Moving seats at concerts...

[teamsaint]

Huge seat-swapping potential at Royal Festival Hall in London tonight

Daniil Trifonov, an award-winning young Russian pianist, is making his RFH debut andf there are hundreds of empty seatss., particularl;y in the balcony where you can pick up a seat for £10 and then swan down

Programme includes JS Bach, Beethoven piano sonata op. 111 and Liszt Transcendental studies.

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wha...ov-piano-81370

you off to that Ams? Enjoy, if you are . sounds luvverlee.

I had a rather decent seat in the stalls at a good price at the DSCH Jurowsky concert last week.
Top value !!

[David-G]

Huge seat-swapping potential at Royal Festival Hall in London tonight

Daniil Trifonov, an award-winning young Russian pianist, is making his RFH debut andf there are hundreds of empty seatss., particularl;y in the balcony where you can pick up a seat for £10 and then swan down

Programme includes JS Bach, Beethoven piano sonata op. 111 and Liszt Transcendental studies.

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wha...ov-piano-81370

Thanks for this. Trifonov is more than just "an award-winning pianist", he is simply wonderful. I have heard him several times in Edinburgh, including in this year's Festival in the Queens Hall. I now have a ticket for tonight!

[Zucchini]

Did you go Ams20000? I've heard him play Tch PC1 very refreshingly (I went to hear him despite the music), but not yet in recital.

[amateur51]

Did you go Ams20000? I've heard him play Tch PC1 very refreshingly (I went to hear him despite the music), but not yet in recital.

No I didn't because I'm a bit over-subscribed in the £ department at the moment (that was nicely put wasn't it?!? ) but I do wish I'd been able to go.Guardian, Telegraph & Arts Desk reviews have all been glowing. He dropped Beethoven piano sonata op.111 and substituted Rachmaninov Variations on a theme of Chopin instead apparently.

[Lento]

An allegedly persistent offender has apparently been banned from Vienna State Opera.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31160309

[DublinJimbo]

Trifonov is more than just "an award-winning pianist", he is simply wonderful.

I watched his recent recital in Carnegie Hall. I agree that he's exceptionally talented and is musically mature beyond his years, but I find his Lang-Lang-style emoting and swaying and crouching over the keys very off-putting.

[Beef Oven!]

An allegedly persistent offender has apparently been banned from Vienna State Opera.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31160309

Although there is a risk that this man's behaviour could spoil other people's enjoyment of the gig, I say well done!!

Hope a fighting fund is established to help him with his court case!!!!

[visualnickmos]

Although there is a risk that this man's behaviour could spoil other people's enjoyment of the gig, I say well done!!

Hope a fighting fund is established to help him with his court case!!!!

Not "well done" at all! It is theft - the same as someone not paying for their tube fare, or parking fee. No wonder they banned him. Sounds a bit of a git, quite frankly.

[Beef Oven!]

Not "well done" at all! It is theft - the same as someone not paying for their tube fare, or parking fee. No wonder they banned him. Sounds a bit of a git, quite frankly.

But surely this is a victimless crime?

Taking a vacant seat in the nice part of the theatre that a rich posh toff didn't want.

[Flosshilde]

Not "well done" at all! It is theft - the same as someone not paying for their tube fare, or parking fee. No wonder they banned him. Sounds a bit of a git, quite frankly.

It's not at all the same - if someone evades their fare then they are depriving the company of the revenue it might expect from a traveller. In the case of moving to a more expensive, unoccupied, seat, the venue is not losing revenue - they get the money the mover paid whichever seat he/she sits in, & they don't lose money from the more expensive seat because no-one had paid for it. The mover isn't 'stealing' anything - that would only be the case if they moved to a seat that had already been 'bought' & deprived the purchaser of its use.

[Conchis]

Exactly - a somewhat draconian 'solution' (if it IS that) and only serving to give the opera house a forbidding reputation.

I'm a moderately enterprising seat shifter but I know a few people who are in a different league altogether. I don't see how it does any harm - would anyone seriously choose to STAND for the duration of Gotterdammerung if there was an unoccupied seat in front of them?

[Cockney Sparrow]

...would anyone seriously choose to STAND for the duration of Gotterdammerung if there was an unoccupied seat in front of them?

Guilty (there's always one to contradict any assumption). The entire ring, Boris Godunov, Die Meistersinger, Don Carlos etc. With no back problems, I find standing more comfortable (at the RoH for sure). Amongst the first out to the bar, and last back. But yes, I've observed a lot of movement into any empty seats........

[Krystal]

It's galling when you've paid a premium price for a concert/recital and somebody switches from the 'cheap seats' to one next to you. Usually this occurs after the break, from my experience. I've seen it happen a lot at the Musikverein, the Konzerthaus and Theater an der Wien in Vienna. I've also been to concerts in the Musikverein where people talked all the way through proceedings. And some Japanese patrons got up on the stage, leaned against and tinkled with the Steinway and took pictures of each other during the break. Actually, the Japanese take pictures constantly despite this activity being banned at venues in Vienna. There's a substantial demographic which takes notice of 'rules' any more - it's all about me, me and me. Then there's the decent minority who always abide by the rules.

[MrGongGong]

It's galling when you've paid a premium price for a concert/recital and somebody switches from the 'cheap seats' to one next to you. .

Is it?
How is it compared to when you fly business class and find one of the 'plebs' has been upgraded?
Or you find that you have been paying tax for all these years and the chap who runs the big factory over the road pays none and spends most of his time on a tropical island drinking cocktails and splashing in the sea?

Is it also 'galling' when some folks sit in 'expensive' seats for free with comp tickets?

[jean]

Sometimes when it's a small audience, the management invites you forward...there's not much you can do about that, however galling it is!