The Concert Culture and Coat Check

    The movement ends and after a few seconds a new piece begins. But this is not more music, not yet anyway. This is instead the chorus of coughs and clearing of throats that seem to have been held in during each movement. Of course there is the occasional cough during the course of the music but on the whole it's as if the audience is too polite to cough when the orchestra is playing. I have continually been interested in this. Having done theatre for most of my life, I am aquatinted with audiences making some noise, but I was not expecting the relative silence and then so much noise in between movements. 

    The second part of my blog post title revolves around coat check. This is mandatory (which is understandable because who wants all those coats in the concert hall?). But I have been directed back down to the coatroom when I tried to enter the concert hall with my coat in hand. Now you would think that because it is mandatory that payment for a place to hang your coat for two hours would not be expected. And it hasn't been -except for in Austria. In both Vienna and now Salzburg there is a charge in exchange for your coat. Let me just say, I now greatly appreciate all the free coat checks that we've had. Additionally after the performance, it is a fight for your life at coat check. People don't really seem to like the concept of a line to get their jackets. People push and swoop in in front of you just to be able to leave a little sooner. It has been an intimidating experience but also one that has made me more assertive (at least in this situation). 

    Last and most interesting about concerts with live orchestras is the amount of curtain calls the conductors get. I come from the theatre world where you bow once on your own, bow once with the cast, and then get off the stage. So to see the conductor bow with the orchestra, leave, and then, with the encouragement of the audience, come back on for another round of bows. And I've seen four to five curtain calls depending on how much the audience continues to clap. But I do have to say that the applause and multiple curtain calls is well deserved.