Alan Pierson, conductor of Dublin's Crash Ensemble as well as Alarm Will Sound and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, was quoted in a New York Times piece this week about classical music audiences, and whether they should be more vocal at concerts.

Alan Pierson ... spoke carefully in a telephone interview.

'It very much depends on the context,' he said of the appropriateness of midperformance reaction.

He was mainly interested in 'making an experience of orchestral music something that is as deeply and completely engaging as possible... If it leads to moments when people respond in performance, that would be great.'

But he added: 'It would be very weird if I went up in front of an audience and said I want everybody to express themselves. That feels very forced to me. That’s still against our experience of classical music.'

Read the rest here.