Applause....I know, I know..........

[MrGongGong]

It might just be better to follow a code of practice that works.

For EVERYTHING in your life?

Context is all my fiends

But i'm sure that this annual venting o'spleen works better than many of the available medications for hypertension
as you were my red faced chums

[Beef Oven!]

It may or may not be,

I'm telling you it is.

I ask you to consider that you frequently adopt whichever argument is most likely to cause controversy. That does not mean you are necessarily wrong

It's obvious from this thread that I am giving my honest views about what I feel about applause between movements at concerts, especially at festival like the Proms.

You seem to have taken an ad hominem approach, simply because I don't agree with you.

I in turn ask you to consider that you nearly always adopt dictatorial view on matters that quite often affect others more than they do you - here you are sitting at home telling us Prommers how we should be behaving at the concerts we are attending.

but sometimes I question your motives.

As I said upthread on a different point, you don't trust people.

[Beef Oven!]

I don't think we're supposed to criticise analogies here.

I haven't (I think) applauded between movements, but have sometimes felt like doing so.

I think I know what you mean.

[Beef Oven!]

An intense atmosphere has been created, which should not be broken by a handful of orchestra members doing their own thing, improvising all sorts of scrapings, puffs and dissonances in the hope that Saturn will sound reasonably in tune

[David-G]

I in turn ask you to consider that you nearly always adopt dictatorial view on matters that quite often affect others more than they do you - here you are sitting at home telling us Prommers how we should be behaving at the concerts we are attending.

When I am listening to a good concert on the radio I often feel like applauding, in fact I do sometimes. I feel that I am part of a wider audience. That nobody in the hall can hear me would not prevent me from feeling entitled to express views on applause at the concert.

[Petrushka]

Inter-movement applause used to drive me round the bend but, in all honesty, it fails to bother me much any more. The only times when it does are between movements of The Planets and the Schoenberg Five Orchestral Pieces (this happened last year, I do believe). Between symphonic movements there is going to be a fair bit of noise anyway (tuning, a barrage of throat clearing, talking etc) so a bit more isn't that big a deal. It's easy enough to mentally switch off. I do it all the time.

We should be directing our ire at those inconsiderate concert-goers who cough loudly during the music and those who burst into applause before the work has ended. However, there is nothing new about either of these and neither are likely to be eradicated.

[David-G]

"How can people be so insensitive?"

It's called selfishness.

It's not just selfishness, it's also insensitivity both to the music and to their fellow audience members.

[MrGongGong]

"How can people be so insensitive?"

It's not just selfishness, it's also insensitivity both to the music and to their fellow audience members.

That's the way to do it
down from 190/130 to 120/76

and relax

[David-G]

I see a difference between clapping and cheering between movements () and the behaviour of those that break out into applause before a piece has finished, or an obviously decent (or wanted as indicated by the conductor) pause has gone by. The latter is most irritating and I really, really yearn for a major, minor or in-between conductor to turn around and bellow 'please stop it'.

The problem is that even if the conductor had the courage to do it, this would destroy the ending even more than the premature applause.
I sometimes have a similar dilemma at the opera, and desist from remonstrating with a sweet-unwrapper because my intervention would break the mood even worse.

Though I felt compelled to turn round to glare at the lady who was loudly and slowly unwrapping a strawberry chocolate right behind me during a particularly tense passage in "L'amore dei tre re" at Holland Park last week. The glare had no effect, the crinkling seemed endless and I turned round to glare further. She hissed at me (still during the music) "Get a grip of yourself"! I despair.

[maestro267]

I have a question to ask, to anyone who attends Proms: Who are the main culprits when it comes to applause between movements, the Prommers or the seated audience? I'm beginning to feel that a lot do it now because they know it annoys the purists.

[vinteuil]

... a lot do it now because they know it annoys the purists.

... ah, but I'm a "purist" who knows that applauding between movements used to be the right thing to do - so - should I ever go to a Prom again (unlikely) I should delight, as a purist, in applauding enthusiastically between movements...

[David Underdown]

I have a question to ask, to anyone who attends Proms: Who are the main culprits when it comes to applause between movements, the Prommers or the seated audience? I'm beginning to feel that a lot do it now because they know it annoys the purists.

It certainly usually sounds to me like it starts higher up than the arena.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm beginning to feel that a lot do it now because they know it annoys the purists.

I don't think their thought processes are as calculating as that. Either they lack self-control/respect for others, or they think it's all over.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It certainly usually sounds to me like it starts higher up than the arena.

I've never seen it start in the arena, where it would be reasonably easy to spot.

[Darkbloom]

I have a question to ask, to anyone who attends Proms: Who are the main culprits when it comes to applause between movements, the Prommers or the seated audience? I'm beginning to feel that a lot do it now because they know it annoys the purists.

There were people applauding around me between movements in the Pastoral Symphony on Sunday, and I was in the arena. Prommers are a variable group, it's not as if they are all grizzled veterans - even at the front - so you can't expect them all to behave the same way. I have never heard a mobile go off in the arena, though, and dropped items of glassware can be safely blamed on some inebriated box-dweller.

The only reason I tend not to like applause between movements is that it all seems a bit awkward. With the exception of Sir Roger, most people on stage find it a little embarrassing, and tend to exchange raised eyebrows with an orchestra member, as though some dreadful solecism has just been committed. If it's genuine spontaneous acclaim for a wonderful passage of music-making then I think you'd have to be rather churlish to criticise. But usually one person starts clapping and then you get a rather pathetic little trickle of applause that fades out almost before it has started.