Booooooo!
Below is an excerpted review of a concert I did in Boca Raton. The boo’s were just polite, which was a little disappointing. For the record, there was also a lone “bravo.” Isn’t music supposed to inspire passion, not politesse? Maybe it was the performance, but I think it’s just the culture of classical music audience: they’re not used to feeling classical music in an intense way. It’s not what they’re expecting.
If concerts were known for being more than just polite rituals, our audiences would be much larger. Here’s the review:
“Applause nice but the boos were better at Boca Philharmonic”
By David Fleshler
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted January 31 2007
It’s a rare conductor who actually invites the audience to boo. So give Edwin Outwater credit for a stylish entrance at the opening of a concert Sunday by the Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphonia.
As he introduced Men and Mountains by Carl Ruggles — a craggy New Englander whose dissonant, contrapuntal music reflected his personality — Outwater said, “Don’t just respond with the usual polite applause. If you feel like it, go ahead and boo. I think Ruggles would have liked that very much.”
Outwater, resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, then turned and led the orchestra through a powerful, eerie performance, although there were some glitches in the horns.
The audience responded with polite applause, and when Outwater cupped a hand to his ear, a few polite boos.