Tonight was the closing concert of the 2009 MasterWorks Festival, which finished with Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 “Titan”—which the orchestra of course played brilliantly. The audience gave them an immediate standing ovation, which lasted so long that the conductor finally decided to encore the final section of the fourth movement. He then turned around partway through and waved the audience in—so we were clapping along with the orchestra most of the way through. When they finished the second time, they got another standing O; the entire orchestra bowed in response (bassoons, cellists, tubas, everybody), then started walking off the stage as the lights came up. “Thanks for the applause . . . now go home.”
