Klarinet Archive - Posting 000535.txt from 1999/07

From: Bruce Keplinger <bruce@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] APPLAUSE (a bit late, I know...)
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 1999 23:20:35 -0400

At 03:42 PM 7/8/99 -0400, wrote:
>Bob Yoon wrote:
>
>When I was a Fellow at Tanglewood in 1979, Bernstein conducted Mahler #9
and there was no applause from an audience of thousands. It was chilling
if not haunting. There was a program note asking for no applause.

I'm catching up on my list, and I came across the applause thread -- sorry
for this being so late...
I agree, that would have been impressive with Mahler's 9th.
I regularly attend the concerts of a summer chamber music festival near
where I live. If the weather allows, all the Saturday night concerts are
outdoors on the lawn of an early 1900s estate on a lake. Acoustics aside,
those concerts are are wonderful, and occasionally totally enchanting, such
as Appalachian Spring with the sound of crickets in the background...
I remember a concert 15 or so years ago before my wife and I were married.
It was, I believe the second concert of this festival we had ever
attended, and it sold us on season tickets. Despite it being cloudy, rain
did not seem imminent, and the concert was outdoors. It was Appalachian
Spring, but added to crickets was distant thunder (and even a light rain,
which enchanted me all the more!!). (I tear up just remembering it!)
Anyway, applause is the subject, and there are times when applause should
be withheld, and time when I wish the conductor *would* exercise his/her
control in not letting it start in immediately. Last year at this
Festival, Barber's _Summer, Knoxville, 1915_ was programmed. (It's another
piece that brings tears to me.) The crickets were in rare form. Now, to
those who know it, think about how the piece ends... Now, imagine that the
conductor lets the night sounds well up after the music ends, and just
holds it there for a few seconds...
Well, he didn't do it. A golden (a *platinum*!) opportunity missed.
Maybe John Cage was right (4'33"...)...

-Bruce

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