Fed up with people making noise at classical shows

I must agree with Frogman. I have heard Maestro Jarvi conduct a lot of concerts, and have never heard a lackluster performance with him at the podium. The man lives music, and has a special ability to get the orchestra to bring out the most of the emotion in a work.

I am sympathetic to the OP's complaint in some respects. I am far less tolerant of the people who leave their cell phones on (that's plain carelessness or something worse) than the coughs and sneezes, which happen. And I have been fortunate not to experience some of the things some of the other posters have mentioned. However, orchestras do need to expand their audience base, and along with that comes a need to reach and educate a new audience. I agree that parents teaching their children is a big part of it, and it also helps to have the program notes, or the conductor or concert host, inform the audience of proper concert behavior or even warning the audience that they may be tempted to applaud at a point, but to hold back because it's not quite the end of the piece (such as the end of the third movement of the Tchaikovsky 6th, or where you're dealing with a solist-particularly a high-strung one--who wants to keep his/her concentration). But if the audience applauds at the end of a movement before the end of the piece, hey, let's live with it. We're making more people aware of this art form. They can and ultimately will learn the manners, let's not chase them out of the hall. This is not an exclusive club, you know; the more people we expose to classical music and the classical music concert experience, the better our chances to have fine orchestras to listen to in the future.

Rcprince. You are correct, we all want to see expansion of audience, and I don't think anyone seriously wants them run out of the hall, electrocuted, or doused with a bucket of paint. Sneezing and coughing, while annoying, is actually decreasing now that smoking is becoming less common.

In Indianapolis there is an announcement to turn of cell phones, pagers, watch alarms etc, before the concerts. In contrast, while there is considerable hand wringing over the applause problem, I have yet to hear or see any guidance given on applause, apart from one episode several years ago where the conductor made it very clear there should be no applause during Mozart's Requiem. I thought about applauding his announcement, but thought better of it. You are correct in suggesting that proper etiquite needs to be explained. People are not going to figure this out by themselves.

The fact we or anyone is bitching about noise at concerts we attend shows you we have it pretty damn good, grow up guys, it could be worse!

Chadnliz, If you had a noisy tube, horrendous RFI, or a worn stylus and you came here for advice, would you expect to hear "grow up guys?" I know this is hard for some to understand, but there are people here who are dead serious about music. They are not juvenile because they take exception to people who ruin their concert experience through rude and boorish behavior.

THANK GOD we all weren't attending the 1913 premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris!