The Clapping Phenomenon

Last night Sean and I went to go see the Seoul Philharmonic because his building manager got us free tickets. Great performance, there was even a little opera action going on. After it was all said and done, there was a lot of clapping, as per usual. So they decide to do an encore and they chose the 1812 Overture. (if you don't know what I'm talking about shame on you and you may be lost reading the next part.) The entire audience started clapping, CLAPPING, to the beat of the music. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't pay attention to the music because I couldn't hear it. Do you know what makes this worse? The conductor turned to the audience and started pumping his fist towards them to ENCOURAGE this madness. It's like the symphony turned into the Sharon, Lois and Bram Elephant Show. They did the same thing for the next song. Finally they played the William Tell Overture and the beat was too fast for the crazy Koreans. They couldn't keep up. I felt bad, the poor Tympani player just stopped his drumming after a while because he wasn't needed. He had 1,000 crazy clapping Koreans to keep the beat.
The thing that bothers me is that this isn't the only time it's happened. I've seen it at the ballet. It's wrong. It's impolite. It's not a rock show, it's a symphony. Why can't you sit there quietly and let us all enjoy the music. It's like they all instinctively know when to start clapping because it erupts out of nowhere. Why??? There are some things I will never understand about Korean people...