# riots and disturbances



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

We all know what happened when "Rite of Spring" hit the stage, and a lot of us have heard of the hubbub over "Intolleranza 1960." 

What other works were greeted with such howls, disturbances, or even riots?


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

science said:


> We all know what happened when "Rite of Spring" hit the stage, and a lot of us have heard of the hubbub over "Intolleranza 1960."
> 
> What other works were greeted with such howls, disturbances, or even riots?


Well... _COAG_'s stuff?

Don't think the audience rioted, but the premiere of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony was not received well.

Franck's Symphony in D was greeted with howls by Saint Saens' crowd, dunno about the rest of the audience.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*Varese *- _Deserts_, premiered in Paris in early 1950's. Its reception was so bad that Varese vowed he'd never do a premiere in his homeland again. Now its considered a 'classic' of the _musique concrete _genre. Incidentally, the performance was in the same venue as _The Rite of Spring _had been about 40 years prior (which Varese actually had attended!).

*Steve Reich* -_ Four Organs_, was booed and cat-called not at it's premiere but at a subsequent performance at Carnegie Hall, New York, early 1970's. This piece has pretty mind-numbing repetition (I like it sometimes, though, to kind of chill out to!), but at that performance a woman came up to the stage, banged her heard against it and yelled 'stop, I confess.'

Many of the premieres of* Bruckner's *symphonies where interesting to say the least. Various luminaries of the Brahms vs. Wagner cliques would turn up to do all manner of shenanigans. Many of the Brahms clique, like Eduard Hanslick, would deliberately come to rudely leave during breaks in between movements. They came to make this kind of 'point' (sounds like they had various axes to grind?). Subsequently, Hanslick would do a review of the said symphony next day in the newspaper, even though he'd only heard one or two movements of it. Of course, he would not admit that in the review, and as you can guess, his reviews of Bruckner where always negative. Well, scathing and bitter, to be more accurate.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Sid James said:


> Many of the premieres of* Bruckner's *symphonies where interesting to say the least.


I have several times read that Bruckner had to conduct the premier of his third symphony because of the untimely death of the conductor Johann von Herbeck. Due to various factors (apparently Bruckner was not a good conductor) almost all the audience left before the end and the orchestra members quickly left afterward as well. Bruckner was left alone on the podium. One account has him turning around to the audience at the end only to discover them gone. I can imagine that catcalls and disturbances would be much better than that.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Every performance at La Scala?


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Vaneyes said:


> Every performance at La Scala?


Not the ones I've attended,...although I was always heavily buzzed.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Hard core Modernists booed the premiere of* John Adams' *_Grand Pianola Music,_ 1982 at New York's Avery Fisher Hall (quote from wikipedia article on that piece) -



> ...Grand Pianola Music was booed by a significant proportion of the audience at its premiere. According to the composer,"True, it was a very shaky performance, and the piece came at the end of a long series of concerts, many of which featured serialist works from the Columbia Princeton school....Grand Pianola Music must have seemed like a smirking truant with a dirty face, in need of a severe spanking". Despite the reaction, Adams maintains that the piece was not intended to 'thumb its nose' at the rest of the 'high art' pieces being performed at the event. The composer admits being alarmed by the severity of its reception. Retrospectively, Adams finds that he is "impressed by its boldness".
> 
> ...


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## Toddlertoddy (Sep 17, 2011)

Skandalkonzert: The concert ended early...


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Satie's ballet Parade - the 1917 premier in Paris saw similar scenes to Rite. I think Strauss' Salome had problems in certain cities as well.


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