Sarasota Clapping before the End of the Concerto

The first concert of the Sarasota Orchestra 2018-2019 season included a performance of the Tschaikovsky Violin Concerto. Much to our surprise, the audience insisted on sustained clapping and cheering at the end of the first movement before the piece had actually finished.

Why was this? It was difficult for the more knowledgeable of us to remain silent, as the playing and conducting had been so brilliant. Perhaps the form of the movement has something to do with it?

Briefly put, in a first movement, a composer first plays you his stuff. He then mutilates it, sometimes beyond recognition, so he has to bring his original stuff back before getting to the end. However, we only reach the end after a brilliant section played by the soloist and a very exciting climax. No wonder we want to clap!

On the other hand, many last moments hit the ground running with a composer’s theme rather like an express trains heading somewhere but stopping now and then to observe musical vistas on either side of the tracks. Of course, we hear very exciting stuff from the orchestra and soloist before hitting the buffers at the end.

If we need to do something to persuade Sarasota audiences NOT to clap the first movement of a concerto, it looks as though we have a few choices.

The first choice might be to play the last movement first and finish with the first movement. Historians would object to this choice.

The second choice might be to persuade the orchestra to become quieter towards the end of the first movement, ending with a whimper of a final sound. The brass section would probably object to this choice.

So it looks to me that we have only one choice. We must persuade the Music Police to give a special dispensation to Sarasota audiences to clap first movements whoever they feel like it. We in Sarasota are a special case.

Clap without guilt! Clap without that particular look of slight annoyance from the conductor and that nice smile from the soloist. And of course, the orchestra can have another tuning session. Everybody will be happy!