What I try to do to prepare for that random cough is to have the cough drops kind of opened already in a readily accessible part of my purse. I've been lucky thus far but have almost fallen victim of the endless random cough. Why does the cough happen then, especially when you haven't coughted in like days before the concert??? LOL!

Most who are familiar with Keith Jarrett's solo piano concerts, know about his extreme low tolerance for coughing at his shows.
Many years ago - 1983 , Victoria, B.C., I attended a solo improvisational concert of his. Everyone eagerly awaited the beginning of his performance once he finally came onstage and sat down at the piano. But he just sat there, staring straight ahead into space with an intent gaze. One minute went by, another, and another. Tense anticipation built up in the audience, wondering what was going on. Finally he turned and faced the audience, and said "Are You Finished? " By which he meant, people clearing their throats. He wanted absolute silence and he got it. He went on to play a brilliant improvisational concert, even if he had to go through what to me seemed like someone going through intense labour, throughout his performance that evening.

Whoa!

A little follow up to the above story. After the concert I went backstage hoping to perhaps meet with Keith, who was an inspiration for me at this time. I was 25, totally immersed in piano playing, improvisation, composing, performing and I had just made my first recording of my solo piano compositons. A small group had gathered, awaiting to see if he would come out for an appearance. After about 5 minutes he did show up, someone asked him a silly question that he scoffed at, and he walked away. Everyone kept waiting for him to return, and I thought and felt this is ridiculous and chose to leave myself. I walked out a back entrance and got an intuitive nudge to walk down a certain hallway backstage. I heard a voice behind a closed door, knocked gently, introduced myself, and was invited in. Keith and his wife, were in that room. He was exhausted and wasn't so much in to discussing piano at the time but I had a lovely chat with him and his wife. I asked him if he taught lessons, but he said his schedule was far to busy. I feel a bit embarrassed saying this here but when I was leaving I told Keith jokingly when I was departing, that I'd just have to continue taking lessons in the dream state. He looked at me in a very strange way and his wife got a great chuckle out of that. Several times I had had dreams in the previous 2 years where I was sitting down at a piano with Keith. Now to put myself out even further on a limb, that dream a few nights ago with Valentina - well that's private!

I think Keith Jarrett was just having a bad day. Or maybe a bad week or bad season, who knows. But a bad something. I'm not talking musically, but personally. It wouldn't necessarily address this to talk about how he played.

People aren't the same all the time.....they do have bad days or bad whatevers -- some people more than others, and musicians maybe more than most. I don't know a lot about him, but I know some, and I did see him perform once -- and this doesn't sound at all like the guy I saw.

Mark, I didn't have the impression whatsoever that he was having a bad day - not sure what led you think this about what I wrote. It's well known that Keith has a low tolerance for coughing in his concerts.
Two years earlier I saw him perform solo in Vancouver in a large formal concert setting. About 30 minutes in to a long improvisation ( I had the impression that many people had drifted off in slumber) , someone in the balcony shouted out in anger, shocking most everyone in attendance I'm sure, that he was a fake, he wasn't improvising.... he had this prearranged, imitating other contemporary composers, and so forth.
Keith stopped playing and announced an intermission. When he returned for the second half, he calmly stated that yes, he was completely freely improvising. He dove in to a wild lengthy second improv and it turned out to be a great concert.
I get the impression that many of Keith's concerts over the years have been interrupted in some form or other, often due to coughing.
Hey I just got back OnT - I've strayed far enough for one evening.

Mainly what you described about how he was afterwards (even though your take on it was that it was a nice chat).

The coughing thing itself wouldn't have made me think that, but all of it taken together does.

I once witnessed Anton Kuerti stop a concert to kick out a persistent cougher. It was done fairly politely, but it was obvious that he was telling the person to get out and stay out and don't come back until they were over whatever disease they had. It was great!!

I believe that "random" coughs are suppressible, even if it isn't always easy. It may involve a lot of rapid swallowing of saliva until the impulse to cough dies down, but it can be done. The air conditioning of many concert halls is what causes that unexpected tickling in the throat, many times. The air starts moving and all kinds of little particles along with it. The humidity may be quite low. You may not be ideally hydrated. Things happen...but I've never experienced a cough in a concert I didn't know was coming, and couldn't control somehow.

I would have stood and applauded Kuerti. That's awesome!

When there is not much space between the seat rows and everybody has to stand up, it is certainly very distracting, I agree!

Maybe when people are not 100% well they should sit at the back AND at the edge of the row, so they can quickly go out, but sometimes it is not possible if they have a seat number...
I always like to sit at the edge of the row anyway, I feel a bit claustrophobic in the middle of the row...

I love it when I listen to recordings and notice that everybody leaves their coughs for between movements.

HHAHAHAHA i love that one!! hahaha

i forgot why i even posted on this thread but now i remember!
although it's not coughing, my story is this:
I went to a concert in Spain once and they began playing Barber's Adagio for strings. Just as it reached the famous climax (the really high note followed by a pause) everybody started clapping! :|
I was so angry!!! hahaha

OOPS.

Coughing in concerts annoys me, but it seems to be so often that I might as well get used to it.

I attended one concert where a woman, whom I knew, fainted. She told me that she'd felt faint and got up to go outside for some fresh air, thinking it was the best thing to do despite the distraction of getting up and leaving. However she failed to reach the doors and fainted behind the seating area. There was a loud thud but she was out of sight, so no one realised she'd fainted. She then woke up, left and waited outside until the interval.

"Rhapsody Rabbit" is one of my favourite Looney Tunes cartoons...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnGxesAICwI&feature=related

The infamous coughing scene starts at about 0:25, after Monsieur Bugs has just pulled off his many gloves and mittens which were undoubtedly keeping his hands warm.

The topic reminded me of a note that used to appear on the program at Cleveland Orchestra concerts (maybe it still does). To paraphrase:

"An un-muffled cough has the same volume as a french horn playing mezzo-forte. Cough drops are available from the ushers."

Try listening to "Horowitz in Moscow" with headphones on. I know it was an elderly, nostalgic, smoking-and-drinking audience, but it sounds like an emphysema clinic. I doubt Keith Jarrett would have approved...

There's some more music-related cartoons from Warner Bros - one in which a mouse learns to play the piano, and an enterprising cat uses him to fool people into thinking HE is playing the piano. Not bad, but not on a par with the Rhapsody Rabbit one.

This one has Sylvester and a mouse dancing to mazurkas - Mouse Mazurka:
http://www.trilulilu.ro/SHANA04/f75f8bcbea8e67

Freleng did the best cartoons where music was involved, in my opinion.

I fixed it! >:)

the only time I really hear coughing is when I'm in the audience, when on stage, during performance, it doesn't reach me, when having caught a cold myself, I would not go to a concert as a member of the audience, but, performing myself, it stops as if by miracle, probably concentration, I don't know.

very probabely indeed because of just that

This. lol

George Antheil would pull his gun out and place it on the music desk at the beginning of his concerts. That stopped the coughing.