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Walk out

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Cal
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« on: May 20, 2009, 05:31:45 pm »


Having experienced the strange phenomenon of a group of people buying expensive tickets for a concert to hear a particular work in the first half then leaving at the interval as they dislike violently the work in  the second half , I wonder if anyone has works that would make them do the same.

So, are there any works that the members would spend a lot of money for a ticket to hear and what would be the work that they would leave the concert for , as they couldn't stand listening to it?
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Tony Watson
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« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2009, 12:16:12 am »

I thought that the general rule was that the more "challenging" items were in the first half of a concert so that the audience would stay around for the more popular piece after the interval.

I was abroad once and the second half of a concert was Brahms' First Symphony. I was tempted to leave at the interval, not because I don't like the work but because it seemed over-familiar to me. It is seeing the same, limited repertoire that puts me off going to some concerts. I am involved in a recital series (we've had John Lill, Tasmin Little, the King's Singers, the City of London Sinfonia and - a real find - the Royal Quartet from Poland, amongst others, this season) and yet we had to decline to book a certain pianist who had been doing very well in recent years because all he would offer was Beethoven sonatas and we had had so many of them our audience wanted something else, masterpieces though they are! I remember once though, after a string quartet had played Britten, a member of the audience coming up at the end and saying he would never come to another of our concerts after hearing such rubbish!
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smittims
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« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2009, 08:44:48 am »

One year I had a season ticket for the Halle and I was interersted to see how many people didn't come back after  the interval.

Sir Adrian Bpoult once admitted he don't like to hear a whole Wagner opera at one go, but would hear, say, acts one and  three and come back again to hear act two.All right if you can afford two tickets. He said he once met Bruno Walter in the restaurant dduring 'act two' and Walter confesse that he felt excactly the same.

With Radio  of course,we have the choice., Often I  listen to only one or two works in a broadcast concert.
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Tony Watson
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« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2009, 12:06:21 am »

Is it possible that one reason people leave at the interval is because they don't want to be out too late? Perhaps they don't want to be on the streets of Manchester after 10pm, or perhaps they have trains to catch or want to be sure of getting a taxi that will go south of the river, especially considering the average age of the audience for such concerts. I have sometimes wondered how people get home after a late-night Prom.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2009, 03:33:24 am »

Is it possible that one reason people leave at the interval is because they don't want to be out too late?

More than possible, I think, Tony!  A few UK metropolises (London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh) "rule the roost" and are providers of culture for a huge area around.  Very often public transport won't deliver.  For example, I have a friend who lives in Leyland, effectively a suburb of Preston.  If she wants to get to opera, it's usually a case of going to Manchester...  but getting back means bailing-out before 10pm.

I'm sure there is a major untapped market in more local provision of the arts!
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Cal
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« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2009, 09:00:17 am »

I agree with what has been said in the last few postings but the point of my starting this thread was that some people go out of a concert because they can't stand the piece in the second half.
The example I referred to in the first post was a group of friends who went on a coach from the hotel to a concert ( three choirs festival) and went out at the interval because they couldn't stand the music in the second  half and went to a pub, joining the coach party later .
My question was..what music would members feel so strongly about to have to leave a concert even after having bought expensive tickets?
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smittims
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« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2009, 09:48:10 am »

I find that a difficult question to answer without being given a specific example. I do try hard to give new music  a fair hearing ; I don't think it's fair to walk out half way through and say 'that piece was rubbish'.

But I can imagine some music that I'd feel I just couldn't go on listening to, for example an opera or choral work which I felt was offensive, though I'd probabaly guess that in advance and not go!
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Tony Watson
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« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2009, 12:39:57 pm »

The example I referred to in the first post was a group of friends who went on a coach from the hotel to a concert (three choirs festival) and went out at the interval because they couldn't stand the music in the second half and went to a pub, joining the coach party later.

Out of interest, what was the music they couldn't stand?
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Cal
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« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2009, 01:21:31 pm »

Brahms Requiem
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #9 on: May 22, 2009, 02:12:25 pm »

Brahms Requiem

Entirely understandable!   :D
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Prihoda
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« Reply #10 on: June 01, 2009, 11:52:57 pm »

Mybe is just that
They are sleepy. hungry or thirsty.
They need to go to the bathoom urgently.
They fear to be on the street at night.
They fear not to get a taxi.
They remember that someone has to call them at home for an important subject.
They fear to ride at night.
The husband or the wife went because wife or husband force him or she to do it.
They are old and tired.
They have a headache.
They are young and want to go to some other place.

There, I've give you 10 good reasons to leave the theatre, without relation with the program.
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Cal
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« Reply #11 on: June 04, 2009, 09:31:46 am »

All absolutely true ! But you don't take on board the people who buy an expensive ticket for a concert that only the first half is what they want to hear. They leave at the interval and wait for their friends who are listening to the second half and meet up afterwards to go home. Isn't that showing a really closed mind ?
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #12 on: June 04, 2009, 08:17:55 pm »

All absolutely true ! But you don't take on board the people who buy an expensive ticket for a concert that only the first half is what they want to hear. They leave at the interval and wait for their friends who are listening to the second half and meet up afterwards to go home. Isn't that showing a really closed mind ?

I will leave at the interval (and do so) if the performance has been poor in the first half.  I hate to hear good music massacred.

For example, I went to heard Svetlana Bezrodnaya performing Vivaldi.  (I went because I was asked to attend, frankly).  She played a quarter-tone sharp throughout the entire first item,  and after it I left.

I gave my tickets away for SIEGFRIED and GOETTERDAEMERUNG in the Mariinsky's RING cycle,  because RHEINGOLD was appalling and VALKYRIE was farcically amateurish - so I suppose this counts as "leaving half-way" too.  I hope it's improved by the time it rocks-up at the ROH very shortly...  what I heard was woefully poor,  badly conducted and under-rehearsed...  but it's the production (or rather, the absence of a production - just costumed singers standing in straight lines) that took the biscuit in this woeful fiasco.
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Cal
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« Reply #13 on: June 04, 2009, 08:57:02 pm »

I am with you on this Reiner , I do have this feeling when I haven't enjoyed the first half, but never actually left. Perhaps I am too mean to waste the ticket money !!
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #14 on: June 05, 2009, 07:18:08 am »

I am with you on this Reiner , I do have this feeling when I haven't enjoyed the first half, but never actually left. Perhaps I am too mean to waste the ticket money !!

That reminds me of the Woody Allen joke:  "Have you tried the chicken at Tresky's?" "Yes, it was inedible, I never had anything so bad!" "And such small portions, too!"

 ;)
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