Alex Ross, the music critic of The New Yorker, has looked into the matter and reports that “until the beginning of the 20th century, applause between movements and even during movements was the sign of a knowledgeable, appreciative audience, not of an ignorant one.” Pierre Monteux, the great French conductor who gave the premiere of “The Rite of Spring,” was born in 1875, which made him old enough to remember how things were in the 19th century. “I do have one big complaint about audiences in all countries, and that is their artificial restraint from applause between movements of a concerto or symphony,” he said in 1959. “Of course applause should be spontaneous, not dutiful, but often it is the most natural thing to applaud between movements.” I couldn’t agree more. If you don’t feel moved to clap at the end of a first-rate performance of, say, the spectacular quick-step march that is the third movement of Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony, you probably need to loosen up.
When he was the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Riccardo Muti complained when people applauded after the third movement of Tchaikovsky's sixth symphony. I have long thought that the insistence at classical musical concerts that one sit as if one were at church was pretentious and phony. God forbid that you enjoy jourself by feeling the rhythm or the melody.
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