young girl has just danced herself to death.

On the other hand how about applause after arias? I just saw Moses in Egypt at the NYOC and that audience (average age: 304) didn't mind letting their hair down after a decent warble.   

[gwatuk]

I recall (vividly) the York Festival in 1969 coinciding with my graduation from the University. One of the major events in the Festival was a performance in York Minster of Mahler 2 given by the Halle under Barbirolli. The Minster was packed and there was tremendous excitement about the place...

I was also there!

...I recall the most tremendous performance with orchestra, chorus and soloists giving it their all. It was also the very first time I had heard a Mahler symphony in the flesh, and I guess it was the same for most of the audience...

Me too.

...I think it must be counted as one of the most significant musical experiences of my life...

Me too.

How extraordinary to have found this item! (The power of google!)
I felt compelled to join the forum and add my thoughts.
I was 17 at the time and I think it was one of the biggest factors that made me change my choice of university course.
I had a sandwich course planned with Rolls Royce to become a mechanical engineer.
I decided to change this to study Physics with the hope of becoming a music engineer.
And I actually managed it. I got a job with the BBC and had my dream come true.
(I remember at the time that my parents completely freaked out over this mad decision!)
One of the last concerts I recorded before leaving the beeb was Mahler 5 at the Proms with Bernstein - another of "the most significant musical experiences of my life".

[Alan Howe]

Welcome to the forum. The power of Google indeed!

[giles.enders]

Audience behavior whether in a concert hall or theatre or cinema can be very irritating.  In concerts, if there is hearty applause at the end of a movement, perhaps they should repeat it!!!!!