A couple days ago I travelled to Fredricksburg (Fredricksburg? Fredrickburg?) Texas to play a cello recital. F-burg is a Texas town which, by the look of it, must have quite a bit of money. I've been told is has more doctors per capita than any town in the country, but I don't know if this is true.
I have to say that with all their money, the local chapel in which we played should really invest in a finer instrument. I may have never abused a piano so much in my life, and I could fairly judge the amount of this (upright) piano's submission by the degree to which it was out of tune during any particular part of the concert. (I had no choice by the way. No choice at all.) The concert was, by the way, about two hours long and my anger at the piano perhaps made me lose a bit control of tempo in the last movement of the Beethoven's third Cello Sonata. My cellist threatened not to drive me home afterwards.
Still I think the audience enjoyed it. Any trip like this will quickly disabuse one of stereotypes. Ignoring the children in the audience (it was a benefit concert for a music school) everyone was incredibly well mannered and--something lacking in many city audiences--completely un-snobbish and genuinely appreciative. There was very low coughing per person, and I don't think I heard a damn wrapper or cell phone the entire time. And even more surprising to me--the average age level (again discounting the school children) seemed to be far *lower* than what I see in city audiences.
The most heinous display of rudeness I've ever seen in a concert was, by the way, in NYC--where a proudly immature woman in spandex pants stood in an aisle at the Lincoln Center and jangled her keys for--I swear--an entire movement of a Dvorak Symphony.
Perhaps the F-burg audience was a bit too appreciative; they clapped -- and I mean *applauded* --between every movement. Given that we played several multi-movement works, I estimate that I've never received so much cumulative applause during one concert in my life. But, really, so what? Genuine exchange of emotions the best thing one can hope for in music.
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