An observation about "Modern" classical music.

At the end, there was a dead silence of 3 to 5 seconds before audience applause.

3-5 seconds?! You call that a "pause"?! Check out the seldom performed (especially on the radio) piece by John Cage titled 4:22. In it an entire orchestra takes the stage and for 4 minutes and 22 seconds does not make a sound, then they leave the stage. I'd bet the applause on that one can be delayed too. Never had the pleasure of attending a performance though.

Actually there are some modern composers I really do like. Arvo Part comes to mind. Some pieces by Phillip Glass are quite lovely. Gavin Bryars stuff is out there and yet somehow moves me. The Rachel's are another group who use their backgrounds in classical music to compose and perform music that defies conventional classification. I do like Motzart too! Beethoven, even!

Do you recall what it was you were listening to on the radio Eldartford?

Marco

I had a hard time with modern classical, but without even trying, I started feeling the music of Bartok and company....

Its all due to familiarity and patience,,,you cant sit and try to get it...slowly, even heard as background music is more helpful...

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Another possibility is that the audience does not like it,but once several start to applaud,others do,to compliment the players.

I like 20th century harmony(Bartok,Stavinsky,Hindemith,etc) but atonality is beyond me. I'm a creature of tonic,dominant,tonic harmonic structures.

Good one, Aceto.

I wonder, Eldartford, whether that was an appreciative silence, or a stunned, Is that it? silence. Isn't it funny that much music composed seventy, eighty ago is still called modern. I love the idea of an orchestral piece causing a riot among listeners in the hall. Now, there you have citizens who know what it's important to fight about. At about 4:23 I'd probably be laying about with my bumbershoot as well.