When performers didn't acknowledge the applause, I kept thinking the clappers might get the hint. But they never did in the Beethoven, and interstitial applause finally petered out only halfway ...

A column on applause etiquette at classical music concerts - "Audiences, please hold your applause" (Jan. 14 Arts & Life section) - drew a fair bit of reader response. All agreed with the column's ...

Last autumn, Barack Obama hosted an evening of classical music at the White House. Beforehand, he said, "Now, if any of you in the audience are newcomers to classical music, and aren't sure when to ...

It's such a natural reaction, but how did this custom begin?

Good stuff from Alex Ross last night at the Wigmore Hall and the Royal Philharmonic Society lecture on the silent(-ish) rituals of the concert hall, an edited version of which you've been reading and ...

If you’ve ever attended a classical concert, you’ve probably experienced that awkward, hesitant half-clapping that sometimes occurs at the end of a symphonic movement: The music stops, the hall falls ...

Until recently, the question of when to applaud at classical concerts never needed to be asked. Everyone knew the answer was never, except at the end of the piece. But suddenly it’s generating a lot ...

One of the pleasures of attending the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's Happy Hour concert a few weeks back was hearing spontaneous applause whenever a soloist played a particularly engaging piece.

In the March 9 Tempo, critic John von Rhein devotes the fourth paragraph of his review of pianist Stewart Goodyear’s March 7 concert to criticizing the audience for applauding “between almost every ...

Orchestras have been warned that they need to loosen up if they are to attract much-needed new audiences. Universal Music CEO, Max Hole, called on conductors and musicians to talk to audiences and ...