Klarinet Archive - Posting 000975.txt from 1998/03

From: garylsmith@-----.com (Gary L Smith)
Subj: Re: Intermovement pauses
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 22:06:18 -0500

Once again I will maintain the Klarinet tradition of not exactly
answering your question, but offering another funny story:

The Alabama Symphony had a "light" concert recently which I attended. One
of the selections had many sections, with a pause between each. Pretty
much a full ovation after the first, with gradually more audience members
"catching on" each time. Finally, after one of the last sections, perfect
silence. The conductor wheeled around and said "Well, didn't you like
that one as well?" Uproarius laughter and applause.

I dunno. It gets pretty old when listening to lieder selections of about
2-3 minutes each, and I'd hate to see overall etiquette at concerts get
as bad as it is at, say, pop concerts, but many who are novices at
serious music performances may feel, with some amount of justification,
that this tradition mainly exists to make them uncomfortable as to what
they should do when. It's not literally true, but if they felt that way,
I could understand. Sometimes *I'm* not sure when something's ending, and
that period of psychoanalysing the conductor's body language can be
tense.

Ironically, I'm doing a recital tonight, and all I can say is - I hope
they don't try to applaud between the sections of the Schumann Fantasy
Pieces, which we are trying to play without pauses, as indicated in our
score, but perhaps some applause between the Hindemith sections, if it
comes, will serve as indication that the pianist and I got stopped close
enough together to recognize the ending (g).

On Mon, 16 Mar 1998 09:39:27 -0800 "Tim Roberts" <timr@-----.com> writes:
>Several weeks ago, when I saw David Shifrin perform the Brahms
>clarinet/cello/piano trio here in Portland, I noticed something I
>wanted to ask
>about. They seemed to have VERY long intermovement pauses, and during
>the
>pauses Shifrin looked out to the audience quite expectantly, with a
>bemused
>expression and raised eyebrows. Frankly, it looked to me like he was
>waiting
>for applause.

   
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