Atonal music for recital

[pianoville]

Just out of curiosity. Have any of you played atonal music in recital? What was the audiences reaction? I love atonal pieces, but am kind of scared to perform them just because I am not sure if the audience will like it.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

No, not in any real sense, but Liszt's Nuages Gris and Alkan's Les diablotins are sufficiently "odd" that an audience might find them difficult. As it happened, they worked fine, but I made a point of coupling each with something tonal that I felt provided context.

[anamnesis]

If you go in preparing them with the idea that they are atonal, in general, you won't put in enough work to comprehend the music for yourself, never-mind an audience. Tonal hearing is an aesthetic choice and mental procedure that has levels of skill that can be developed.  

Difficult modern art music simply demands such extremely high levels of this skill (and willingness to do so) that it isn't a good fit for mass consumption.  

In any case, Milton Babbitt has an interesting quote that is applicable for serious music at all levels, but is especially true for the works most likely to lose an audience:

"I can't believe that people really prefer to go to the concert hall under intellectually trying, socially trying, physically trying conditions, unable to repeat something they have missed, when they can sit at home under the most comfortable and stimulating circumstances and hear it as they want to hear it. I can't imagine what would happen to literature today if one were obliged to congregate in an unpleasant hall and read novels projected on a screen."

[galltywenallt]

I have performed atonal music by Richard Rodney Bennett (violin sonata, After Ariadne and the piano sonata) several times. It has always gone down well, but my audiences were more educated in classical music than average. It helps that these works have a lot of lyricism and drama which makes them more accessible. I have also performed the violin sonata by Peter Racine Fricker and Henze's Lucy Escott Variations. Although these pieces flirt with tonality, the Henze particularly, some audiences have found them difficult. I do think that modern works are more likely to engage an audience in a live performance than a recording so I will not be put off. If a minority of the audience feel rewarded I feel it's been worthwhile.

[dogperson]

I would caution ‘know your audience’.   If the audience is musically sophisticated, there would not be any problem. But where I live, it would be a dealbreaker. I have seen concerts deserted after intermission because of the performance choices.