Your Most Unforgettable Concert

[Beef Oven!]

If it was the same one it would have been in the Roundhouse - probably around 1971-2. Several of my mates drove down, and we had seats. Maybe you had to stand in other venues.

No, it was mid 70s, not early 70s.

[Beef Oven!]

I WISH I HAD SEEN CREAM!

Born too late.

[EdgeleyRob]

Britten

Death in Venice (concert performance).

BBCPO,Tortellier,Anthony Rolfe Johnson.

Bridgewater Hall 7/5/99.

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Alfred Brendel recital.

Haydn,Mozart and a heavenly Schubert D894.

Bridgewater Hall 2007.

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Black Sabbath.

Free Trade Hall,early 70s.

[richardfinegold]

I vividly remember a Concert sitting on the lawn of the Detroit SO summer home. All Mozart, one of the String Divertimentos (K.136?), PC #21, and the Jupiter Symphony. I also remember it because of my date, a girl that I had only met a few days before who was a knockout and allowed me to get quite frisky with her under the blanket. I've always associated the climax of the last movement of the Jupiter Symphony with...well, nevermind.

[Barbirollians]

CBSO/Rattle - City Hall Sheffield 1986/7

Schoenberg Five Orchestral Pieces
Beethoven Piano Concerto No 4 ( Christian Blackshaw)
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

No performance of the latter I have ever heard has come close to this

Otherwise Argerich playing the Beethoven 1 at the Manchester Piano Festival with the Manchester Camerata in 2013 was extraordinarily special too .

[Beef Oven!]

Britten

Death in Venice (concert performance).

BBCPO,Tortellier,Anthony Rolfe Johnson.

Bridgewater Hall 7/5/99.

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Alfred Brendel recital.

Haydn,Mozart and a heavenly Schubert D894.

Bridgewater Hall 2007.

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Black Sabbath.

Free Trade Hall,early 70s.

Black Sabbath, me too several times

Haven't you seen 'Yes'?

[Nick Armstrong]

Mahler 8 with Tennstedt and the LPO on January 27 1991.

For me it's a tie between that one and

Verklârte Nacht/Brahms 1
Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan

RFH, October 1988

and

Mozart Clarinet Concerto/Mahler 5
Wiener Philharmonkier
Leonard Bernstein

RAH, Thursday 10 Sep 1987 (Looking that up, I just found that Lenny only appeared in 2 Proms!)

With Petrushka pressing his Walther PPK into my forehead, I'll choose Lenny!

[EdgeleyRob]

Black Sabbath, me too several times

Haven't you seen 'Yes'?

Only once Beefy.

Tales From Topographic Oceans Tour (1974),Sheffield City Hall.

[Beef Oven!]

Only once Beefy.

Tales From Topographic Oceans Tour (1974),Sheffield City Hall.

[DublinJimbo]

This is an easy one for me.

It was January 1976, during the Dublin Festival of 20th Century Music. Messiaen was the featured composer that year, and he was present at a performance of his Turangalîla Symphony. The Loriod sisters were the soloists, and Albert Rosen conducted what was then the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra (now the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland). This was before the city had a proper concert hall, and the performance took place in the Francis Xavier Hall, which was packed, with people standing ten deep at the back and along each side. I was among those at the back who stood totally transfixed for the duration of the massive work.

I'd got to know the symphony through Seiji Ozawa's recording, and never thought that I would hear a live performance. To experience it in the presence of the composer was quite extraordinary. The end of the symphony was greeted with stunned silence, and then the audience broke into a clamour of cheering, clapping, and foot-stamping. Shouts of "Messiaen, Messiaen, Messiaen" were matched with similar cheers for "Albert, Albert, Albert" (Albert Rosen was one of the most popular conductors of the orchestra, and a great favourite). Messiaen stood, bowed to acknowledge the applause and then walked up to the platform to take Albert Rosen's hand and to gesture to the orchestra to rise yet again. The ovation went on and on, I could barely speak afterwards, I rushed home, went straight up to my bedroom and lay in the dark for half an hour, pinching myself to make sure that I had actually been at this extraordinary event.

I've been to many orchestral performances since then, all over Europe, and have heard great orchestras and conductors, but that night in Dublin remains my greatest ever, and still unmatched, musical memory.

[Hornspieler]

Following on from HS's First Orchestral Concert thread I thought I'd ask a next to impossible question:

What was the single most unforgettable concert you've ever attended. Like many, I've been to a fair number that would qualify but what I'm looking for is something extra special, a life-changing event. one that will give you goosebumps just recollecting the memory for the rest of your days.

Thanks for that continuation of what I shall call "The Salymap Listings"

Absolutely no doubt in my mind:

.
The great Bruno Walter conducting the BBCSO at the RFH With Fischer Deiskau singing Mahler's Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen and then Mahler's 1st symphony.


Wonderful oboe playing in the symphony by the late Janet Craxton and that great double bass "Frere Jaques" solo played by Stuart Knussen.


.. and I was playing 7th horn (a brute of a part embracing the entire compass of the instrument) in the symphony.

It doesn't get any better than that.

Were any message boarders there - or heard the broadcast?

Keep those memories coming.

HS

[Mary Chambers]

Easy. War Requiem, 1966, with Pears, Hemsley (sp?), Heather Harper, conducted by Charles Groves, Britten in the audience. Liverpool Phil again.

There was also a very memorable Mahler 2, but since I can't remember any of the details it doesn't belong here.

[Conchis]

Pitsburgh PO/ Janssons - Symphonie Fantastique, Proms, 1999

Same forces - Ein Heldenleben - same venue and timeframe.

Elektra, with Christine Goerke - BBCSO/Bychov, Proms, 2014

James Taylor, Manchester Apollo, spring 1986: I'm not that big a fan but the man's laid-back charisma and innate musicality just bowled me over.

[P. G. Tipps]

A huge surprise I know, but the one concert that sticks out for me was the stunning BBCSO/Wand Proms Bruckner 8 performance in 1985. Power, Grandeur, Majesty, Wonder, Humility all rolled into one indescribable outpouring of emotion, it seemed.

I remember remaining seated at the end when the long and thunderous applause had finally died down and the clearly-thrilled, chattering audience started to disperse. I could hardly believe that the 85-minute account was over, it actually seemed to go quicker than many a work a quarter of its length, and I just yearned for a repeat of the whole magical experience.

The other thing I remember about this concert was that Wand was led to the podium arm-in-arm with a very attractive young lady, much to the audible sniggering and giggling of some onlookers. As conductors go, he wasn't that old (about 73 at the time) though he did appear to walk with a bit of a limp.

A very hard taskmaster apparently who sometimes demanded up to eight rehearsals before a concert (allegedly). His strict approach certainly worked like a dream that evening.

[Conchis]

A huge surprise I know, but the one concert that sticks out for me was the stunning BBCSO/Wand Proms Bruckner 8 performance in 1985. Power, Grandeur, Majesty, Wonder, Humility all rolled into one indescribable outpouring of emotion, it seemed.

I remember remaining seated at the end when the long and thunderous applause had finally died down and the clearly-thrilled, chattering audience started to disperse. I could hardly believe that the 85-minute account was over, it actually seemed to go quicker than many a work a quarter of its length, and I just yearned for a repeat of the whole magical experience.

The other thing I remember about this concert was that Wand was led to the podium arm-in-arm with a very attractive young lady, much to the audible sniggering and giggling of some onlookers. As conductors go, he wasn't that old (about 73 at the time) though he did appear to walk with a bit of a limp.

A very hard taskmaster apparently who sometimes demanded up to eight rehearsals before a concert (allegedly). His strict approach certainly worked like a dream that evening.

I was at his last Prom in 2001, as was Beef Oven.

By that point, he was seated to conduct, a la Klemperer. Some German prommers nearby me seemed to think his reading of the Schubert was so perfunctory as to be insulting. But he 'turned it on' for the Bruckner 9 - possibly the ideal piece for a conductor near death to tackle.

Of course, about six months later he DID die. This may have even been his last ever concert.