Well it probably won't be complete silence, there's bound to be a "nervous" cough or two from the audience as well as the slight flap of paper when they all turn the page in their music sheets... Of course Radio 3's transmission equipment will probably whack up it's volume a bit trying to search for a sound signal! Let's hope they've remembered to remove the backup tape in case it's too quiet!
They should really try it at the Proms this year - It would be amazing to see the Albert Hall in complete silence!
One other thing - how will the audience know when to clap at the end? I doubt they have a big clock counting down until the end of the "song".
Interesting silence! About 2 1/2 minutes into it one of the orchestra played a brief piano note then everyone started coughing and so everyone laughed!
The BBC did well not to let the backup tape kick in! Maybe thats what the orchestra/audience did that for... and again at about 4:30
Err... hang on - it's gone over 4:33! It was 5 minutes 33!
The presenter has just explained that had there been complete silence and the emergency tape had not been disabled the tape would've kicked in after 2 minutes... that's a bit long isn't it? Most stations tapes kick in after 30 seconds or 1 minute of silence!
Interesting silence! About 2 1/2 minutes into it one of the orchestra played a brief piano note then everyone started coughing and so everyone laughed!
The BBC did well not to let the backup tape kick in! Maybe thats what the orchestra/audience did that for... and again at about 4:30
The presenter has just explained that had there been complete silence and the emergency tape had not been disabled the tape would've kicked in after 2 minutes... that's a bit long isn't it? Most stations tapes kick in after 30 seconds or 1 minute of silence!
There was an item about this on Front Row on Tuesday. A lot of effort was made to disable the emergency system. All the networks have diffrent durations for the emergency tape to kick in. Radios 3 & 4 have more intended pauses than Radio 1 so the 'kick in' delay is more.
Most stations tapes kick in after 30 seconds or 1 minute of silence!
Metro Radio's backup system kicks in a lot sooner than that - usually when there's a minute's silence at the start of a football match we get Sean Caldwell yelling "THE BEST MUSIC!" after about 10 seconds.
And the presenter also explained that the actual piece lasted 4'33", and that that didn't include the gaps between movements.
[A lot of effort was made to disable the emergency system.
It's not too tricky. You turn a key in a panel. Remembering to do it is the hazardous part, as Radio 4 found out during a lengthy commemorative silence from St Paul's not so long ago......