What are the top 6 most memorable performances you have ever attended?

[Chris Newman]

[QUOTE=Norfolk Born;130810]3rd September 1969 at the RAH:
Gervase de Peyer and the Amadeus String Quartet: Mozart Clarinet Quintet
Interval
BBC SO/Goodall: Bruckner Symphony No. 8

..and just 6 days later:
Czech Philharmonic/Vaclav Neumann: Martinu Symphony No. 6, Mahler Symphony No. 5 (at the end of which the orchestra was showered with roses thrown from the Arena).

QUOTE]

They were two lovely Proms. It was my first experience of Martinu. And I am ashamed to say I have only really caught up with him as I was too excited by the Mahler 5.

Thank goodness the Bruckner is on a CD. Reggie was so shy he had to be dragged on stage whilst taking his coat off. He was famous for doing a runner at curtain calls.

[Norfolk Born]

I seem to remember that RG staggered slowly onto the stage, and a few of us looked at each other, thinking: Is he likely to survive up there for 80 minutes? But we were soon gripped by the performance.

[amateur51]

3rd September 1969 at the RAH:
Gervase de Peyer and the Amadeus String Quartet: Mozart Clarinet Quintet
Interval
BBC SO/Goodall: Bruckner Symphony No. 8

..and just 6 days later:
Czech Philharmonic/Vaclan Neumann: Martinu Symphony No. 6, Mahler Symphony No. 5 (at the end of which the orchestra was showered with roses thrown from the Arena).

August 2007, St. Lode's Church Cheltenham:
The Sorrel Quartet and Ian Brown playing the Elgar Piano Quintet.

Some time in the early or mid 1980s: Nigel Kennedy (replacing Salvatore Accardo at short notice) playing the Elgar Violin Concerto at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon.

Great memories, Norfs

Your mention of roses reminds me of the first concert that the very young Krystian Zimerman gave on London's South Bank after he had won first prize in the 1975 International Chopin Competition. He was very slender (he was 19!) and had ludicrously thick blonde hair and played a programme including all the Chopin waltzes. However, after each one the audience insisted on applauding enthusiastically and being relatively new to the concert platform, young Krystian would stand and take a bow. There were a lot of extremely proud & enthusiastic Poles in that audience - it took forever!

And at the very end, the audience just showered him in daffodils - I've never seen so many flowers at a concert, thrown into the air and landing around him on the stage. He gathered some of them up into an enormous bunch. I can't remember what else he played, although I think he played a short piece by Grażyna Bacewicz as an encore (although that might have been a totally different KZ concert)