Tuesday, March 05, 2013

A symphony of coughs?


Are classical concerts really just a symphony of coughs these days? The other week I went along to the London branch of the Voice of Russia radio station for a chat with its culture presenter Alice Lagnado and the dynamic Gareth Davies, ace flautist and orchestral tour blogger in chief of the LSO, about Annoying Things People Do At Concerts.

Gareth pointed out that some of the biggest concert-offences aren't at all what you might think they are, I gave a little demonstration of how best to muffle your bark, and we couldn't help reflecting that everything ought to be all about the music, with halls, behaviour and house-rules geared to optimising concert-goers' experience of listening to that music, and somehow people are losing sight of this in a flood of ideological insanity, or something...

Apparently in Russia audiences are a lot quieter.

Listen to the whole thing here: http://ruvr.co.uk/radio_broadcast/77030634/105953243.html