Andras Schiff loses it over toilet breaks

An audience member’s report from last night’s recital at the Musikverein in Vienna. 

Sir Andras Schiff played Book 2 of the Well-Tempered Clavier, having played Book 1 on Sunday.  I’m not an expert but it sounded superb and was received with huge applause.  Interestingly Sunday was packed.  Tonight was less full.  After the event, they organized a talk with Sir Andras.  It was marketed as a ‘Glass with’.  It didn’t help that the Musikverein only had 2 people serving the couple of hundred who attended the talk – and the queue was long and slow to buy your wine.  Sir Andras entered before everyone was served.  The door from the bar to the Glass Hall was left open to allow those served last to enter.  Sir Andras then asked for the door to be shut and get angry when it wasn’t shut immediately – probably not aware that some people were patiently awaiting to be served.

He then vented about noise in general and more specifically about people moving (i.e. leaving) during the concert. (This venting certainly left the audience for the talk feeling somewhat uncomfortable and embarrassed.)   In a way he was right.  But he played Book 2 without any interval – which was advertised (in small print) to be fair.  Most of those leaving were clearly rather elderly. Book 2 takes about 2 hours 20 mins which is a very long time for anyone in somewhat advanced years.  The interview did subtly ask him about playing without an interval. He mentioned that the public might like it, eg for a toilet break, but said a break harms the continuity of the music.  It was a fair answer – but is it fair to expect an audience which will inevitably have some elderly people to go 140 mins+ without a break – and then complain when some have to leave.  I’m not sure what the answer is!