Well, I for one certainly agree with you, John. The orchestra should be ready and the audience should be given courteous treatment.


I've been active in a group which sponsors traditional music, and certainly we have sound checks. However, the sound checks are over way before the audience enters the hall.   We like the audience to come to an event that is running smoothly and all ready to go.
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"Jan feels strongly (and I agree, actually)---that they have good jobs, good pay, and do good work. When an audience shows its strong approval, the least they could do is smile at us."

Jan, I agree with this, too. When the music is over, the performers should stop pretending that we audience members do not exist.

Somebody asked how the concert was. Well, the Vivaldi was excellent, and the Haydn was well performed, but I thought the composition was rather pedestrian. The Bach cantata was very good, except that in the first chorale (Wachet auf) the French horn almost drowned out the entire choir. As Bertie Wooster would have said, "I mean to say - what?"

Do classical orchestras do the equivalent of sound checks, I wonder. By that I mean having someone sit in the audience area during rehearsal and report on sound quality. I think perhaps they should.

For me the best part was an oboe concerto by Vivaldi. The oboist was a young woman named Margaret Somebody, and she played the most beautiful oboe music I have ever heard.