Thread: Live recordings. Cough and applause. Can you stand them?

I agree with John Cage, coughing is good.

Originally Posted by SanAntone

I agree with John Cage, coughing is good.

If it is a concert of works by Cage, the more coughing, probably the better.

In other contexts, I prefer there not to be coughing. I don't mind applause at the end, especially if there is a slight pause after the music ends. If there is such noise over the music, especially in quiet parts, that can be a real annoyance, although not necessarily a deal breaker if there are sufficient reasons to value the recording.

Edit: In our current crisis, it is interesting that coughing has taken on a very different aspect. When I was in the pharmacy waiting to get my flu shot a few months ago, one woman began a bit of a coughing fit, and everyone started to look at her as if there was blood gushing out of an artery. Fortunately, she was fine, and had just accidentally swallowed her breath mint.

I think its kinda cool, gives it a natural feel if it is moderate..The cell phone ringing is wholly another matter tho...

Originally Posted by SanAntone

Serious answer: I don't mind coughing, shuffling of feet, clapping, humming, wrong notes, or any extraneous sound during a live performance or recording of a recital/concert. My attitude is life is messy and I am not interested in the pursuit of perfection.

I prefer live recordings to studio ones.

It’s quite a big issue, not what you prefer, but the relative merits of live versus studio. But in a smaller way, I just find long form Feldman hard at the best of times, but harder when there’s someone next to me scrunching on some mint imperials, someone in front of me texting her friends and someone behind me rummaging in her handbag.

The worst I ever experienced was at Covent Garden, Boris Godunov. The end, the Tarkowsky production, I think John Tomlinson singing Boris, it was unbelievably good, and he was in his final, tragic aria, the audience was rapt, it was as if he was singing just for me, I was thinking that this is the best way to spend your life, there is nothing better to do than go to the opera. I will no nothing else with my life than go to opera.

And then someone’s mobile phone goes off in the row behind me.

And then there was another deeply embarrassing time at Covent Garden, a mediocre performance of something by Verdi, I forget what. I had a cold, it seemed to be getting better. But in the first half I couldn’t stop myself coughing for a short time, or so it appeared to me. In the interval all was OK but as I arrived at my seat I heard someone say, “Look, here comes Mr Cough.”

I wanted to die.

The most notorious example on my shelves is during the Schreier / Richter live from Dresden. Half the audience appear to be in advanced stages of bronchitis!
Of course there is the case of Jon Vickers who broke off his Tristan monologue to tell an audience member: “Stop your damn coughing!”

Originally Posted by Handelian

The most notorious example on my shelves is during the Schreier / Richter live from Dresden. Half the audience appear to be in advanced stages of bronchitis!
Of course there is the case of Jon Vickers who broke off his Tristan monologue to tell an audience member: “Stop your damn coughing!”

I thought he said to the audience in Texas “Stop rattling your damn jewlery!”