What was the First Orchestral Concert that you Attended?

[Hornspieler]

By Jove! By Jupiter!

As a tribute to salymap, whose 85th birthday falls on 23rdApril, I am starting another "salymap list" with my own recollection:

The first concert that I attended was in 1941 in Beckenham County Grammar School where my elder brother was a pupil.

I was only eight years old.

The School orchestra was conducted by their Music Master, Doctor Hubert Clifford ; better known for his arrangements for school orchestras, which were used by many other schools and youth orchestras.

I don't remember what opened the programme, but then there was a performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, played by the 13 year old Hugh Bean.

Air raid sirens sent us all to the shelters, but the "All Clear" brought us back to our seats for the second half, which was a performance of Mozart's Symphony Nº 41 in C "The Jupiter"

I will never forget the first time that I heard those opening three chords, but I was reminded last night when I watched a scintillating performance by the Deutches Sinfonie Orchester under the baton of Kent Nagano.**

That symphony, the first that I ever heard was the last that Mozart wrote - only days before his death on 5th December (my birthday)

Too many coincidences to ignore, so I have to tell someone and ask "What is your first recollection of a live orchestral concert?"

HS

** On Sky Arts2 (Sorry, R3 - but why can't the BBC give us more televised concerts with subtitles and without those simpering presenters?

[kernelbogey]

HS - Good to see a post from you.

My first concert featured... you! We have corresponed here on this.

BSO, Charles Groves cond: Freischuetz Overture, Enigma Variations, Tchaikowsky 4 (and possibly another item?) at the Flamingo Ballroom, Poole, Cornwall circa 1959/60. I have the programme somewhere.

What I remember being stunned by was just the richness of the sound compared with the Third Proramme on our AM Pye Radio... and the light glinting off the cellos and basses.

So another coincidence.

Happy Birthday to Salymap

[Barbirollians]

Early 1980s RFH

RPO/Dorati

Haydn Symphony No 104
Beethoven Piano Concerto No 2 ( soloist Ilse von Alpenheim )
Beethoven : Symphony No 6

[rauschwerk]

1955 or '56 - to the RAH with my mother. I was 10 years old and far too young to appreciate the main item on the programme - Brahms's 1st piano concerto played by Claudio Arrau. In fact I went to sleep for much of it. Like you, kernelbogey, I was immediately struck by the string tone when the orchestra played the National Anthem. I had been used to AM radio and 78 rpm. The first item, I am pretty sure, was Beethoven's Coriolan overture.

Asleep or not, at the start of the next boarding school term I was inspired to compose the first movement of a piano concerto in C minor in full score - the opening cribbed from Coriolan.

[makropulos]

LPO in Reading Town Hall, about 1968
Locke: Music for His Majesty's Sackbuts and Cornets
Beethoven: Emperor Concerto (Iris Loveridge)
Brahms: Symphony No. 3
...and best of all, it was conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. I remember even now sitting in the balcony and noticing that though he had the score of Brahms 3 in front of him, it was still open at the first page at the end.

The abiding memory is the Brahms, which completely knocked me sideways.

[Roehre]

A promenade concert Summer 1972
Cannot recall the orchestra, but the conductor was the Belgian Fernand Terby, no soloist.
My very first orchestral piece heard live there was Reznicek's Donna Diana overture and also including Massenet's Scènes pittoresques. The whole of the concert did last an hour, but I cannot recall the other pieces which were performed then.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It was September or October 1960, when I was 10 years old. It was a Hallé Industrial Concert in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, with George Weldon conducting.

Tchaikovsky: March Slave
Tchaikovsky: Andante Cantabile (from String Quartet no. 1)
Tchaikovsky: Fantasy Overture, Romeo and Juliet
Tchaikovsky: Symphony no. 6

I loved the first half, but was utterly bored by the symphony. It was to be another 5 years before I appreciated it for the great work it truly is.

[Hornspieler]

Forgive me if I return brieflyto the subject of the Jupiter symphony:

George Hurst was rehearsing the Academy of the BBC, an orchestra of postgraduate students,
in the slow movement of Mozart's Jupiter symphony. At the end of one phrase, he stopped
and said to the first violins, “You're playing that phrase as if you know what's coming next.
Even Mozart didn't know what was coming next when he wrote that!”

The following day, he performed the work with the orchestra and, as the orchestra's Manager, naturally I was present at the performance.
After the concert, I went into George's room to discuss the fact that the concert had run over the allotted broadcast time.

"George," I said "You took all the repeats in the finale. Even Mozart didn't take that last repeat!"

George gave a me broad grin. "Insurance" he said. "Give them two goes at everything."

HS

[ChrisBennell]

Whit-Monday May 1956

RFH - LSO conducted by Bernard Herrman (of Film Music fame), Peter Katin piano

Handel arr Harty - Suite from Water Music
Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No 2
Aaron Copland - Suite from Red Pony
Dvorak - New World Symphony (known as no 5 in those days)

I vividly remember all those pieces which made a great impression on a 14 year old. Sat in the side seats overlooking the orchestra where we could see the conductor and soloist.
Realised much later, there were so many great names in the LSO at that time - and I still have the programme.

[gurnemanz]

It was 1968 and I was 19. It was the first time I had heard a professional string section and I'll never forget the impression made on me by the opening bars of K550. Found it on the Proms Archive a pretty eclectic show:

Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K550
Sinfonia concertante in E flat major, K 364
Concerto for Piano No. 21 in C major, K 467

Busoni
Berceuse élégiaque, K252a, Op 42
Proms premiere

Wolpe
Chamber Piece No. 1
First performance in England

Dallapiccola
Piccola musica notturna
Proms premiere

Johann II Strauss
Kaiser-Walzer, Op 437

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Colin Davis

[MrGongGong]

RLPO sometime in the 1970's

The only piece I remember them playing was the New World symphony
but I did meet my future horn teacher who played in the orchestra until fairly recently

[mangerton]

SNO cond Gibson in Ayr Town Hall c1960. I can't remember what was in the programme, but tenor Wm McAlpine (whom my father knew from schooldays) took part.

[pastoralguy]

6th June 1977.

Usher Hall, Edinburgh.

BBCSSO. Christopher Seaman. Juliana Markova. All Tchaikovsky programme. Theme and Variations from the Third Orchestral suite. First Piano concerto and the 4th Symphony.

A life changing experience!

[Richard Tarleton]

The less said about our school orchestra the better (I remember them playing the Triumphal March from Aida ) but the Bournemouth Sinfonietta visited, all I can remember is they played the Britten Simple Symphony.

My first full-sized orchestra was the BBC SO/Dorati in Maida Vale Studios, playing the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra preceded by Shostakovich Music for Strings Percussion and Celeste, in the late 60s. (I was fortunate to have an aunt who lived in London and took me to all sorts of concerts, opera, the theatre...)

I was reminded last night when I watched a scintillating performance by the Deutches Sinfonie Orchester under the baton of Kent Nagano.**

HS

** On Sky Arts2 (Sorry, R3 - but why can't the BBC give us more televised concerts with subtitles and without those simpering presenters?

I saw that, HS, and yes, hear hear.

[Tony Halstead]

RLPO sometime in the 1970's

The only piece I remember them playing was the New World symphony
but I did meet my future horn teacher who played in the orchestra until fairly recently

I'm rather amazed, Mr GG, as I thought you were a clarinettist ( and of course a composer).

As a student I used to go and play 'extra' or 'deputy' horn witb the RLPO and one of my first 'pro gigs' involved 'bumping up' their then Principal horn player, Mike Ogonovsky.
Was he by any chance your teacher?