If there were no rules about when to applaud, we in the audience would have the right response almost always.

We should welcome applause whenever it comes.

We seem to have set up some very arcane rules as to when it is actually OK to applaud.

All of us love applause, and so we should - it means that the listener likes us!

It is wonderful to see how happy all my friends in the LA Philharmonic are in their new home.

Mozart often wrote to his family that certain variations or sections of pieces were so successful that they had to be encored immediately, even without waiting for the entire piece to end.

Everyone is different. Sometimes it's very exciting; sometimes very scary.