Drew McManus notes that Emanuel Ax generously waived his fee for his appearance this weekend at the financially troubled Columbus Symphony. "We didn't ask him," Columbus's executive director told the Columbus Dispatch. In the article, Ax continues his skeptical inquiry into the alleged "rule" forbidding applause between movements of a concerto or symphony. On his blog, he wonders why concert audiences behave this way when opera audiences applaud after arias. It's a good question, with no logical answer. The argument that opera is less "serious" than symphonic music won't hold up. Is Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin less serious than his First Piano Concerto? Is Don Giovanni less serious than, well, anything? For more, see my endless 2005 post on the history of concert-hall applause.
Other pianoblogs: Hough, Biss, and, of course, Denk. Hough has also addressed the applause issue.
