Who on earth takes a one year old child to a classical concert...?

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  • pastoralguy
    Full Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 7808

    Who on earth takes a one year old child to a classical concert...?

    ...Is the question a friend and I have been asking ourselves this last hour. Why? Well, we've just left the final concert of this years Edinburgh Festival at the interval. 2 reasons. One being that the Bamberg Symphony were not a patch on their last Festival appearance. (Very mediocre strings!) and, second reason, someone thought it would be a great idea to bring an infant to a concert which employs 6 percussionists, often working at full pelt. Each silence being followed by a 'WAAAAA...'!

    For the second work, our family decided that in order to minimise the racket they should sit further back in the Usher Hall! When that didn't work, the mother clumped down the stairs to the nearest exit. If you have any doubt how distracting it was simply listen to the BBC Recording of the event on September 19th!

    I'm curious as to why the Usher Hall staff allowed such a young child in in the first place.

    Oh dear...
    Last edited by pastoralguy; 03-09-11, 20:22.
  • french frank
    Administrator/Moderator
    • Feb 2007
    • 30496

    #2
    Originally posted by pastoralguy View Post
    someone thought it would be a great idea to bring an infant to a concert which employs 6 percussionists, often working at full pelt. Each silence being followed by a 'WAAAAA...'!
    [Sorry ]

    I'm curious as to why the Usher Hall staff allowed such a young child in in the first place.
    Yes, indeed. There usually is an age limit, even if it's as young as five.
    It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

    Comment

    • MrGongGong
      Full Member
      • Nov 2010
      • 18357

      #3
      and why do they allow people travelling with children to buy seats in the "quiet coach" on trains ???????

      Comment

      • Serial_Apologist
        Full Member
        • Dec 2010
        • 37846

        #4
        Many people take children younger than 1 year old to rock concerts. I can't see a classical concert being in any way more harmful. Was the child in this instance ostensibly upset by the experience?

        S-A

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        • pastoralguy
          Full Member
          • Nov 2010
          • 7808

          #5
          Frankly, the welfare of the child was not of the utmost concern to those of who had paid money to hear this concert! And if a child is stupid enough to have parents who so little regard to their welfare as to take them to a rock concert at such a tender age then they deserve all they get!

          Comment

          • Serial_Apologist
            Full Member
            • Dec 2010
            • 37846

            #6
            So, this thread is a wind-up. I must have had an irony by-pass today!

            Comment

            • pastoralguy
              Full Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 7808

              #7
              Had a couple of whiskys to dull the pain of the decline of society! Didn't realise it was irony.

              No wind up. though!

              Comment

              • Petrushka
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 12323

                #8
                Had I been present at this concert I'd have been well hacked off! Concert halls usually stipulate some sort of lower age limit for admittance for entirely sensible reasons.

                Some dim memory of mine does seem to recall the wailing of a child at a Colin Davis concert at the Albert Hall many years ago but details sadly elude me.

                Another memory is of feeling dismayed to find myself sitting next to a couple of young children (aged about 7 or 8) at a Kurt Masur/Leipzig Gewandhaus Prom of Schubert 8 and Bruckner 4 a number of years ago. To my astonishment, they sat completely still and listened to the mostly slow music with the utmost concentration. They were a credit to their parents and I wonder if they are still to be found attending the Proms. I do hope so.
                "The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard Haitink

                Comment

                • makropulos
                  Full Member
                  • Nov 2010
                  • 1677

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Petrushka View Post
                  Had I been present at this concert I'd have been well hacked off! Concert halls usually stipulate some sort of lower age limit for admittance for entirely sensible reasons.

                  Some dim memory of mine does seem to recall the wailing of a child at a Colin Davis concert at the Albert Hall many years ago but details sadly elude me.

                  Another memory is of feeling dismayed to find myself sitting next to a couple of young children (aged about 7 or 8) at a Kurt Masur/Leipzig Gewandhaus Prom of Schubert 8 and Bruckner 4 a number of years ago. To my astonishment, they sat completely still and listened to the mostly slow music with the utmost concentration. They were a credit to their parents and I wonder if they are still to be found attending the Proms. I do hope so.
                  Two similar experiences. First, at the Messiaen Festival in the French Alps this summer, a young mother arrived with her infant (probably less than one year old) five minutes before a performance of the Quartet for the End of Time. The artists came on, settled down ready to start and the baby howling started up. They waited. Mother and baby seemed quite happy with the status quo and baby continued to make the sounds babies do. Eventually two friendly members of the Festival staff had to invite her politely to take baby outside. After a couple of minutes discussion, she did. To the sounds of a retreating baby, the performance began...

                  Second, at the Vienna Volksoper in 1986 for a performance of Hänsel und Gretel. We arrived in our seats and the three next to us were soon taken by a girl who looked to be about 12 (it turned out when we talked to her that she was 11) with her two younger sisters - at the interval she told us she was bringing them to the opera as it was wonderful and her parents were at the Staatsoper that night (!). Indeed it was wonderful - a miraculous production - but equally so was the spellbound concentration of all three of our young neighbours. It was really very touching and made a memorable evening even more special.

                  As someone who started going to concerts and operas when I was 7 or 8, I'm seriously in favour of children going to hear live music as soon as they know what's expected in terms of being quiet and the like - it utterly changed my life, as it has many other people's, to encounter great music at that age. But a baby is really a bit much. I'd imagined that the one who came to hear Messiaen was a one-off - but apparently not.

                  Comment

                  • barber olly

                    #10
                    Was Dohnanyi's Variations on the programme?

                    Comment

                    • BBMmk2
                      Late Member
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 20908

                      #11
                      At last night's prom, there were two little boys of about aged 5 yrs old? Impeccably behaved and for contrast, there was this 30 something woman from abroad, who just obviously didnt want to be there. I believe her partner wanted to be there, as he seemed to pay attention when the orchestra was playing. The woman was quite restless throughout and talked in between movemtns etc, putting her bag on the floor, flicking her hair back, goodness knows what else! Quite destracting I can tell you! She was in her 3os to whilst the two little boys, were a shining example of how good they were!!
                      Don’t cry for me
                      I go where music was born

                      J S Bach 1685-1750

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                      • Pianorak
                        Full Member
                        • Nov 2010
                        • 3128

                        #12
                        Who on earth takes a one year old child to a classical concert...

                        . . . without the requisite bread crust dipped in gin? Young women these days - haven't got a clue!!
                        My life, each morning when I dress, is four and twenty hours less. (J Richardson)

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                        • Sydney Grew
                          Banned
                          • Mar 2007
                          • 754

                          #13
                          I remember one concert (or recital) to which a woman brought not only three young children but a couple of dogs. I think she thought that if they all sat at the back no one would be bothered; but their goings-on spoilt Arensky's Trio completely for me, and I have essentially stopped attending live performances since that occasion.

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                          • Eine Alpensinfonie
                            Host
                            • Nov 2010
                            • 20575

                            #14
                            Originally posted by Sydney Grew View Post
                            I remember one concert (or recital) to which a woman brought not only three young children but a couple of dogs. I think she thought that if they all sat at the back no one would be bothered; but their goings-on spoilt Arensky's Trio completely for me, and I have essentially stopped attending live performances since that occasion.
                            Why on earth were they allowed in?

                            Comment

                            • Norfolk Born

                              #15
                              Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View Post
                              Why on earth were they allowed in?
                              Possibly for fear that they might bring an action for infringement of their human and animal rights?

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