There’s nothing like going to a concert at Carnegie Hall. It is one of those distinctive New York City experiences that fills your heart to the top with feeling, “Wow. How lucky am I to live here? That this is just a subway ride from my house?”

People come from all over the world to concerts at Carnegie Hall. Performers and audience members alike.

“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” is the obligatory cliché joke. For a select few at the top of their craft, the answer is “Practice.” For the rest of us, it’s “Take the NQRW train to 57th Street.”

On Friday night, I had the pleasure of seeing the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra perform in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium.

Stern Auditorium is the iconic, cavernous, red velvet concert hall. It’s not the only performance space Carnegie Hall has, which is important to know when buying tickets! Zankel Hall, a much smaller, intimate stage, has fantastic concerts. But if you’re expecting the classic Carnegie Hall experience, you need the grandiosity of Stern auditorium.

Seeing a concert at Carnegie Hall is an absolutely grand experience

 

It’s grand, but you don’t need to stress out about what to wear. People generally dress up a little bit, but nothing too fancy. I’d say the dress code for Carnegie Hall is business casual: You’ll see some blazers but also jeans can be acceptable paired with a nice shirt. The official website says they have no dress code!

We sat in the balcony section, often referred to as the Nose Bleed Section because it’s so high up! I highly recommend it. The tickets are cheaper up here but also, rumor has it Balcony seats get the best sound in the house! Instead of feeling like a cheapskate, you can feel like a passionate, dedicated music lover who is there for the sound!

Maybe you actually are a passionate, dedicated, music lover who is there for the sound. A Carnegie Hall audience is full of such people. They live for virtuoso performances of Beethoven and Prokofiev. They know exactly when and when not to clap during the concert. Sounds like a no brainer, but this can actually be surprisingly tricky if you’re not the most passionate, dedicated, music lover. If you have any doubt, just wait to clap until everyone else around you is on their feet shouting BRAVO! Yes, many people actually shout “Bravo!” at Carnegie Hall!

If you’ve ever want to know just how silent thousands of people could be, if they really tried, sit in the audience of a Carnegie Hall concert.

When the music starts, the audience sits perfectly still. Every tiny rustle of a program receives death glares. The minute the music stops playing, you’ll hear a chorus of coughs that everyone was holding in to not interrupt the music. This attention, dedication, and unity that the audience has was almost as stunning to me as the music itself was.

Naturally, the music was world class. The program began with Rossini’s William Tell Overture – perfect for Derby Weekend, followed by Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 featuring an incredible violin solo by Frank Peter Zimmermann, and ended with Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony.

When seeing a concert at Carnegie Hall, you go in with expectations that are even higher than the “Nose Bleed Section”. Every not of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra lived up to all expectation.

Have you ever been to Carnegie Hall? What was your experience like? Do you like classical music? Did you play an instrument in school? Fun fact- I played the trombone 6-12th grade! Want to read about the time I took a date to Carnegie Hall and he embarrassed me by falling asleep? It was years ago, find the full story here.