Audience members shout in distain after clapping ruins Hong Kong Festival concert.

The sentiment of appreciation and adulation signified by rapturous applause is universally understood the world over. However the dos and don’ts of clapping etiquette can be quite variable depending on where in the world you are. One audience member attending the opening concert of the 43rd Hong Kong Arts Festival last Friday at the city’s Cultural Centre Concert Hall, fell foul of his own over enthusiastic response to a performance by the Staatskapelle Dresden under the baton of Christian Thielemann, which provoked an angry response from his fellow concertgoers.

As the revered orchestra and their maestro neared the end of Richard Strauss’ beautiful lament for string ensemble, Metamorphosen, which closes on a bleak and desolately quiet C minor chord, a member of the audience broke out in applause, to the apparently visible disapproval of Thielemann and the orchestra. As the auditorium lights faded-up to indicate the interval, another audience member unhappy about the disturbed final cadence of the piece shouted, “Get out, you get out,” at the offending patron. A third audience member was similarly moved to demand the exit of the thoughtless clapper, and joined the shouting for his removal from the hall.

Whether or not the shamed audience member returned for the second half is not known, although according to reviews the behaviour of the audience was impeccable after the intermission, when the Staatskapelle Dresden gave a critically praised performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No 9.

Attitudes to applause during performances vary, although the accepted norm is to hold applause in between movements of a multi-movement work. Indeed at the famed annual Wagner celebration, the Bayreuth Festival, tradition demands audiences do not applaud after the first act of Parsifal, so as not to disturb the sombre atmosphere of the opera. Some conductors however are far from fazed by inter-movement clapping: the Sydney Symphony’s David Robertson has been known to not only acknowledge applause during pieces but to speak to the audience as well. Most recently, after appreciative clapping followed the third movement of Schumann’s Symphony No 1 on February 11 at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, Robertson turned to the audience and said, “I like that one too.”

Get Limelight's free weekly round-up of music, arts and culture.