Maximum recital length?

[steinway43]

What is the longest you think a recital should be, provided the playing was amazing?

[onwan]

Few days ago I've seen 3 hours long recital and it was just amazing.

[Bob]

1.5 hours, give or take 15 minutes, including a short 5-7 intermission.

Two hours is pushing it. 

If the playing is amazing... I'm not sure.  Part of it doesn't matter how the playing is.  Chair comfort, attention, need to get other things done, etc. 

I only vaguely remember them now, but I do still remember being "stuck" in the audience for some concerts or recitals that never end.  "How many pieces did they program for this concert?"  "Three encores?!  Come on.  Get off the stage already!  Let me leave, let me leave...." 

I'd rather go to two 1.5 hour concerts/recitals than one 3 hour concert.


It's got to be more than an hour though to make it worth while for people to bother showing up.  Although the really short 'over lunch' type of recitals are kind of nice too.  I don't mind shorter ones.  Stop by, listen, move on with your day.

[malcolmdominique]

I believe about 60 minutes, no intermission. 90 minutes with intermission. Any longer and people really get bored unless you are doing something absolutely amazing (Interacting with the crowd, or something like that).

[scriabinophile]

Few days ago I've seen 3 hours long recital and it was just amazing.

Three hours? I just watched some long parts of the video you linked, and I wouldn't exactly call it "amazing"; I'm definitely not convinced. 

Granted, there was some very nice, musical playing, and Lisitsa isn't afraid to plow through difficult stuff with bravado. I like that. But there were huge sections of this recital -- such as the Totentanz -- that were so sloppy that they merely reminded me of someone bashing through stuff for raucous fun with friends in a practice room. There are many technical pianists with w-a-y more polish than Lisitsa has.

In short, I think sitting through 3 hours of this pianist's playing in one stint would probably be a bit too much for me, even though I rather like her playing overall.

I had the pleasure of hearing Horowitz live 5 times, and I think that he's one pianist who may have had the ability to truly captivate a large audience for 3 hours. But to the best of my knowledge, he never attempted it. Probably wisely so.

[indianajo]

Some people could fascinate me for hours in a day.  But every 75 minutes, I need to go visit the room named after my gender.  From the line outside the room at the local symphony concerts, this is not an uncommon need. 
I could go 8 hours at a time as a teenager without plumbing, but being forced into the Army changed all that.  People in shape drink more, and visit the room more often.  I decided to stay in aerobic shape as a result of the various studies in the medical journals,  and this involves drinking water etc.  Not a common practice among pianophyles, I will wager, but piano is part of my exercise program.  It is more aerobic than crossword puzzles or facebook. 
If you decide to play several hours, provide the 15 minute breaks traditional at concerts every 60-75 minutes.  If people really aren't interested, they won't come back from the break, That way the audience is not forced to insult you by walking out with the lights off while you play. 

[brogers70]

If you haven't read "The Last Samurai," by Helen DeWitt, you should. It's great. If you have read it, you'll remember the story of the eccentric pianist who got in trouble with his agent and the public for performing a recital in London so long that when it was over the trains had stopped running and nobody could get home. He promised it would not happen again. So at the next concert, he went all night long, and at the end said (to the handful of people still there) "Thank you for staying. I believe the trains are running now."