Which recorded artist do you wish you had heard in concert?

[Petrushka]

A:
Mahler and Stravinsky

B:
Maxwell Davies
Boulez
Bartoli

Amazed that you have never seen Boulez especially as he's hardly been a recluse over the years.

I've been fairly lucky with composers as well having met Messiaen, Peter Maxwell Davies and Tippett. It's galling though that Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Britten were all alive until my late teens/early 20's but died just as I was really getting into concert-going. Walton was to have attended a Manchester concert in 1977 at which I was present but he was indisposed. Can't beat Salymap for having seen Richard Strauss and RVW, though.

[salymap]

Henry Wood conducting Proms at theQueens Hall. I had a friend, now gone, who had a collection of his programmes, having visited QH as a youngster. Were they so very good, so different from later concerts at the RAH?

[Eudaimonia]

Wow! At times like these, I really envy some of you your age.

For me? So many, so I'll limit it to female singers:

1. Eva Turner
2. Rosa Ponselle
3. Ljuba Welitsch
4. Irina Arkhipova
5. Birgit Nilsson

I also think I'd have a soft spot for hearing Elena Souliotis before she flamed out. (Rather a narrow window, heh.) Did anyone here ever hear Souliotis? Was it a good night or a bad-- and how bad was it?

Isn't it funny how once you've seen a video of a live performance of an opera, it can be hard to remember you've never actually seen it in person? I heard-- then watched--all the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts for years, and some I remember more far vividly than ones I've seen live.

I suppose there's no way I can get out of this thread without mentioning I've never heard Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Although I have seen him conduct, recite poetry, do a dramatic reading with Gert Westphal, teach a master class--and I even went to an exhibition of his artwork. But I never heard him sing...sigh! All stories welcome.

And as for instrumentalists, I'd love to hear:

1. Hindemith
2. Messiaen
3. Max Reger
4. Busoni
5. William Primrose.

I think there are many wonderful performers around at the moment and we should be buying their CDs rather than those of the dead.

Why? I think the quality of a performance has nothing to do with whether or not the performer happens to be living. In my opinion, there's a whole lot of "cookie cutter conservatory" mediocrity being recorded that can't hold a candle to many of the great performances of the past.

I suppose there's a lot to be said for supporting the industry--but you can accomplish that more directly by buying tickets to live performances and donating time and money to orchestras, chamber ensembles, and opera groups. All of the above for me, so I feel like I'm doing my part. And If I want to spend my time at home rocking out to Ward Marston transfers, so be it. To each his own!

[BBMmk2]

Henry Wood, Celeibedache, Boult, Wand, Furtwangler, Szell, or,many. the list goes on!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's good to celebrate those great artists we have seen. In my case deceased artists include Rubinstein, Barbirolli, Boult, Bohm, Britten, Bersnstein and Walton. Walton actually trod on my toe as he was being escorted out of the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, after he had conducted his Belshazzar's Feast. What an honour . His coat stank of tobacco .

[Mandryka]

A Jon Vickers (yes, I know he's still around; he may even do the odd liederabend in deepest Ontario, but I'm never going to hear his Tristan, am I?)

Furtwangler

Klemperer

Walter

Bernstein (I'm not sure I like his conducting style but I'd liked to have been able to say I'd seen him)

'That man K'

Solti

Carlos Kleiber

Regine Crespin

B

Abbado

Martha Argerich

[Uncle Monty]

A

Richter (but he probably wouldn't have turned up anyway!)

Carlos Kleiber

Shostakovich


B

Jean-Marc Luisada

Alban Gerhardt

Ebene Quartet

[Petrushka]

It's good to celebrate those great artists we have seen. In my case deceased artists include Rubinstein, Barbirolli, Boult, Bohm, Britten, Bersnstein and Walton. Walton actually trod on my toe as he was being escorted out of the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, after he had conducted his Belshazzar's Feast. What an honour . His coat stank of tobacco .

When I think of all the great musicians I saw and, in many cases, met especially in the 1970's/80's mostly now deceased I realize how fortunate I was. Recollections abound of wandering backstage in the RAH and encountering Karl Bohm, Eugen Jochum, Gunter Wand and Sir Georg Solti among legendary conductors. I had a chat with a 92 year old Sidonie Goosens and a considerably younger Janet Baker after memorable Proms and met Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod after a 1978 Manchester Turangalila. I met Leonard Bernstein after a Mahler 9 which reduced Bernard Haitink to tears and Maxim Shostakovich in 1981 just after his defection to the West. Lucky? I'd say!

[Richard Tarleton]

I too have been lucky with the greats I have seen - Shostakovich, Britten, Stokowski, Segovia, Oistrach....I had a ticket to see Klemperer conduct Bruckner 7 in early 1972 but he withdrew a couple of days beforehand - I think he conducted one more concert after that. We got Charles Groves (and an extra Mozart symphony) instead...

My roster of no-shows who have thrown sickies or died when I had tickets to see them includes Sawallisch, Sinopoli, Harnoncourt, Kollo, Dernesch, Argerich, Bartoli x 2- in fact I'd advise people never to book to see either of the last two as the chances of them turning up are remote.

[Dave2002]

Artists not turning up ...

We have tickets for Pollini this week - never seen him. Keeping our fingers crossed, as he may also be one with a reputation for cancelling.

Re Walton at the Phil - I'd be interested to know which year that was. I did hear Belshazzar there once, but I think the conductor was Pritchard, or perhaps Sargent. I didn't have Walton step on my toes, though I once stood next to Groves in the loo!

[gradus]

Despite living close to the Aldeburgh catchment area I never heard Britten in concert, Pears yes.
Amongst pianists, Richter and from an earlier generation Myra Hess and Adelina de Lara.

[HighlandDougie]

Ferenc Fricsay, Jascha Horenstein, Karel Ancerl and Kiril Kondrashin. Richter, Horowitz and Artur Rubinstein. Heifetz, Arthur Grumiaux.

Pollini (but like Dave I've got tickets for the RFH on Tuesday).

I'm glad now that I was dragged by my father to see the likes of Leon Goossens and John Ogdon when I was 9 years old and that he made me listen to Brahms symphonies - and I'm also grateful that we have such a wealth of orchestras and of music societies and other concert promoters in this country (not forgetting the Edinburgh Festival) which have allowed me to experience so much outstanding music-making over the years, some of it quite unforgettable (Abbado and Argerich; Tennstedt and Felicity Lott; Brendel in the Royal Naval Chapel at Greenwich; Radu Lupu playing Brahms; the Halle resurrected by Mark Elder - the list goes on and on). And the great thing to me is that it seems to be as good now - or maybe even better - as it was in the 1970s or the 1980s.

[Curalach]

I would love to have heard Richter in concert. Indeed, on three occasions I had a ticket to hear him and on three occasions he cancelled.
The other artist I had this problem with was Geraint Evans.

The late greats that I did hear in performance are really too many to list but I feel very fortunate to have heard them.

[Mary Chambers]

Kathleen Ferrier.

[salymap]

I saw a lot of people in connection with my work but I'm glad I saw Richard Strauss,Kodaly,RVW,Bliss,Bax, Furtwangler, Beecham, Sargent,Boult, Barbirolli, Britten,Rubinstein [my favourite!],Ferrier,Dennis Brain, du Pre, Solomon, Clifford Curzon, Menuhin, etc. I've been lucky but was too young to see Sir Henry Wood.
I queued for Toscanini tickets in Festival of Britain year but they ran out before I got to the front of the queue.