A blogger wrote the above comment in a post about a performance I conducted 18 months ago at our annual “Firefall” festival, a patriotic extravaganza with incredible fireworks. I think the blogger was right in this case since when I talked, the fireworks paused! When judging whether or not talking to an audience is a good idea, I believe what is said by a conductor is secondary to their motivation to talk…..
Holly Mulcahy wrote a very thoughtful Partial Observer article titled Too Much Information (that Drew also linked to) regarding the pros and cons of conductors turning around to talk to the audience. In her observations about a conductor not talking at a recent concert she writes:
I spoke to my colleagues at intermission to mention how nice it was to just “go” and they couldn’t have agreed more. One of colleagues said “Sometimes, I just wish they’d bring that giant vaudeville stage hook back and pull the yackers off the stage! It really is embarrassing!”
Funny! I want to add something though regarding the motivation to talk from the podium because I think that’s the most important factor on whether or not to do it. If it’s just to educate, then we would be assuming that everyone is attending the concert for that single purpose which is unlikely so it risks alienating many. I talk in almost every concert, but not before every work. Many times I’ll just launch into the first piece. If there’s a big stage reset for the soloist, I’ll talk rather than leave the stage, but my motivation is not to bestow my knowledge upon the audience. I am more interested in the audience getting to know us and vice versa. Sometimes I’ll barely mention the music at all, and will talk more about what’s happening with the orchestra in the community, I want to make it more like an ongoing conversation…remember at last month’s performance when I mentioned …., well here’s what happened……
When I talk about the music, history will come into it, but more in the context of personal feelings and sometimes not even my feelings. If we’re playing a popular audience request, I might refer to their comments from the surveys. There have been occasions here when musicians have also stepped out to make announcements.
My overall motivation to talk is to try to connect with our audience, to try and create an atmosphere that we’re all in this together. The very dry speeches that Holly refers to most probably will create more barriers and the opposite atmosphere, “a stuffy academic lecture” as she puts it. I couldn’t agree with her more.
I don’t want our concerts to just be the time each month that our audience comes to see us perform, but more like a time that we can all get together to enjoy each other’s company, and to even catch up on what’s happening. Whilst a concert is mostly a formal event, it doesn’t mean the atmosphere has to be uncomfortable or overly formal!
From a logistical point of view, one of Holly’s complaints – that the players get cold while sitting on stage during the conductor talks – can be a real problem. One solution is to implement something I saw at a recent Frankly Music concert where the group’s namesake, violinist Frank Almond, came out to talk to the audience before playing but he musicians remained offstage.
After he was done, Frank went offstage and came back with all of the players. At that point, they sat down, tuned, and played, just like everyone on stage and off is used to. I would also like to see conductors use time more productively by taking advantage of inherent down-time to talk to the audience. In particular, during stage changes. From an audience member’s perspective it’s some of the most frustrating time spent in a concert: not enough to use the bathroom or have a decent conversation with your neighbor but too much to sit there like a zombie.
In general talking conductors drive me crazy. Ration yourself. No more than 5 minutes a season and no more than 45 seconds a concert.