Unintended concert screw ups :P

[Ntalikeris666]

Many times you might have found yourself in an unfortunate situation while playing, singing, or being in the audience at a play or performance.

Let me tell you some of my experiences...

The most recent one i think, was in the Athens concert hall, where Sokolov, had a performance. But, even though Sokolov was perfect, 4/5ths of the audience seamed to cough ALL the time... It was both dramatic and funny at the same time, since as a piece ended together with the clapping, all the sick people in the audience found time to make their own cough recital, which was indeed a lot louder than the clapping! At a time, mr.Sokolov, even waited for the people to stop coughing before he started playing!
But, i am afraid this is not an uncommon situation for many concerts...
I would suggest the next time someone finds himself being sick and having to attend a concert, at least he should take a bottle of water with him...

Other than that, I remember a tragic concert before 6 years or so, were i had to accompany a small string essemble with a Harpsichord as part of a Baroque festival that my conservatoir had planned. (even though i have never studied Harpsichord i did not find it that difficult to adapt to its ultra soft touch and small keys...) Though the problem was not with my playing... The other members insisted on having me play with the score in front of me (it was in Seperate pages, not in a book). And thats where bad luck struck... One of the teachers there, was changing the pages for me and accidentally as he turned one of them, all the other pages fell on me
(they covered my hands) and as it is normal i lost my concentration and focused on getting the pages of me... After that i had to stop playing and follow the others later on in the piece.

I have never really forgotten the score of a piece, though there was one time that i had a black-out. It was the first time I attended exams on my conservatoir, and i was really, REALLY anxious.

Another experience i had while in the audience, was with an orchestra. As the maestro was about to give the signal for the performers to start, the first violin, went and whispered something to his ear. After that, he made a desperation sign, and turned to the audience and told that we would have to wait because one of the performers was missing arround the Contert Hall. After 5 minutes or so the unlucky performer showed up and the concert started. I guess though he would be hitting the road after that...

I also find it extremely distracting and annoying, when the audience takes pictures of me while i play.



It would be nice to share with us more experiences you might have had ;-)

Thanks,
Nicholas

[Corno Dolce]

Hi Nicholas,

I have had my share of experiences with coughing audiences, whilst performing and whilst a member of the audience. What really yanked my crank was when the *cougher* sat right behind me and my wife. We both stared at the bloke - he didn't care that his coughing disturbed everybody else. The ushers were off busy doing something else and the bloke's wife rolled her eyes up into her head and shrugged her shoulders.

I ran out of the hall and tracked down the Manager in charge, alerted him to the problem upon which he coralled 2 police officers who just happened to be backstage. They picked the bloke up shortly thereafter, and forcibly so.

When I first began performing the coughing went on my nerves , but after about my tenth performance I never gave it a second thought.

Cheers,

CD

[Ntalikeris666]

Hi Nicholas,

I have had my share of experiences with coughing audiences, whilst performing and whilst a member of the audience. What really yanked my crank was when the *cougher* sat right behind me and my wife. We both stared at the bloke - he didn't care that his coughing disturbed everybody else. The ushers were off busy doing something else and the bloke's wife rolled her eyes up into her head and shrugged her shoulders.

I ran out of the hall and tracked down the Manager in charge, alerted him to the problem upon which he coralled 2 police officers who just happened to be backstage. They picked the bloke up shortly thereafter, and forcibly so.

When I first began performing the coughing went on my nerves , but after about my tenth performance I never gave it a second thought.

Cheers,

CD

Well! At least you got your "revenge" on this guy.
The unfortunate thing about my case, is that it would take all the police available in athens to empty a concert hall of 2000 coughing people -_-

Thanks for sharing,
Nick

[Corno Dolce]

Hi Nicholas,

I certainly wasn't out for revenge - Alot of other patrons were positively glowering at the dude but would do nothing about it. Maybe I did the bloke a favor by seeing to it that he was ejected, otherwise there might have been a lynch mob that was truly seeking blood. Oh Yeah!!! I've done my share of *doosies* as a performer - be ye sure of that...

Cheers,

CD

[Ntalikeris666]

Hi Nicholas,

I certainly wasn't out for revenge - Alot of other patrons were positively glowering at the dude but would do nothing about it. Maybe I did the bloke a favor by seeing to it that he was ejected, otherwise there might have been a lynch mob that was truly seeking blood. Oh Yeah!!! I've done my share of *doosies* as a performer - be ye sure of that...

Cheers,

CD

Hahaha, I dont want to imagine what happens when others cough while you play xD

Cheers,
Nick

[Krummhorn]

There is certainly the common item about coughing at concerts ... if they can stifle the cough all the way through the performance piece, why not between pieces - in particular symphonic movements.

Happened during a church service some time ago ... the pastor had left during a scripture reading to attend to an urgent "call of nature" ... and inadvertently left his wireless microphone "on". None of us could quite figure out what the sound was that was coming from the PA speakers ... of course, until the "flush". It was a most embarrassing moment for the pastor when he returned to the service.


One of the most irritating things for me is when I'm playing the postlude, is people always congregate right around the organ console and engage in loud conversation, loud enough so that they can hear themselves over the organ - I don't always do loud postludes, btw ... postludes can also be meditative, too. One would think that it would be a no-brainer to have their conversation away from the organ console ... go figure.

[Ntalikeris666]

There is certainly the common item about coughing at concerts ... if they can stifle the cough all the way through the performance piece, why not between pieces - in particular symphonic movements.

Happened during a church service some time ago ... the pastor had left during a scripture reading to attend to an urgent "call of nature" ... and inadvertently left his wireless microphone "on". None of us could quite figure out what the sound was that was coming from the PA speakers ... of course, until the "flush". It was a most embarrassing moment for the pastor when he returned to the service.


One of the most irritating things for me is when I'm playing the postlude, is people always congregate right around the organ console and engage in loud conversation, loud enough so that they can hear themselves over the organ - I don't always do loud postludes, btw ... postludes can also be meditative, too. One would think that it would be a no-brainer to have their conversation away from the organ console ... go figure.

Oh...
I bet how the pastor felt when he realized his mic was on.... -facepalm-


Well, sometimes, i have not only found many of the audience speaking while i am playing, but once i remember an ignorant rude guy, whose cell phone rang in the middle of a performance, but he denied either to turn it off, or to answer it. Its ringtone was a greek song (an awful one) which was loud enough to be heard over the orchestra playing...
The second time it rang, the guy answered, and started talking like if he was in his home or something. These situations make me feel sad and embarrassed mostly because i realize the ignorance and ego of some people...

[Corno Dolce]

GM Krummhorn,

Maybe after the *flushing* sound you could have begun playing *War March of the Priests* from Mendelssons *Athalie*

[JHC]

The one that sticks in my mind happened over 50 years ago, I had just joined a Trio, Piano Bass and Drums we had this gig at a town about 15 miles away, it was a foggy night my means of transport was a motor bike and side car, I picked up a friend and off we started, after about ½ a mile my mate asked where my Bass was????? Back home, load Bass and off we go, arrived 10 min late the pianist was going solo and glared at me, I joined him and made a show of bravado tuning the bass every other bar.
After half an hour the Drummer arrived, so we took an unearned break as he set up, the audience were very patient at last the pianist made an announcement and apologised for our lateness which he put down to the foggy conditions, He sat down and we launched into a vigorous number (Sweet Georgie Brown) we were well into it and really rocking when there was a horrendous crash from behind us The Drummer had fallen off the back of the stage taking his Drums with him, the crowd burst out with hoots of laughter and clapping. He eventually surfaced and made his way to the microphone and glared at the audience saying “I suppose you think that’s funny/” well the place exploded with more applause and laughter, the rest of the evening was uneventful and we even got paid

[Ntalikeris666]

The one that sticks in my mind happened over 50 years ago, I had just joined a Trio, Piano Bass and Drums we had this gig at a town about 15 miles away, it was a foggy night my means of transport was a motor bike and side car, I picked up a friend and off we started, after about ½ a mile my mate asked where my Bass was????? Back home, load Bass and off we go, arrived 10 min late the pianist was going solo and glared at me, I joined him and made a show of bravado tuning the bass every other bar.
After half an hour the Drummer arrived, so we took an unearned break as he set up, the audience were very patient at last the pianist made an announcement and apologised for our lateness which he put down to the foggy conditions, He sat down and we launched into a vigorous number (Sweet Georgie Brown) we were well into it and really rocking when there was a horrendous crash from behind us The Drummer had fallen off the back of the stage taking his Drums with him, the crowd burst out with hoots of laughter and clapping. He eventually surfaced and made his way to the microphone and glared at the audience saying “I suppose you think that’s funny/” well the place exploded with more applause and laughter, the rest of the evening was uneventful and we even got paid

Hoho, i guess it was not your ( and i mean for all of you) best day :-P

Thanks a lot for sharing!

Regards,
Nick

[Montefalco]

I saw a performance of some rock songs by some groups of year 8 students whose only musical experience was about 9 months of school music. Some of the performances were extremely good (especially the ones which included students who learnt music outside of school), however the drummer in one of the groups let go of one of his drum sticks. The entire performance stopped, the hall started to fill with laughter, and then he picked up the drumstick, waved it around as if to say "I've got it!", and then the group started off exactly where it stopped. It wasn't too bad a mistake, considering it was the first performance any of them had done, but the remarkable thing was the band's ability to start back up again.

[superhorn]

there any sch thing as an intentional concert screw up?

[Krummhorn]

there any sch thing as an intentional concert screw up?

Yes actually ... PDQ Bach, with Peter Schickele

[Montefalco]

I have a CD by a modern composer, Kaija Saariaho, which includes a recording of the world premiere of a cello concerto, Notes on Light, and I'm almost certain there is the sound of someone coughing in thee background that they didn't edit out.

[Fretless]

I have a CD by a modern composer, Kaija Saariaho, which includes a recording of the world premiere of a cello concerto, Notes on Light, and I'm almost certain there is the sound of someone coughing in thee background that they didn't edit out.

I recently made it through the recent recording of Glass' opera "Waiting for the Barbarians" and it was a live performance. In addition to a couple of small vocal booboos from the soloists, there are a few spots where the choir does not stick with the orchestra, and at the beginning of disc 2 there's over two minutes of quiet-ish orchestral interlude that is packed with phlegmy coughing from the audience.
I didn't particularly care for the vocal performances, either, but that's not intentional screwing-up.