Brahms and Kindle

Robert Cottrell — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:39:20 +0000

Bernard Holland's recent piece for the New York Times, on Kenneth Hamilton's "A Golden Age", fulfils the conditions of the perfect book review: an offbeat but evidently fascinating book; a lively discussion of its merits; and relevant additional material from the reviewer.

Hamilton proposes "a detailed reflection on concert behavior in the 19th and early 20th centuries"â€”applause, bravos, programming, performers' etiquette etc.

Among the new-to-me elements:

(1) Audience participation was taken for granted in the 1840s. The pianist
Alexander Dreyschock was criticized for playing â€œso loud that it made
it difficult for the ladies to talk,â€ Mr. Hamilton writes ...

(2) When Chopin played his E minor Piano Concerto in Warsaw in 1830, other
pieces were inserted between the first two movements. Perhaps the most
celebrated such interruption was at the 1806 premiere of Beethovenâ€™s
Violin Concerto in Vienna, where the soloist thrilled listeners by
playing his violin upside down and on one string ...

(3) Liszt, Anton Rubinstein and virtuosos like them would have been offended had listeners not clapped between movements ... read more »