# Schnittke Symphony #1 - Clapping?



## An Die Freude (Apr 23, 2011)

I have Leif Segerstam's recording of this symphony, and at two points in the first and second movements, the audience bursts into applause. Was this written into the score by Schnittke, or was it a rather enthusiastic audience?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

An Die Freude said:


> I have Leif Segerstam's recording of this symphony, and at two points in the first and second movements, the audience bursts into applause. Was this written into the score by Schnittke, or was it a rather enthusiastic audience?


Just a rather painful audience more likely.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Wikipedia does not mention obligatory applause, but it does state:

Schnittke includes a choreography for the musicians themselves, and in a manner similar to Haydn's Farewell Symphony, leave and re-enter the stage at points marked in the score.

I can imagine that during a live rendition the audience starts clapping at such points.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

I don't hear any applause in the first movement of Rozhdestvensky's reading on Chandos which is also live. Perhaps it wasn't as exciting.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

It´s a great, caleidoscopic, grotesque, elegiac and sometimes even funny work.

Don´t know if you´ve checked already, but Alex Ross in "The Rest is Noise" ( http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/05/schnittke_1992.html ) says:

"_The Symphony No. 1 makes an especially dramatic impact in live performance, with choreography supplied in the score for the musicians as they wander on and off the stage-the only possible precedent for this work in the symphonic repertoire is Haydn's Farewell. Schnittke has followed to its logical extreme the creed once voiced by Mahler, that "the symphony must be like the world, it must embrace everything." Western musical history is re-created as a barrage of garbled transmissions, a radio receiving many stations on one channel. Despite its veneer of goofiness, this triumph of planned anarchy has a simple and serious effect. It produces the sound of music, rather than music itself-what is overheard by a society that no longer knows how to listen. The society in question need not be Soviet."_

The Schirmer publisher´s page says:"_(...) Eye-opening as well as ear-opening, Schnittke's Symphony No. 1 was also conceived as performance art. The drama of symphonic performance so often taken for granted (the conductor's and players' numerous entrances and exits, even their internal spats), was explicitly "choreographed" by the composer." _

I have the great Melodiya Rozhdestvensky recording. There´s clapping in the 1st movement too, at about 1:30, but none in 2nd or in the rest of the recording, no final applause either. The clapping there is probably meant to emphasize a point where the musicians´ movements on the stage are particularly important. 
In Segerstam´s 2nd movement - is the applause just after the jazz duo section, underlining the element of improvisation ?

EDIT: sorry for the repeats of points also made above


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## An Die Freude (Apr 23, 2011)

In the first movement it starts aroung 3:45, and in the second around 10:25


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

Just don't get Yuri Simonov's 1982 live recording of Shostakovich's The Golden Age (on Russian Disc) - there's applause after virtually every bloody number which is very grating bearing in mind the work lasts for well over an hour and a half.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

What about the other modern trend, before the last notes have sounded some oaf leaps to has feet and bellows "Bravo" however ghastly the performance.


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## CrunchyFr0g (Jun 11, 2019)

An Die Freude said:


> I have Leif Segerstam's recording of this symphony, and at two points in the first and second movements, the audience bursts into applause. Was this written into the score by Schnittke, or was it a rather enthusiastic audience?


Apologies for the very late reply to this thread, but in case the question is still of interest:
The applause in the first movement is the arrival on stage of the conductor (who isn't present when the orchestra begins to play).
The applause in the second movement is for the improvising jazz musicians who have finished playing and leave the stage.


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

moody said:


> What about the other modern trend, before the last notes have sounded some oaf leaps to has feet and bellows "Bravo" however ghastly the performance.


This is exactly what happened in Tennstedt's live recording of Mahler's 6th - it was a travesty not to edit it out.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Schnittke's 1st is twice as long as it should be. Perhaps the applauders were hoping it had ended?


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## paulbest (Apr 18, 2019)

CrunchyFr0g said:


> Apologies for the very late reply to this thread, but in case the question is still of interest:
> The applause in the first movement is the arrival on stage of the conductor (who isn't present when the orchestra begins to play).
> The applause in the second movement is for the improvising jazz musicians who have finished playing and leave the stage.


Yes, this is for reason for the applause, 1st move,,conductor walks on stage in midst of performance.

btw read the YTer comment, *I Got The Horses in the back* login name


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