The quiet American is an example to us all in Britain

Here’s a tale of two concerts. The first was in New York’s Carnegie Hall in February 2023. Celebrated pianist Mitsuko Uchida performed without interruption before a mature crowd of concertgoers.

- L I A M J A M E S

The second was in London’s Royal Festival Hall the Friday before last. Celebrated pianist Mitsuko Uchida delayed her performance to reprimand an audience member in one of the front few rows who failed to respect a heavily signposted request to refrain from flash photography.

When she eventually sat down and began to play, Uchida’s performance was beset by the intermittent chimes of notification sounds, the constant squeaking of feet on the wood floors and, of course, the bright lights of phone screens flashing steadily in all corners of the crowd. One inspired audience member tried to use a crescendo in the second piece to mask the sound of them cracking open a can.

Uchida took it all in good grace – at one point joking between pieces about the collective coughing fits the crowd descended into during the second half.

Two years earlier, in New York, she wasn’t moved to make fun of the crowd. In this supposed cradle of the obnoxious, no one was rude enough to make more noise than her. Over the course of a few weeks in America’s cultural capital I saw concerts in Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center and films in cinemas all around the city; never once coming away with a complaint about crowd etiquette.

I can’t remember the last time I left a concert hall or cinema in Britain not grumbling about some or other audience indiscretion.