Concert attire

[birba]

What do you think about the standard concert attire?  Do you feel that tails enhance a performance? A long gown for women with high heels?  How do you feel about a straight tie for men, rather then a bow tie?  Do you think this distracts the public?  If a woman wears a mini-skirt, is this blasphemous to the classical repertoire?  What are your thoughts on this vital subject?   

[indianajo]

I love many classical music pieces, the greatest music of the last 400 years.  I am particularly fond of German speaking composers JS Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.   I detest the dress standard set for men by Otto von Bismark, the dark non-functional jacket, the white shirt, the artificial appendage around the neck.  A morning coat (tails) is a late nineteenth century variation but the style of suits for men started with an infamous tyrant, IMHO.  
Many stuffy people, perhaps contest judges, and newspaper critics, assume if you don't dress like 1850, you are not serious.  I can do without those opinions, but perhaps young performers cannot.  I, like everybody else, check the media for what is happening that is interesting.  U-tube and new media break down the newspaper monopoly, but getting famous on the internet is not always a recipe for financial success.  I don't know why the local symphony society decides to pay the soloists from the big city that they select, but when they emergency substituted a local college teacher for the rising young contest winner that was their first choice for a piano concerto, I was extremely pleased at his concerto performance.  Maybe he is not famous, but great music ensued.  He wore the Bismark decreed suit, unfortunately.  
I'm beginning to see some conductors drop the tie, on PBS-TV, as Michael Tilson Thomas.  I'm pleased, maybe others are not.  As far as women performers, I can't think of anything more silly than high heels, but breaking stereotypes is particularly difficult for talented women.  I am pleased when a woman performer wears something that is pleasant looking, but not particularly distracting.  If the music is that great I'm not really looking at anything during the best parts, except perhaps their hands to see how that passage was done.    

[rachmaninoff_forever]

When I dress up for something.

I go HAM.

I usually wear black pants and a shirt, with a wooden bowtie.  To be honest, I think that's the reason why I got into certain colleges. 

*I finish playing my audition*

Jury 1:  Man, he sucked...

jury 2 and 3:  Agreed...

Jury 3:  But I sure liked his bowtie...

Jury 1:  Well why don't you ask him?

Jury 3:  I feel like he won't tell us where he got it from unless we accept him.

Jury 1 2 and 3:  Accept him...



But now I'm all about that fresh nehru jacket and Mandarin collar shirt.

[j_menz]

Do you feel that tails enhance a performance?

Only if they're prehensile.

I still miss something like this:

[outin]

A long gown for women with high heels?  

Why on earth would women have to wear high heels? I understand that they may be  helpful for pedaling if you are very small, but I would never wear heels when playing, they make my ankles unstable and they are bad for one's feet. I might do it a few times a year for a party, but in general there's nothing more important than comfortable shoes...

[pianist1976]

Tails is the perfect cloth for a concert in my humble opinion. Some artists think that tails is too much ostentatious so they use a tuxedo but I don't like it. With all the due respect, I prefer to look ostentatious to look like a waiter. But using tails has a risk: if you play well that day it may enhance the whole of the spectacle. If you play like shite, it may make you look ridiculous...  
 
Regarding women, I don't dare to give an opinion...

[iansinclair]

There's something to be said for being a church musician...

For concert attire, though, the first rule is that whatever you wear, it must not be distracting to the eye.  I will grant you that there are certain traditions, but they are fading fast (the first time I met a certain noted Boston Symphony conductor -- a number of years ago now -- he was preparing to conduct a Tanglewood concert -- in dark grey pants and a very nice white turtleneck...) and are rarely necessary.  In regard to the OP's mention of a mini-skirt, though... ah, no.  That is going to be distracting. 

The second rule is that you must feel comfortable with whatever you are wearing, and whatever it is must add to the sense of occasion for you (this is why -- not appearances -- you should not wear the same sort of thing you wear practicing, day in and day out).  For some men, this may mean a full tail coat and a bow tie.  For others, not!  Likewise for women, for some, a long black gown; for others, not.   

[g_s_223]

[indianajo]

I remember Liberace in black and white on TV at 430 pm right after The Old Pioneer (Roy Rogers shorts and Wonder Bread commercials). 1954-55. I thought he and his brother George (violin) were really interesting.  My Mother liked him, too. 
Then when Liberace surfaced again in the seventies he was an "entertainer" and it was all about the clothes, the stage props, the rhinestone encrusted pianos, the  fancy cars, All glitz and no go.  He didn't even finish pieces on the clips I saw on TV then.  Too much distraction. Not enough practice and actual repertoire. 

[emill]

If a woman wears a mini-skirt, is this blasphemous to the classical repertoire?  What are your thoughts on this vital subject?    

Well times are changing and I would not really say blasphemous BUT for older men  and even the not so old, it definitely distracts from the piece (music) being played. 

Below is a case in point especially starting at 1:55 minutes

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