Pause, Please

Here's my snooty comment about the snootier-than-thou element that attends Oklahoma Philharmonic concerts. Most people in the crowd are just fine. Some people still get the rules wrong and applaud between movements, which is just a touch embarrassing.

Even more embarrassing, I think, is the small number of yahoos who insist on proving their incredible knowledge of classical music by breaking into wild applause and bravos the millisecond a piece is finished.

Don't they know that there is often great beauty in the silence? That the silence brings something magical, like a collective holding of breath? That that is why the conductor's hands are frozen in the air? That they should wait until the conductor signals the audience that the orchestra is truly finished? These nouveau snooties really know how to ruin a moment.