# Does performance time influence a concert's quality?



## ffggff (Jan 30, 2014)

I live in Cleveland now. The Cleveland Orchestra normally has two to three concerts per week on Thursday, Friday (occasionally) and Saturday. Their repertoires are the same. So does the date of a concert affect its quality? Since concert on Saturday allows the orchestra to practice more, does that mean that the orchestra will behave better on Saturday than on Thursday?


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## Guest (Jan 30, 2014)

I have no idea. But just a slight edit to your line of thinking: as I learned when taking some aptitude tests once, experience increases output, but fatigue decreases it. So maybe Friday? lol, idk.


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

But the relationship between audience and performers is symbiotic, so its possible that the day with the best vibe or most appreciation from the audience will be the day the orchestra plays best, which will be when the audience experiences the most excitement and so on...

And the day the orchestra walks out all fired up ready to go could be the day with stragglers, cell-phones and depressingly small turnout.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

If it's a new work, or a work new to the orchestra, repetition may make for a clearer performance, but with a professional high class orchestra like the Cleveland, playing a known work -- even in a new interpretation by a new conductor -- the quality of most series concerts will depend more on the audience and other outside factors -- and in general Friday should be as good as Saturday or Sunday.


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

Objectively speaking, it might depend on how the orchestra players spend their Friday and Saturday nights. I could affect the performance the next day.

However, I agree with SimonNZ that much depends on the general mood of the day. For me, Fridays are much more upbeat, for obvious reasons, than Sundays (Monday looming). And that does affect the way I take in performances.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I would rather attend a concert's first performance when the music is fresh to the performers. By the third or fourth time, not.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

A premiere of a new work might be better left to the second or third performance, even when there may have been a lot of rehearsal time given it, and even when it comes to an orchestra the caliber of the Cleveland. What actually happens in the hall and in performance can tell if this or that about a piece needs a bit of adjustment.

Others have said it: The majority of the repertoire, common practice and some earlier 20th century rep, is in a way, something orchestras with a long history of being and so many performances, something they can do near blindfolded and without a conductor. Performance of yet another time playing Beethoven or Brahms, though not at all done on autopilot, is a performance of a work with which the players are already very familiar.

That said, there is very little of the common repertoire which will be 'fresh' to the orchestra. The rest lies in their professionalism, that they can play vitally and bring vitality to works they have played many many times.

So... choose the night you can go, or whenever the rest of your schedule allows going


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