Chris Mullins wrote:

>>. . . his concert also ended with a wild standing ovation that went on
>>for minutes, and I stayed, but there was to be no encore.  I suppose
>>Gergiev had had no time to prepare one with the Phil.  A shame.

and Ravi Narasimhan replied:

>Might have something to do with musician's union regulations if the
>concert goes over a prescribed time. . . .  The audience went justifiably
>bat-guano for an evening that won't soon be forgotten.  Many callbacks
>for Rattle, wild appreciation of the sections he brought out for
>recognition.  No encore.

Well, half the time, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's home concerts are
butting up against the overtime marker, and there's just no time for an
encore, but on other occasions we're out early, and an encore would be
welcome.  The only time we get one, however, is when the soloist has
prepared one, sometimes requiring orchestral accompaniment, more often
not.

I have long suspected there's a bit of classical snobbery at work here,
too.  This orchestra never plays encores at its home classical concerts,
but on the road it plans and plays encores regularly.  In New York and
Europe the encores are meaty -- an entire Suite No. 2 from <Daphnis and
Chloe> in Vienna, for instance -- but small towns in Georgia get the
Overture to <Candide> or <The Stars and Stripes Forever>.  It's as if
sometimes the encore is thrown in to show off, and other times to play
down to the less sophisticated.

Of course, preparing an encore takes rehearsal time, time the conductor
may not want to allot.  On tour, they can play the same encore every
night in a different town.  At home they would have to prepare a new
one for each concert program.

I've never asked any of our conductors about their thinking on encores,
but the practice does seem curiously inconsistent.

Nick Jones
Atlanta, Ga.