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

[Barbirollians]

What a marvellous list salymap.

[visualnickmos]

In random order:

Callas
Oistrakh
Beecham
Nikolayeva

[Uncle Monty]

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.

What a shameless name-dropper you are, salymap!

[Nick Armstrong]

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.

My jaw dropped with each name on your list, having hurtled floor-wards with the first name alone. We've said it before and I'll say it again: you MUST write your musical memoirs!!!

I'm surprised that my joint No 1 wish hasn't been mentioned by anyone (unless my quick read-through this thread has deceived me):

Rachmaninov

The other joint No 1 has cropped up a few times:

Carlos Kleiber

Also on the wish-fulfilment podium would be three from saly's list: Britten, Barbirolli and Beecham.

Interesting to see two names mentioned above I did see/hear: Messiaen (improvising at La Trinité) and Bernstein (many times). And I had tea with Messiaen, and got a hug off Bernstein

[salymap]

If anyone mentions a book again I shall throw up! My jobs were very humble, it's just that these boards have revived my musical memories, about all I have now [Ahhh] And how could Iforget meeting Tortelier, another favourite.

[mercia]

Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod after a 1978 Manchester Turangalila

i'm pretty sure I attended that performance - could you remind me who the pianist and conductor were?

[Petrushka]

i'm pretty sure I attended that performance - could you remind me who the pianist and conductor were?

The pianist was Yvonne Loriod, the ondes was played by Tristan Murail and the BBC Northern Symphony (as it was then) was conducted by Gilbert Amy. The first half consisted of Poulenc Mass in G and Sept Chansons with the BBC Northern Singers under Stephen Wilkinson. The concert took place on Feb 21 1978 and was broadcast the following evening. The programme book signed by both Messiaen and Loriod is before me as I type. If anyone has a recording of this concert I'd love to hear it again as I only have a now unplayable cassette.

[mercia]

The pianist was Yvonne Loriod, the ondes was played by Tristan Murail and the BBC Northern Symphony (as it was then) was conducted by Gilbert Amy.

Thank you so much for all that information. I must have been there though I don't remember the Poulenc at all. I remember going to several Messiaen concerts about then in Manchester including the complete organ works played by Gillian Weir at the RNCM and Visions de l'Amen, though I can't remember who performed that. Thanks again.

[Ferretfancy]

I remember seeing Solomon in the audience at the RFH, but sadly this was after his stroke, so I never heard him play.He was a great supporter of younger performers. I never heard Heifetz either. One of my acquaintances who played in the RPO told me that when he was about sixteen he heard Heifetz in a concert on the South Bank, and afterwards walked all the way home to North London so lost in the experience that he didn't remember the journey.

[salymap]

Ferretfancy,was it Clifford Curzon who was a very nervous man? I saw him once at rehearsal when as he started playing the Beethoven 5th concerto the piano lid crashed down, just missing his hands.He screamed out and it took some time to pacify him.It must have been nasty forhim. Iexpect,like me,you've seen a lot of musicians although I believe you're a good few years younger.Lucky you!

[Ferretfancy]

salymap,

Clifford Curzon certainly had a reputation for stage fright, and once said that he thought he had never given a satisfactory performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto K595, but his recording disproves that. He used to live quite near me, and I met him just the once, and had the nerve to ask why he made so few recordings. He was very courteous and said that he disliked the process of making records, and why remake things that he had made long ago? There wasn't really any answer to that.

[amateur51]

Ferretfancy,was it Clifford Curzon who was a very nervous man? I saw him once at rehearsal when as he started playing the Beethoven 5th concerto the piano lid crashed down, just missing his hands.He screamed out and it took some time to pacify him.It must have been nasty forhim. Iexpect,like me,you've seen a lot of musicians although I believe you're a good few years younger.Lucky you!

Clifford Curzon was a very nervous pianist and sometimes he let it get in the way of his music-making but on other occasions it produced an electricity that was spell-binding.

In his later years he used to have the music on the stand both in solo and concerto performances. I once attended a solo recital at RFH in London where he ended the first half with Brahms' wonderful Intermezzo in C Op 119 no 3.

Like Rudolf Serkin, Curzon could be a tremendous stamper and on this evening he had a rubber mat strategically placed to absorb some of the noises on this occasion. Unfortunately he was hit by an attack of nerves and the performance was a terrible scramble. He left the stage in a flurry of bowing & embarassment closely followed by the poor page-turner. After some considerable applause and delay he came back on , alone this time, settled himself quickly at the keyboard and proceeded to repeat the Brahms, this times playing with wonderful pancache and insouciance which had the hall thundering out its applause and thanks for the sheer chutzpah of his taking this approach. We loved him & he returned that love in spades on that occasion!

Here's Kovacevich playing the Brahms ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooB1wNls1do&feature=related

and a reminder of Curzon in his magnificent pomp ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NJT1zsCdjE

[Zucchini]

Can we do the Originating Poster the courtesy of answering his questions please? It was an interesting thread until some of you turned it into lists of performers you have seen and performances you attended. Nothing wrong with that, but start a separate thread.

[amateur51]

Can we do the Originating Poster the courtesy of answering his questions please? It was an interesting thread until some of you turned it into lists of performers you have seen and performances you attended. Nothing wrong with that, but start a separate thread.

What's the little word we use in the nursery, Zucchini?

[salymap]

Please iI didn't start the slide the wrong way, it sort of morphed near the beginning. Wish I hadn't said 'throw up'. All I meant is that I feel sick at the 'book' suggestion.What I write here is all I can say