There is hope for the world: the coughing at classical concerts is intentional, according to researchers at the University of Hannover.
The average concertgoer, the report said, coughs at 0.025 times a minute, which would work out at 36 coughs on average a day, double the normal average. "If coughing were purely accidental, it should occur evenly distributed over the concert, which is not the case," the professor added.
The volume of coughing tends to increase in slow, quiet moments of the performance or during unfamiliar or complex pieces, and the report added that "coughs in concerts are mysteriously contagious". The professor described it as "coughing avalanches"
Professor Wagener believes that coughing in concerts can be "switched off" referring again to Brendel whose concert was uninterrupted after he told the audience to "cough more quietly".
If Samuel L. Jackson took a late-life turn to concert pianism, there would be no coughing whatsoever.
