Applause....I know, I know..........

[PhilipT]

If it's genuine spontaneous acclaim for a wonderful passage of music-making then I think you'd have to be rather churlish to criticise.

Quite a few years ago there was a "Bravo!" from near the front of the Arena at the end of the first movement of the Dvorak Piano Concerto (played by Garrick Ohlsson). Can I be churlish about that?

[Darkbloom]

Quite a few years ago there was a "Bravo!" from near the front of the Arena at the end of the first movement of the Dvorak Piano Concerto (played by Garrick Ohlsson). Can I be churlish about that?

I'm sure we have all heard people engage in a demented competition to be the first person to shout 'bravo' at the end of a performance. Sometimes I wonder if they were really listening at all and just wanted an opportunity to show off. That's odious of course and deserves criticism. I don't know the performance you mention, but I recall being at the Rattle Mahler 8 when one single voice yelled 'wow' at the end of the first movement and everyone around him looked rather embarrassed. I thought it was simply a moment of spontaneous emotion. Perhaps you were there and found it annoying, but it didn't bother me at all.

I am not about to tell people how they should behave, but I think there are moments when a spontaneous expression of excitement is fair enough. It all depends on the circumstances. Sometimes the costive silence you can get between movements seems more out of place than applause to me. I don't know whether Tchaikovsky intended applause at the end of the Pathetique third movement but you usually get it. Perhaps it makes the despair of the last movement all that more vivid coming straight after?

[maestro267]

With easy access to information about music on the Internet now, it's possible to do research on the music you're going to hear, even without listening to it. So "not knowing when the piece is over" should not be an excuse in this day and age.

[MrGongGong]

How are we doing on the hypertension front chums?

Still up in the high hundreds?

Or is this confessional having the desired effect?

[french frank]

How are we doing on the hypertension front chums?

Still up in the high hundreds?

Or is this confessional having the desired effect?

You look to have a dangerously high colour yourself, Gongers

[Serial_Apologist]

You look to have a dangerously high colour yourself, Gongers

There's got to be applausible explanation...

[MrGongGong]

There's got to be applausible explanation...

http://clappingmusicapp.com

[Serial_Apologist]

http://clappingmusicapp.com

That must be Apping Clappy Music then!

[Padraig]

That must be Apping Clappy Music then!

Wrong.

[Serial_Apologist]

Wrong.

[Beef Oven!]

I'm beginning to feel that a lot do it now because they know it annoys the purists.

Come off it.

[Bryn]

... I'm beginning to feel that a lot do it now because they know it annoys the purists.

But it's the purists, those who are emulating the behaviour of the audiences of old, who are offering approbation between separate movements of a multi-movement work, surely? Not that much of a purist myself, but good luck to those who are, say I.

[MrGongGong]

But it's the purists, those who are emulating the behaviour of the audiences of old, who are offering approbation between separate movements of a multi-movement work, surely? Not that much of a purist myself, but good luck to those who are, say i.

Did they clap between movements when the Scratch played?

[Beef Oven!]

But it's the purists, those who are emulating the behaviour of the audiences of old, who are offering approbation between separate movements of a multi-movement work, surely? Not that much of a purist myself, but good luck to those who are, say I.

I don't think enough people grasp this point.

[Bryn]

Did they clap between movements when the Scratch played?

I seem to recall they did between the various movements of the suite from Sweet F.A. when it was given in a cinema in the Tirol. John Tilbury's vocal rendition of "Why doesn't everyone go underground" went down especially well, as I recall. Oh, and there was plenty of applause between the various parts (movements?) of Christan Wolff's Burdocks at Cecil Sharp House, but that did not only involve the Scratch. Just about every experimental music performing group in London at that time took part.