Live music in concert halls. What's the point?

[tvih]

I've been in like ONE concert where the sound was actually good and I didn't even have to wear earplugs. I HATE earplugs, and concerts are basically always too damn loud for no reason. That one good concert was supposedly a sort of one-stage jazz festival, though most of the artists weren't actually jazz artists at all. But I supremely enjoyed especially two of them, and in fact was later very disappointed when their albums sounded so bad by comparison.

Normally I mostly go to concerts to take photos because sound almost always sucks so actually listening to music is much better done elsewhere.

 

[DMill]

I can see the super bowl better on tv way better than live. Same with most concerts. I go to concerts to get the energy of the fans and hear an artist interpret their own work. I suspend all critical listening and just take it in for what it is. I also think many modern post mtv artists have baked in a stage show that is similar to theatre. I saw a Flaming Lips concert years ago where their lead singer was covered in fake blood riding a hamster ball across the audience while the drummer was setting things on fire on the stage. Maybe the best “live” concert I’ve ever seen. Just stupid fun and the human energy of a live show can be amazing. But if you want to hear perfect you better have the money to bring Adele into your living room to sing Hello

 

[SIY]

No PAs. They guarantee poor sound.

One more reason I love our house concerts. And we're starting a concert series in the performance space at our café, with emphasis on acoustic and unamplified.

 

[tomelex]

My wife went to see and listen to the Beatles live in Chicago a long time ago, all she heard was fans screaming the whole time. Ahahahah

Of course their amplification was pitiful for the size of the venue.

 

[DMill]

No PAs. They guarantee poor sound.

One more reason I love our house concerts. And we're starting a concert series in the performance space at our café, with emphasis on acoustic and unamplified.

I’ll come check it out being an hour away. Love the idea.

 

[ahofer]

Venues vary. I find rock and Jazz serve up more disappointments due to venues and sound reinforcement, but I’ve been to some poor classical venues as well. Geffen Hal/Avery Fishel was never that great-I’m looking forward to the renovation opening soon.

Rock concerts in the round at Madison Square Garden were just awful-painful, even (I haven’t been to one in decades).

 

[DMill]

Been to the Met to see opera in Nyc a few times. I think you’d need to buy THE seats. It’s a costly affair to get the perfect ones and in fact would cost as much as a good system with a nice dinner and a hotel that doesn’t make your girl hate you.

 

[SIY]

I’ll come check it out being an hour away. Love the idea.

I'll PM you when we start the series.

 

[Waxx]

When an act on tour appears at a specific location, considerations other than sound will most likely determine a venue. Dates of facility availability, cost of procuring the place given how many tickets can reasonably be expected to be sold, how it fits in with the tour's travel schedule, performer accommodations and so forth.

The Barbicon Centre is known for its 'brutalist' architecture, cold concrete walls, and unfriendly maze like navigation (it says here...) From looking at the on-line pics, it's certainly a wonder of ugly modernist design; if the music sounded ugly within its ugly space, then... well, I guess it was doing its intended job. However, you'd think that a concert hall specifically designed for sound reproduction would be better at it, than that.

If I can generalize: small combo jazz is best served up at a small place with drinks, like the Village Vanguard. Big Band is meant for dancing, so plan accordingly. The fusion thing? John's original Mahavishnu Orchestra got a lot of mileage out of open air concerts, like the one in Central Park. That's probably best whenever you start to amplify your instruments. The downside is that whenever the lightening starts to hit, you want to make sure you're not under a tree, or otherwise exposed.

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Brutalist concert halls don't have to sound bad. The infamous concert hall of Bruges is also brutalist style, but with attention for the acoustics and it's reported to be one of the best sounding concert halls in Europe. Many live albums are recorded there since it was build, including this infamous one of Carl Orf's Carmina Burana:

 

[Katji]

Brutalist concert halls don't have to sound bad. The infamous concert hall of Bruges is also brutalist style, but with attention for the acoustics and it's reported to be one of the best sounding concert halls in Europe.

Yes. I like it anyway. One thing i follow on reddit [r/brutalist, i think - haven't been there for several months.]

 

[kongwee]

It depend how advance of the sound system and engineering skill. No problem on pop rock EDM on concert hall at all.

 

[Sokel]

(cough, cough!) Jim

You know that there is almost a pattern to it,don't you?

 

[Sokel]

Does that mean I almost get union rate? Jim

Whenever you see a sheet music writing "dim" (diminuendo) or "decresc" (decrescendo) you can safely add "cough" beside it.
The reason is that probably people holding their breaths during the loud parts and they finally come to breath when we decrease and go easy.
It's really universal.
(although it is much worst in early recordings because many people were sick after wars,etc)

 

[Robin L]

Whenever you see a sheet music writing "dim" (diminuendo) or "decresc" (decrescendo) you can safely add "cough" beside it.
The reason is that probably people holding their breaths during the loud parts and they finally come to breath when we decrease and go easy.
It's really universal.
(although it is much worst in early recordings because many people were sick after wars,etc)

I look for the rests, myself.

 

[Sokel]

I look for the rests, myself.

Yes,on pauses you can combine it with the libretto's change of page and comments,a concert of it's own.

 

[Robin L]

Yes,on pauses you can combine it with the libretto's change of page and comments,a concert of it's own.

Hey---if it's good enough for John Cage it's good enough for me.

 

[REK2575]

(cough, cough!) Jim

For the life of me, I will never understand why classical music audiences find it so impossible to refrain from coughing. Kurt Masur once interrupted a concert he was giving because he got so fed up with the coughing. He stopped, and said to the audience something to the effect, 'Do you hear the musicians coughing? No, because they're concentrating on the music.' I would have applauded had I been there.

There are alot of things about the culture of classical music performance that I dislike. The solemnity. The inane notion that it is absolutely forbidden to applaud between movements ('the entire piece must conclude first!'). But why so many audience members find it so hard to avoid coughing.... You don't get the same thing in movie theaters. If you're unwell, don't come to the concert. If you're bored, leave.

OK, that'll do as my grumpy old man rant for this morning...

 

[Robin L]

For the life of me, I will never understand why classical music audiences find it so impossible to refrain from coughing. Kurt Masur once interrupted a concert he was giving because he got so fed up with the coughing. He stopped, and said to the audience something to the effect, 'Do you hear the musicians coughing? No, because they're concentrating on the music.' I would have applauded had I been there.

There are alot of things about the culture of classical music performance that I dislike. The solemnity. The inane notion that it is absolutely forbidden to applaud between movements ('the entire piece must conclude first!'). But why so many audience members find it so hard to avoid coughing.... You don't get the same thing in movie theaters. If you're unwell, don't come to the concert. If you're bored, leave.

OK, that'll do as my grumpy old man rant for this morning...

There is an even greater problem with concerts of pop music, where the patrons pretty much ignore the music, while doing some business that requires a lot of talk. Haven't encountered that at a classical music concert, not yet at least.

 

[Sokel]

For the life of me, I will never understand why classical music audiences find it so impossible to refrain from coughing. Kurt Masur once interrupted a concert he was giving because he got so fed up with the coughing. He stopped, and said to the audience something to the effect, 'Do you hear the musicians coughing? No, because they're concentrating on the music.' I would have applauded had I been there.

There are alot of things about the culture of classical music performance that I dislike. The solemnity. The inane notion that it is absolutely forbidden to applaud between movements ('the entire piece must conclude first!'). But why so many audience members find it so hard to avoid coughing.... You don't get the same thing in movie theaters. If you're unwell, don't come to the concert. If you're bored, leave.

OK, that'll do as my grumpy old man rant for this morning...

After WW2 concerts (Masur ERA) is a very controversial time for classical.

People who use to be wealthy before the war and used to attend to venues or finance concerts on their estates in Europe (even if they weren't fond of classical,it was a status thing to them) suddenly found themselves having the recourses no more.

Conditions in Europe after war was terrible,many people were sick with diseases related to poor condition of living,cold,etc.
True lovers of music though along with the need for joy and life without fear made concerts very popular.

Sadly the conditions were poor even for the musicians,sometimes venues didn't even have heating,result of bombing the infrastructures.
Lot's of coughing can be heard in the early recordings,people have died listening to their favorite composers (not a bad way to go),etc.

There's a vast anthology of stories old people tell about that time.

 

[MarkS]

For the life of me, I will never understand why classical music audiences find it so impossible to refrain from coughing. Kurt Masur once interrupted a concert he was giving because he got so fed up with the coughing. He stopped, and said to the audience something to the effect, 'Do you hear the musicians coughing? No, because they're concentrating on the music.'

Look around at the typical classical audience: they are on average several decades older than the musicians!

The hope is that they don't expire before the concert ends ...