Great encores you have loved...

[pastoralguy]

What are members most memorable encores and for what reason?

My most memorable encore came from an Edinburgh Festival concert 3 years ago when Mitsuko Uchida played a Scarlatti Sonata after the Diabelli' Variations. I've never heard ANYTHING played more exquisitely!

[Pianorak]

Piotr Anderszewski playing the whole of Bach's Overture in the French Style in B minor BWV 831 as an encore after a very generous recital at Wigmore Hall. Quite a few years ago, but can't remember exactly when.

[bluestateprommer]

I don't know if I would say that the following two are the most memorable, but two that come to mind happen to involve the same pianist, Leif Ove Andsnes:
(a) After a performance of Rachmaninov's 3rd Concerto that brought the house down, he played a Haydn sonata movement, wonderfully and with beautiful simplicity.
(b) In a much sadder context, at Carnegie Hall just after the Paris attack in November 2015, LOA played Chopin's op. 53 Polonaise as an encore to his recital. It was the perfect emotional tonic at the time.

[cloughie]

Loughran and the Halle at the Proms back in the 70s with Eye Level aka the Van der Valk theme.

[Petrushka]

Tonight at the Proms. Barenboim and the Berlin Staatskapelle played Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No 1.

It's the first time I've heard it live without those words!

[BBMmk2]

Have to say one of the best encores ever, was the one Barenboim and Argerich gave at The Proms last year. Tge two gave a sublime,intimate reading of a Schubert duo Rondo. So touching to see and quite moving as well

[Stanfordian]

I understand that the most popular orchestral encore is now the John Adams 'Short Ride in a Fast Machine'. Upbeat and brilliantly scored, like an concerto for orchestra, and lasts around five minutes.

[Richard Tarleton]

Orchestral - RFH,14 June 1972, LSO/Stokowski - the 60th anniversary, and a replica, of their first concert together [Stoko was a full 70 years older than the violin soloist that night, Silvia Markovici, who played the Glazunov VC]. They started with Prelude to Die Meistersinger, then L'Après-Midi d'un faune, then the Glazunov, then the interval . Then, Brahms 1. That was the end of the printed programme. Stoko turned to the audience, fumbled with the microphone (which John Georgiadis had to switch on for him), and said that to do it exactly as they'd done it that night, they'd now play Marche Slav, so there followed a swaggering performance of that. A roof-raising experience. It was recorded - I still have the double LP.

At the complete opposite end of the scale - on 25 January 1973, Julian Bream at the QEH playing an all-Dowland concert on the lute to coincide with the publication of Diana Poulton's and Basil Lam's complete Dowland edition. 16 pieces in the programme (I was sitting in the middle of the front row). For his encore - he'd had a copy of the programme on his music stand to remind him of the running order - he simply turned the page of the programme. There at the back, unnoticed by anyone who hadn't read their programme carefully, was the music, in stave and tablature, to Tarleton's Riserrectione, and he played that. It left a deep impression - the perfect quiet, send-them-away-happy encore.

[cloughie]

Orchestral - RFH,14 June 1972, LSO/Stokowski - the 60th anniversary, and a replica, of their first concert together [Stoko was a full 70 years older than the violin soloist that night, Silvia Markovici, who played the Glazunov VC]. They started with Prelude to Die Meistersinger, then L'Après-Midi d'un faune, then the Glazunov, then the interval . Then, Brahms 1. That was the end of the printed programme. Stoko turned to the audience, fumbled with the microphone (which John Georgiadis had to switch on for him), and said that to do it exactly as they'd done it that night, they'd now play Marche Slav, so there followed a swaggering performance of that. A roof-raising experience. It was recorded - I still have the double LP.

At the complete opposite end of the scale - on 25 January 1973, Julian Bream at the QEH playing an all-Dowland concert on the lute to coincide with the publication of Diana Poulton's and Basil Lam's complete Dowland edition. 16 pieces in the programme (I was sitting in the middle of the front row). For his encore - he'd had a copy of the programme on his music stand to remind him of the running order - he simply turned the page of the programme. There at the back, unnoticed by anyone who hadn't read their programme carefully, was the music, in stave and tablature, to Tarleton's Riserrectione, and he played that. It left a deep impression - the perfect quiet, send-them-away-happy encore.

I love Marche Slave and there are many great recordings of it but none match Stokowski for it's oomph and the liberties he takes with it. It's amazing really that other conductors are pilloried for tinkering with the music but Stokowski gets away with it - perhaps its down to him having style!

[BBMmk2]

I also remember going to the RAH where I saw the VPO/Bohmdo LvB's 4and3, For the encore they gaveWagner'sOverture to Die Meistersingers!

[Richard Tarleton]

There seem to be two basic approaches for encores - settling everyone down after all the excitement, giving them something either calming or thoughtful - or else winding them up to an even greater pitch of hysteria. Example of the former - Barry Douglas following Liszt Sonata and Prokoviev 7th Sonata with a Brahms intermezzo. Movements from the Bach sonatas/partitas seem a safe bet for violinists. Of the latter - Vengerov complete with saucy grin playing impossible things with LH pizzicato, ricochet bowing and the rest and driving the audience wild.

[jean]

Many years ago now, after a concert of Renaissance choral music, a choir sang Jakob Handl's sublime Ecce quomodo moritur iustus in memory of an important person from the world of early music who'd just died.

I can't now remember who was being commemorated or indeed who was commemorating him, but I've never forgotten the impact of that work in that context.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I also remember going to the RAH where I saw the VPO/Bohmdo LvB's 4and3, For the encore they gaveWagner'sOverture to Die Meistersingers!

I was there too. It was unforgettable (as was the performance of the Eroica.

On the previous day, Abbado conducted the same orchestra in the RFH, with a more predictable Johann Strauss encore.

[seabright]

Orchestral - RFH,14 June 1972, LSO/Stokowski - the 60th anniversary, and a replica, of their first concert together [Stoko was a full 70 years older than the violin soloist that night, Silvia Markovici, who played the Glazunov VC]. They started with Prelude to Die Meistersinger, then L'Après-Midi d'un faune, then the Glazunov, then the interval . Then, Brahms 1. That was the end of the printed programme. Stoko turned to the audience, fumbled with the microphone (which John Georgiadis had to switch on for him), and said that to do it exactly as they'd done it that night, they'd now play Marche Slav, so there followed a swaggering performance of that. A roof-raising experience. It was recorded - I still have the double LP.

Stokowski conducted several Proms in the 1960s and indeed was the first 'international' conductor invited by William Glock to do so. He loved giving encores and after a Tchaikovsky 5th that brought the house down, he turned to the Prommers and told them what a "wonderful audience" they were. He then added that "if the gods permit" they'd all be together again next year, to which a Prommer called out: "I give them sanction." After a beautifully timed pause, Stokowski looked down into the arena and quipped "Mephisto!" ... It's all on You Tube, so do have a listen! ... The encore was the Act 4 Entr'acte from Mussorgsky's "Khovanchina" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEXYydmnQIs

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

SThe encore was the Act 4 Entr'acte from Mussorgsky's "Khovanchina" ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEXYydmnQIs

And that's a helluva performance, too!