LETTER: Standing ovation

From Mr K. H. Brend

Sir: Apropos the correspondence about applause at concerts, I am reminded of something my mother told me. She said that in her youth, in the early part of the century, there were two pieces of classical music for which, traditionally, the audience would stand. These were the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah and the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

I wonder whether other readers have heard of this practice, and when it ceased.

Yours faithfully,

K. H. Brend

Hitchin, Hertfordshire