Even if you don't like a concert of mine, please, please applaud at the end anyway.

quote by Emanuel Ax
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

We seem to have set up some very arcane rules as to when it is actually OK to applaud.

quote by Emanuel Ax
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Applause should be an emotional response to the music, rather than a regulated social duty.

quote by Emanuel Ax
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

It is wonderful to see how happy all my friends in the LA Philharmonic are in their new home.

quote by Emanuel Ax
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

If the audience walks out of a concert thinking, What a wonderful experience, then we have done our job.

quote by Emanuel Ax
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

If there were no rules about when to applaud, we in the audience would have the right response almost always.

quote by Emanuel Ax
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Pianists don't argue too much generally because we have such a hard time just getting things right; arguing is for string players.

quote by Emanuel Ax
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Sometimes I wish that applause would come just a bit later, when it is so beautifully hushed that I feel like holding my breath in the silence of the end.

quote by Emanuel Ax
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

The stage is close to being in the middle of the hall, so that the performers are surrounded by the listeners. I feel that we are all experiencing the music together.

quote by Emanuel Ax
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Mozart often wrote to his family that certain variations or sections of pieces were so successful that they had to be encored immediately, even without waiting for the entire piece to end.

quote by Emanuel Ax
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!