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

[rauschwerk]

A. Beecham

B. The Florestan Trio

[Uncle Monty]

I don't think most people mind a bit of thread-creep, especially in a thread not of the greatest seriousness -- in serious discussions, coherent lines of thought need to be clearly in evidence. The vicarious pleasure I get from seeing the long list of great musicians salymap has met rather outweighs my wish for an ultra-tidy thread!

After all, these are not the early days of the net, when one was paying extortionate by-the-minute rates simply to log on, and a cold sweat would break out when the whole thing was going slowly and probably racking up even more in fees. Yes, it was necessary to be strictly disciplined about threads then, but not now, surely?

[silvestrione]

I feel good having heard several artists who have appeared in people's A, including Richter twice. But, although I made it my business to see and hear the greatest pianists of the day, I missed Michelangeli, rather feebly deciding, when he came to London towards the end of his career, that the tickets were too expensive! Furthermore, on the programme was the B minor Sonata of Chopin, which subsequently I have come to notice does not seem to be in his repertoire: could it have been a Barbican misprint? I also missed the one opportunity to hear Horowitz, when he eventually crossed the Atlantic again: too slow, sold out.

B Martha Argerich: another gap. Should have queued at the Proms, I know.

[salymap]

Uncle Monty. To avoid the charge of name-dropping, I did NOT meet all those musicians, some I SAW, usually standing beside the conductor at a rehearsal of something. I would,however love to know why an important man like Richard Strauss was at the RAH in 1947 or 48. I don't remember what was being rehearsed and don't remember a singer so it probably wasn't the 'Four Last Songs'. He would hardly attend a Sargent rehearsal for an early work though. I was too young to know he was special.

[aeolium]

salymap, it might well have been the short festival of Strauss' music in autumn 1947 arranged by Beecham and Strauss' publisher. Beecham conducted several concerts and Strauss conducted the Philharmonia at the RAH.

As to performers I wish I had heard live, there are almost too many to list but at least:
A) Furtwängler, Beecham, Kertesz, van Beinum, Lipatti, Solomon, Grumiaux, the Quartetto Italiano
B) Krystian Zimerman, Sabine Meyer, Piotr Andreszewski

But at least we have the recordings, and there are a lot of really fine musicians around today.

I suppose since we have recordings of Busoni, he would also have to be in category A - I would love to have heard him playing Bach and Mozart.

[salymap]

Aeolium That could be it.Thanks a lot.

[verismissimo]

Furtwangler
D Oistrakh
Richter
Callas

Not very original. And if I'd stirred my stumps I could have heard them all. although I was only ten when Furtwangler died.

I remember listening with friends at school to Richter on the wireless from RFH in about 1961.

[Uncle Monty]

Uncle Monty. To avoid the charge of name-dropping, I did NOT meet all those musicians, some I SAW, usually standing beside the conductor at a rehearsal of something. I would,however love to know why an important man like Richard Strauss was at the RAH in 1947 or 48. I don't remember what was being rehearsed and don't remember a singer so it probably wasn't the 'Four Last Songs'. He would hardly attend a Sargent rehearsal for an early work though. I was too young to know he was special.

Oh, it wasn't a charge, salymap! I was lost in admiration (with a soupcon of envy thrown in)

[salymap]

Oh Uncle Monty, It was just an expression, I wasn't offended. Actually it would be nice to have been too young to have seen any of them.

[Uncle Monty]

Actually it would be nice to have been too young to have seen any of them.

Yes, but as we know, youth is wasted on the young!

Mind you, there are people I could have done without seeing in youth. When I was 5 my mother dragged me off to the old Brighton Hippodrome to see Frankie Vaughan (because she liked him, obviously -- my father declined) and Jimmy Wheeler (who played a fiddle and had unlikely-coloured hair, I recall).

Sorry, that probably hasn't got anything to do with anything. But perhaps I should write a book if you won't!

[salymap]

Uncle Monty, my parents dragged me off to Variety shows at the Hippodrome or other theatres in London when I was a child. They were dreadful, and even as a child I was embarrassed, sometimes when they laughed atjokes I[just] understood but didn't think they should. Do you know what I mean?

[VodkaDilc]

The one, above all, I wish I'd seen - Horowitz.

Those I realise I was lucky to have seen live: Walton, Britten, Pears, Rubinstein, Solti, Boulez.

[Ferretfancy]

One thing puzzles me. Quite a few of us seem to wish that we had been able to see artists who are fortunately still alive. For example,s!omebody put Martha Argerich on their list, but you can hear her play Prokofiev's 3rd somewhere or other nearly every week.!

[Vile Consort]

Messiaen, Vierne, Bartok, Britten, Richard Strauss. Does Brahms count?

I do wonder why they are all composers. I have tried to include some non-composers but I can't think of any that really interest me.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Does Brahms count?

I believe there is a recording of him, so I suppose, yes.