Excessive Ovation Syndrome

P: Too much hand clapping, or Excessive Ovation Syndrome (EOS) as it has been dubbed by certain US bloggers, has hit Singapore. Last night Sandy and I attended the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's "Elgar Anniversary: Pomp and Circumstance" at the Esplanade. The event was billed as an Elgar Anniversary with guest pianist Antti Siirala from Finland. Rather confusingly there was neither piano nor Elgar until after the intermission (apart from a four-minute pianoless Pomp and Circumstance March No4 in G Major to wake us up before the break). Following the break, the piano was wheeled in and Antti Siirala played Mozart's Piano Concerto No21 in C Major with the SSO. He played beautifully and the audience was duly impressed. But the work lasted less than 30 minutes and we then applauded him for what seemed close to 8 minutes. Siirala was very good but surely you don't need to applaud for almost a quarter of the length of the actual performance. Our hands were sore so we eventually stopped clapping and the piano was wheeled out; we returned to Elgar for 10 minutes and that was it.

A lovely evening but we could limit the applause next time.