Should Conductors (Or Other Musicians) Talk To The Audience Before Performances ?
This is a controversial issue in classical music. Sometimes. conductors, or other musicians, will address the audience before conducting a particular work when they come onstage, instead of simply starting the performance.
This is not done when familiar works, such as the symphonies and concertos of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov etc are played, but sometimes when a complex new or recent work is performed, or an unfamiliar one from the past.
Some listeners and critics approve of this, but others do not. Each orchestra has an expert individual, often a musicologist , to write program notes for the concert, which are supposed to give the audience background information about the works played on the concert and the composers.
The notes will explain the circumstances behind the writing of a given work, and also describe how it is constructed, which instruments play solo passages, how the work was received by audiences and critics when it was new, and other interesting details.
But in some cases, the conductor decides to address the audience before the performance to give then some background information about the work. Both with the speeches and the program notes, much depends on how well they are done. Often, audiences complain that the notes are much too technical to understand, with words such as "modulations", "tone-rows", " exposition"," development","recapitulation", "Tonic", "Dominant", "Schenkerian analysis", etc.
And if the conductor is too long-winded, audiences can find this annoying. In addition, orchestral musicians often say that they don't like to be kept waiting before the performance. But if the conductor is an engaging speaker, audiences can gain some insight into the music. So if this happens at any concert you might attend, don't be alarmed. Give the maestro a chance.