Klarinet Archive - Posting 001004.txt from 1998/03

From: bkinlein <bkinlein@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Intermovement pauses
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 06:24:58 -0500

Carl Hass once (at least) did a program on this subject. He had live
recordings of several "great" performances which included extremely
enthusiastic applause between movements. He approved when the
performance really touches the audience, as his examples obviously did.
Nontheless, I find myself unable to do so. The outerwise silence would
be deafening.
Bart Kinlein

Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:
>
> > From: MX%"klarinet@-----.74
> > Subj: Re: Intermovement pauses
>
> > What do you mean by relatively recent phenomenon? I can't recall anyone
> > clapping between movements during the last 30 years, and presumably this
> > was the established practice long before that, or are you talking about
> > previous centuries? Or is this a relatively new devolopment just in the
> > U.S. you're talking about? I would be happy to applaud between
> > movements, especially after a particularly difficult solo, but as you
> > suggest, no one wants to show supposed ignorance by being the only one.
>
> This one I have to jump into. The phenomenon of insisting that an
> audience be absolutely silent until the end of a composition is
> relatively new. In Mozart's time, for example, it was not uncommon
> for an audience to interrupt the performance of a movement if the
> performer did something they liked very much, and to insist on
> a repetition of it. Mozart described exactly such a situation in one
> of his concerts. And it happened to Beethoven and even Schubert, as
> well.
>
> And between movements it was also quite appropriate to show one's
> appreciation, too. The Italians still do it within opera and they
> will show their displeasure as well.
>
> The idea that an audience's reaction to a performance is something
> irrelevant to the performance dates from the mid 1800s at which
> point it began to be considered bad form (or worse, insensitivity)
> to interrupt before everything was done, and the development of that
> attitude was one of the worst things that happened to classical music.
>
> Do you see the audience reaction at a rock concert? Well that is
> what an audience who likes one's playing should be doing at a
> symphonic concert. Except social pressures are now opposed to it
> happening.
>
> When you hear a jazz concert and the tenor player does a particularly
> beautiful thing during his solo, do you sit on your hands? So why
> is it different for symphonic concerts?
>
> If I went to concerts, which I rarely do, I would insist on showing
> my pleasure (but not my displeasure) by applauding whenever and
> wherever the performance thrilled me, and if someone did not like
> it they could, as several of the Mozart scatalogical canons suggest,
> leck mich in arsch!
>
> >
> > (Tim Roberts wrote:
> > >
> > > 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.
> > >
> > > Is it possible the relatively recent phenomenon of maintaining complete silence
> > > between movements might be coming to an end, or is this just a case of a man
> > > with a sense of humor trying to goad someone into incurring the wrath of his or
> > > her audience-mates?
> > >
> > > --
> > > - Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
> > > Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.)
> >
> >
> =======================================
> Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
> Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
> leeson@-----.edu
> =======================================