I've always liked CEP hard limiting with a 0ms look ahead time. Otherwise, the sound tends to pump up and down.
Looking at your wave image there, I'd guess you want to hard limit to -30dB or even less (meaning -35, -40 etc.)
Hard limit the applause segments one at a time, then boost the whole thing once to bring your peaks back to 0dB. Editing in 32 bit mode might also be a good move - you're gonna need some serious boost to get the music back - looks like other than the applause, you don't even hit -30dB.