Kyung Wha Chung and coughing fit

[Barbirollians]

The papers are full of accounts of her recital at the RFH that give her rather mixed reviews .

They seem most exercised about her reproving the parents of a child that was coughing and suggesting they brought her back when she was older .

Is this out of order ? Possibly to single out a child when it sounds like much of the audience was coughing .

I find coughing at concerts pretty intolerable - lots of people do not even attempt to cover their mouths and much between movement coughing appears to be affectation . I have always taken the view that if I have a bad , uncontrollable cough I shouldn't go to the concert .

[Richard Tarleton]

Hmmm.

There are ways and ways of doing this. I've been in an audience told off by S Rattle during Beethoven 9 (after 1st movement) - the effect was electrifying, and very positive. Segovia used to do it with a handkerchief, everyone got the message.

I like the Telegraph review - Kyung-wha Chung a "two-frock performer" - the last one of those I saw (apart from Mick Jagger) was Cleo Laine

[Bryn]

... I have always taken the view that if I have a bad , uncontrollable cough I shouldn't go to the concert .

With that I entirely concur. However, what does one do if one is a performer, one member of a trio, who has been working for several months on a work which takes getting on for 5 hours to perform and there is no sub. available? That was the case a couple of years ago in Huddersfield, and to add to the quandary the performance was to be recorded for commercial release and selective broadcast. The performer in question, a wind instrument player, bravely went ahead. There was indeed much coughing, but the audience was warned of the situation in advance and the recording, patched with rehearsal material, was issued (a few minor coughs from both performer and audience member/s remaining) to considerable critical acclaim. For me it was the release of the year.

[Demetrius]

With that I entirely concur. However, what does one do if one is a performer, one member of a trio, who has been working for several months on a work which takes getting on for 5 hours to perform and there is no sub. available? That was the case a couple of years ago in Huddersfield, and to add to the quandary the performance was to be recorded for commercial release and selective broadcast. The performer in question, a wind instrument player, bravely went ahead. There was indeed much coughing, but the audience was warned of the situation in advance and the recording, patched with rehearsal material, was issued (a few minor coughs from both performer and audience member/s remaining) to considerable critical acclaim. For me it was the release of the year.

In that case, the performance would have been cancelled, resulting in a loss for the whole audience. Some coughing is certainly preferable. If a member of the audience is sick and stays home, he suffers a personal loss, but the majority of the audience gains a better experience. If one thinks about the relative benefit to the audience, both the decision to keep playing and the decision not to come to a concert even if you have paid for it is correct.

Still, compared to my frequent impulses to strangle talkers, the coughers are the lesser evil.

[Ferretfancy]

I was at the Festival Hall last night and during the entire evening I only heard one cough, and that was in a brief gap before applause. Perhaps this was a tribute to Jurowski's magnetic manner on the podium.

It's funny how it varies, on another night the sea lions can be out in force.

[Stanfordian]

The papers are full of accounts of her recital at the RFH that give her rather mixed reviews .

They seem most exercised about her reproving the parents of a child that was coughing and suggesting they brought her back when she was older .

Is this out of order ? Possibly to single out a child when it sounds like much of the audience was coughing .
I find coughing at concerts pretty intolerable - lots of people do not even attempt to cover their mouths and much between movement coughing appears to be affectation . I have always taken the view that if I have a bad , uncontrollable cough I shouldn't go to the concert .

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Hiya Barbirollians,

If it was disturbing Kyung Wha Chung's concentration then of course she is entitled to say something but certainly not in such a brusque manner as she is reported to have said. Concert etiquette is at an all time low in my opinion from people of all ages. Now it is common to attend concerts with audience members talking even give running a commentary to their neighbour. Last year at an opera at the Schiller Theatre, Berlin a grandparent was giving child a running a commentary until someone in the seat in front stopped them. I’m not a fan of taking young children to concerts of serious music unless it is a specially designed programme for children/young people when they can attend with their friends or school mates. This September at the Philharmonie, Berlin the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg was playing Bruckner 8. A child aged about 5-7 was fed up after 5 minutes, fidgeting after 8 minutes or so, and around 10 minutes was on and off the mother’s lap kicking the seat in front. And this was for the opening work not the Bruckner symphony to follow. What do parents expect from young children, they are just being children? I attend 78/80 concerts/operas a year in the UK and Germany and this sort of behaviour is quite typical of what I have seen.

If it was disturubing the soloist then of course they must say something. maybe not as rue as what she is reported to have said. Concert etiquette is at an all time low. Now it is common to attend concerts with audiance members talking even give running commentary.

[MrGongGong]

I have always taken the view that if I have a bad , uncontrollable cough I shouldn't go to the concert .

Me too
Even when i've paid lots for a ticket
I was in London earlier in the week and a bit sniffy so turned down the offer of sitting in a dress rehearsal of an opera i've never seen but would like to.

I have struggled through performances before when not well but mostly regretted it afterwards

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

At a concert at the Huddersfield Festival last week, two small children watched fascinated as the bloke at the Mixing Desk very quietly demonstrated what he was doing and why. The only disturbing noise was that of the parent shushing the very well-behaved children throughout the piece.

[Lento]

Perhaps Chung should be approached for next year's Family Prom.

[Alison]

I've always been grateful to good old dad for taking me to concerts from about age 9.

But for this I may never have heard the likes of Solti, Tennstedt and Shura Cherkassky live.

I was attentive though; in fact I was enthralled!

[Mary Chambers]

I think it would have been reasonable for her to say something general (and polite) about coughing in the audience. To pick on a child, even via the parents, strikes me as appalling. A cough can be difficult to control - it's not the same as talking.

I always try to be tolerant of children at concerts and the theatre, though I'm not at all tolerant of badly behaved adults. I am just glad the children are there. This child may never want to go to another concert, and must have a bad impression of the performer. The need for good manners applies to both.

[french frank]

According to Rupert Christiansen: "I was there, close at hand (row H of stalls) and – for the record – I believe KWC said “perhaps you should get her some water” not “perhaps you should bring her back when she is older."

Another version: "I was sitting around 5 seats away from the child….if you call laughing, clapping along, giggling as coughing, don’t try to justify the child’s behaviour. I would also lose patience as a performer."

[Mary Chambers]

According to Neil Fisher, several critics heard the 'when she's older' version. Perhaps we'll never know. I think it is unprofessional to get at a child in public.

[french frank]

I think it is unprofessional to get at a child in public.

What about 'getting at' the parents?

A few years back C Hazelwood raged because his wife was taken to task for a kind of whispered running commentary to her small son during a concert. At the end two concert-goers complained to her that this had ruined their concert. Who was right and who wrong?

[Alison]

Chaz was wrong about most things.