The Best of the Best Proms

[slarty]

Mahler 6 - 16 August 1967 Barbirolli and the New Philharmonia. My second ever Prom and my first Mahler 6. It blew me away then and still has the power today, thanks to a Testament CD issue of that concert.

[Belgrove]

Somehow I get the idea I'm going to be in a minority of one about all of these.

Not so Phillip. I too was as the premier of The Protecting Veil. The concert was a typical Knussen pot pourri. The effect of the Tavener on the audience was quite extraordinary, almost shocked by its beauty and transcendence.

So too the Glyndebourne Guilio Cesare, one of the finest productions I have seen in the theatre, but tailored to the Proms with total success. An evening of pure pleasure and joy.

Boulez conducting the Miraculous Mandarin, Adagio from Mahler's 10th, Webern's Passacaglia, but it was Berg's Seven Early Songs with the imperious Jessye Norman that hit the spot, heady perfume distilled into sound.

Goodall conducting Act 3 of Parsifal.

Barenboim conducting Götterdämmerung. Nina Stemme and Andreas Schager were revelatory.

Significantly, perhaps, I was in the Arena for all but one of these. Does the act of queuing beforehand, quite apart from the better sound there make the occasion more memorable?

[Prommer]

Goodall conducting Act 3 of Parsifal.

Now that must have been quite something...

[Prommer]

"Simon Boccanegra" with Placido Domingo

Yes, and his Walkure in 2005 with Waltraud Meier and Bryn Terfel was very special indeed. Pappano conducting.

[Vile Consort]

Speaking of whether the works are suitable for performance in that room, there was the prom back in the early 70's or thereabouts consisting entirely of Bach harpsichord concertos, at which the prommers declaimed that "this concert can be HEARD on radio 3".

[Petrushka]

Only just caught up with this thread.

I've attended the Proms every season since 1978 and have heard some absolute crackers there in my time. Choosing from those I have attended and which I still recall with a tingle of excitement (in no particular order):

VPO/Bernstein Mahler 5 Sept 10 1987
VPO/Abbado Beethoven 9 Sept 11 1987
LPO/Solti Beethoven Missa Solemnis Sept 10 1982
Chicago SO/Solti Tippett 4 & Tchaikovsky 6 Sept 4 1978
BBCSO/Haitink Elgar 1 July 29 1982
Concertgebouw/Haitink Mozart 35 & Bruckner 9 Sept 3 1983
Concertgebouw/Haitink Wagner Siegfried Idyll & Shostakovich 8 Sept 5 1983
BBCSO/Wand Bruckner 8 Sept 5 1992
NDR SO/Wand Schubert 8 & Bruckner 9 Aug 24 2001
BBCSO/Andrew Davis Mahler 8 July 21 1995
BPO/Rattle Schoenberg, Berg & Webern Sept 4 2010
Mahler 3 Lucerne FO/Abbado Aug 22 2007
Berlin Staatskapelle/Barenboim Wagner Gotterdammerung July 28 2013

[David-G]

But whilst there have been many very good Proms that I have greatly enjoyed over the years, I haven't experienced that "Wow!" feeling at many of them - there's something about the RAH in midsummer that I don't really like.

There was a decided "Wow!" feeling at the Alina Ibraghimova solo-violin Bach Proms last night and tonight.

[BBMmk2]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ex6q9r

(Did you enjoy the Mozart, Bbm? )

Haha very drol, Ferney! The LvB, I did. I didn't take to the Mozart

[jonfan]

I've been attending at least once a year since I was 16 and it was £1 day return from Nottingham. The train left St Pancras at 11.55 to just qualify! These stand out:
Mahler 7 under Boulez
Gruppen and The Rite of Spring also under Boulez
Monteverdi Vespers at St Augs Kilburn under john Eliot
Bruckner 8 VPO under Maazel
Mahler 9 BPO under Abbado (nearly a minute before applause)
Water Music under Hogwood
VW 9 under Davies
Bach Cantatas under Suzuki (he would be welcome again)
Mozart piano concertos with Curzon
Dvorak Cello and Shostakovich 10 when there was a riot as the Soviets entered Czechoslovakia

[maestro267]

All heard on R3:

Bernstein's Mass (2012)
Havergal Brian Symphony No. 1 (2011)
Mahler 2 (2011)

[VodkaDilc]

All heard on R3:

Bernstein's Mass (2012)
Havergal Brian Symphony No. 1 (2011)
Mahler 2 (2011)

The Bernstein was exceptional and was also the first Prom I'd been to for many years.
From earlier days one that stands out is Boult conducting Gerontius in about 1970. Possibly the first Prom I attended.

[Old Grumpy]

Most memorable prom was the first time I heard Poulenc's Concerto for Organ Strings and Timpani when I were a lad and lived near the big smoke. I was in the gallery - I could not see well due to the rows of people in front of me, so I propped myself against a pillar and had a grandstand view via a BBC tv monitor while the sound lapped over me.

OG

[gradus]

Abbado and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester in Mahler 5 (20/8/91) still lives in my memory - sadly I've mislaid the off-air recording but I'd love to get hold of a copy if any fellow boarders can oblige please pm me. Just now listening to the BBCSSO/Runnicles performance (very fine) which reminded me of the loss.