Beethoven 7 - Oh that dreadful applause between movements!

[visualnickmos]

.....when there have been requests for "restraining" applause until the end, and everyone seemed more that happy.

Exactly - just a polite announcement before 'curtain-up' and people will usually be very happy to oblige. That's all that is needed.

[johnb]

Exactly - just a polite announcement before 'curtain-up' and people will usually be very happy to oblige. That's all that is needed.

As happened at the late night Pires Chopin Nocturnes Prom a couple of years ago?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As happened at the late night Pires Chopin Nocturnes Prom a couple of years ago?

Go on; tell...

[johnb]

Go on; tell...

I've just checked my recording of the prom.

Tom Service introduced the prom from the platform and said, to the audience:

Maria João Pires will be making a short pause after the first eight pieces ...... and ladies and gentlemen you're welcome, in that short gap, not [emphasized] to applaud if you want to maintain the sense of nocturnal reverie that will no doubt have been created in the hall by then.....

It seemed to me that he was very politely asking the audience to refrain from clapping during the sequences of pieces and during the short gap between sequences as, I would guess, Pires wanted to create an atmosphere of quiet contemplation and reverie.

Everyone restrained themselves after the first nocturne.

After the second a couple of people tried clapping but it didn't take off.

After the third nocturnes one person made a very determined effort to rouse the applause and was extremely successful.

Repeated after the sixth nocturne.

Etc.

I seem to remember one of the arena prommers posting that the applause seemed to come from the boxes, not the prommers.

[Ferretfancy]

This is perhaps a digression, but I find myself slightly puzzled by the new fashion to applaud the orchestra when they come onto the platform, applause which has usually petered out by the time the poor old brass players wander on. If I go to a series of LPO concerts at the RFH, they are a familiar band and I would not expect to clap my hands with glee when I see them. If it's a visiting orchestra I quite understand the need to welcome them, and thus applause is entirely appropriate, but not our regulars surely, after all they haven't done anything yet !

[VodkaDilc]

If it's a visiting orchestra I quite understand the need to welcome them, and thus applause is entirely appropriate, but not our regulars surely, after all they haven't done anything yet !

Couldn't we say the same about clapping when the conductor or soloists come to the platform? Clapping is a harmless way of welcoming the performers.

Regarding applause between movements, I haven't noticed any in the two Proms I've been to this year. If there are some in the audience who have not absorbed the traditional etiquette of these things, does it really matter if they fail to stick to the rules? I like to see enthusiasm in any form.

I do draw the line however at the sort of behaviour I saw in the promenade section last night. (I was in the stalls so watched at close quarters. My old legs would never keep me up for a whole concert.) A young man sauntered in with two glasses of beer halfway through the first piece, looked for his companion, spotted her some rows in front and then barged past everyone to get to her. Then they sat down and noisily played with their phones. Some old prom stalwart types summoned the young lad who was attendant on duty, but his severe words had little impact. I did not see the pair after the interval. Perhaps they went elsewhere.

Moral:
1 People need to know that a certain degree of silence is needed when the music is on. Are schools doing their bit? Do Dr Who Proms etc give the impression that anything goes?

2 Why was this new-fangled idea of taking drinks into concerts ever brought in? Even the elderly gent next to me spent all his time opening and closing his bottle of water (between surreptitious looks at his watch.)

[Vile Consort]

Indeed, FF. They aren't in a position to acknowledge the applause either. Even worse is when a large choir is applauded as its members file on and shuffle sideways along the rows to their seats. In venues with limited access it can take several minutes to get everyone to their places and the resulting desultory applause is just an embarrassment. It all goes to show that there is a good reason for the convention of saving applause for the entry of the leader and conductor.

For myself, I prefer the orchestra to come on to the stage in dribs and drabs. The cacophony of the musicians practising phrases from the piece they are about to play and then tuning up is all part of the experience.

[MrGongGong]

For myself, I prefer the orchestra to come on to the stage in dribs and drabs. The cacophony of the musicians practising phrases from the piece they are about to play and then tuning up is all part of the experience.

This is one of my pet hates
What on earth is the point of going to hear (for example) the New World Symphony and while we wait for the conductor we hear the first horn practising the solo from the end ?
It's too late for that matey !
I would compare it to buying someone a wonderful birthday present and then wrapping it up in see through paper , you still like it but feel more than a little disappointed.............. it's like going to hear a comedian and someone shouting out the punchlines before each joke !

[french frank]

Go on; tell...

If I remember accurately (johnb will correct me), Tom Service announced that the soloist would prefer no applause between the separate items ...

(or did he add off his own bat something like 'though you may really want to, of course, in which case feel free' - so they did.)

[johnb]

ff,

I've transcribed his exact words in #49

[french frank]

If I remember accurately (johnb will correct me), Tom Service announced that the soloist would prefer no applause between the separate items ...

(or did he add off his own bat something like 'though you may really want to, of course, in which case feel free' - so they did.)

I see johnb's reply now - yes, a very half-hearted request from TS who had written elsewhere at about the same time that he didn't really hold with all this old-fangled etiquette.

[johnb]

I greatly value the recording of that Pires prom and, if nothing else, this thread has prompted me to edit it to remove the extraneous inter-nocturne clapping (though I have left it in between the two sequences).

[Zucchini]

Her playing was so magical and the audience so captivated that the odd bit of applause was of no consequence

[Vile Consort]

This is one of my pet hates
What on earth is the point of going to hear (for example) the New World Symphony and while we wait for the conductor we hear the first horn practising the solo from the end ?
It's too late for that matey !
I would compare it to buying someone a wonderful birthday present and then wrapping it up in see through paper , you still like it but feel more than a little disappointed.............. it's like going to hear a comedian and someone shouting out the punchlines before each joke !

I take your point. From a logical point of view you are undoubtedly correct. Would I want to hear the pianist playing the odd bar before his solo recital? Not at all. Quite illogical, isn't it.

But I still like it in the orchestra. After all, I do already know what the horn solo at the end of the New World Symphony is going to sound like. If I didn't, I wouldn't notice it in the pre-concert racket.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I take your point. From a logical point of view you are undoubtedly correct. Would I want to hear the pianist playing the odd bar before his solo recital? Not at all. Quite illogical, isn't it.

Or the drumkit player who doesn't know when to shut up.
I was brought up in the era when orchestra drifted on to the platform to tune up and warm up, before the oboist's "A". The practice seems to have died out, and I miss it. anything os better that piped music though.