Your Most Unforgettable Concert

[Ferretfancy]

Idomeneo at Blythburgh Church, three days after the Snape Maltings burned down, although I must admit that it was the extraordinary circumstance that stays in my mind.

Perhaps it's not possible to remember the most memorable performance after so many years, but it might be Pierre Monteux conducting Daphnis et Chloe with the LSO in 1961. Extraordinary magic from this wonderful conductor.

[mangerton]

Probably the most unforgettable concert in which I took part (is that allowed?) was this. The Usher Hall was full to capacity, and the Schoenberg was given an encore. Recorded and televised on BBC at 8.00 pm on Saturday 9-10-1976. Thanks to the Radio Times genome project for the full details:

Robin Ray introduces a concert from this year's Edinburgh International Festival featuring one of the world's greatest symphony orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic conductor Claudio Abbado
The programme consists of two short 20th-century works followed by Brahms's massive first piano concerto in which the soloist is one of the most distinguished and celebrated of today's younger generation of pianists - MAURIZIO POLLINI
Webern Passacaglia , Op 1
Schoenberg A survivor from Warsaw, Op 46
Narrator GUNTHER REICH
CAPPELLA SINGERS
Brahms Piano Concerto No 1, in D minor
Soloist Maurizio Pollini
Lighting JOHN MCCAW. Sound IAN DUNN Producer JAMES HUNTER. BBC Scotland

[MrGongGong]

I'm hopeless at remembering dates
but a few of mine are

Stockhausen: Stimmung sometime in the 1970's in Liverpool Cathedral
Cage/Cunningham: also in the 1970's at the Everyman in Liverpool
Alvin Lucier: Bird and Person Dyning @ Wiltons music Hall
La Monte Young @ the Barbican
Ryoji Ikeda @ the Barbican
Yoshikazu Iwamoto: solo shakuhachi concert @ Dartington 1982
Gergiev doing The Rite of Spring with the Kirov at the RFH (about 10 years ago?)
Merzbow @ Trafo (Budapest) 2012
The Philharmonia playing Atmospheres with Salonen @ Palais de Beux Arts in Brussels

[Richard Tarleton]

All in their different ways - impossible to single out just one:

My first Julian Bream recital - Oxford Town Hall, 13 November 1966. A formative experience.

First performance of Britten's 3rd String Quartet by the Amadeus, Snape Maltings, 19 December 1976, 2 weeks after the composer's death. A charged occasion.

A recital by Joaquín Achúcarro in the cloisters of the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial near Madrid, at the end of a week of summer schools (on all sorts of subjects, I'd represented my employers at a seminar on nature conservation), 6 September 2001....he played Bach/Busoni, Beethoven Op 109, Debussy, Granados, Albeniz....just perfect.

Bob Dylan at Slane Castle, near Drogheda, July 1984. Warm-up act: Santana. Surprise guest: Van Morrison, duetting with Bob. Words fail.

[MrGongGong]

My first Julian Bream recital - Oxford Town Hall, 13 November 1966. A formative experience.

I was going to have a recital he did at the Philharmonic Hall in the 1970's, utterly wonderful BUT terrifying from an audience perspective as it seemed so fragile and far too big a venue for the music not to be distracted by audience noise.

[Dermot]

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.

This was also the most memorable concert I have attended. I had heard a broadcast performance of the Turangalila symphony on Radio 3 some time previously and was greatly impressed. So the opportunity of hearing a live performance, especially in the presence of the composer, was not to be missed. I cannot remember where I obtained my ticket, or if the seats were reserved or allocated on a first come basis. However, unlike DublinJimbo, I got a seat and did not have to stand. I have an impression that the concert took place on a Saturday evening.

The effect of the performance was overwhelming and lives with me to this day. I recognised that I was, for what would probably be the only time in my life, in the presence of genius. My lasting visual impression is of Messiaen standing on the platform and acknowledging the applause of the audience, with his hands clasped together above his head like a prizefighter of old who has just knocked out his opponent.

[pastoralguy]

I wish I could remember the exact date (I do have the programme and a mini-disc of the BBC broadcast but I'm not exactly sure where they are) but one of my most memorable concerts was Staruss's 'Ein Heldenleben' given by the RSNO under Deneuve in Edinburgh (Usher Hall) and Glasgow (Royal Concert Hall).

What, for me, was so special was that it was the last appearance of the orchestra's long time leader, Edwin Paling. He was a super player with a lovely sound and who wasn't afraid to indulge in some portamento on occasion. I met him just before the Edinburgh concert and he signed a photo which has hung over my Hi-Fi for years now.

There were some wet eyes on both evenings in the audience and orchestra.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I wish I could remember the exact date (I do have the programme and a mini-disc of the BBC broadcast but I'm not exactly sure where they are) but one of my most memorable concerts was Staruss's 'Ein Heldenleben' given by gone RSNO under Deneuve in Edinburgh (Usher Hall) and Glasgow (Royal Concert Hall).

What, for me, was so special was that it was the last appearance of the orchestra's long time leader, Edwin Paling. He was a super player with a lovely sound and who wasn't afraid to indulge in some portamento on occasion. I met him just before the Edinburgh concert and he signed a photo which has hung over my Hi-Fi for years now.

There were some wet eyes on both evenings in both the audience and orchestra.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/quiet-man-bows-out-and-bares-his-soul-1.839839

[Dave2002]

Perhaps it's not possible to remember the most memorable performance after so many years, but it might be Pierre Monteux conducting Daphnis et Chloe with the LSO in 1961. Extraordinary magic from this wonderful conductor.

You're jogging my memory now. I can't really remember what the concert was, but Monteux did conduct the RLPO once - I think in the 1960s. What sticks in my mind is that as he entered the whole orchestra stood up. Being relatively young at the time, I thought this was fairly normal, but it was pointed out to me that it wasn't, and that the orchestra were paying their respects.

[Ferretfancy]

You're jogging my memory now. I can't really remember what the concert was, but Monteux did conduct the RLPO once - I think in the 1960s. What sticks in my mind is that as he entered the whole orchestra stood up. Being relatively young at the time, I thought this was fairly normal, but it was pointed out to me that it wasn't, and that the orchestra were paying their respects.

It would have been the early sixties Dave, as Monteux died on July 1st 1964, having recently signed a 25 year contract as chief conductor of the LSO. He was 89 when he died.

[decantor]

The OP demands goosebumps. Two occasions stand out – both chamber-sized, which I’ve always found more affecting.

1. Winter 1976 at The Maltings. The Amadeus played Britten’s 3rd String Quartet. We began with a minute’s silence, as the composer had died a week or two earlier.......... and then he spoke to us eloquently from beyond the grave.

2. Lent 2007 in Tewkesbury Abbey. The Schola Cantorum choir under Ben Nicholas, with an unknown cellist and a student pianist, gave us a mix of Weelkes anthems, a movement from Messiaen’s ‘End of Time’, and Tavener’s ‘Svyati’. The choir sang from various parts of the abbey. The audience numbered barely fifty, maybe only thirty: each listener could respond from their own space. The abbey was cold, but nobody noticed the chill.

[Dave2002]

It would have been the early sixties Dave, as Monteux died on July 1st 1964, having recently signed a 25 year contract as chief conductor of the LSO. He was 89 when he died.

I do remember he was over 80, though it now seems he must have been around 85 or more. Perhaps there's an archive for the RLPO which will have the details, though I'm unaware of one.

[Richard Tarleton]

The OP demands goosebumps. Two occasions stand out – both chamber-sized, which I’ve always found more affecting.

1. Winter 1976 at The Maltings. The Amadeus played Britten’s 3rd String Quartet. We began with a minute’s silence, as the composer had died a week or two earlier.......... and then he spoke to us eloquently from beyond the grave.

decantor, see here, #34. I thought there was a chance someone else was there....

[Steerpike]

"decantor, see here, #34. I thought there was a chance someone else was there.... "

Me too! That makes 3. Any advance on 3?

[Petrushka]

Some fantastic memories here and interesting to see how many of the concerts at which I was also present. The 1985 Bruckner 8 and the 2001 Bruckner 9 with Wand are two of them.

Another concert that qualifies for me:

July 29 1982, Royal Albert Hall, London.

Debussy: Jeux
Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder (Linda Esther Gray, soprano)
Elgar: Symphony No 1

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Bernard Haitink

All the elements of a great concert came together here, a truly unforgettable (and very hot) evening that easily passes the goosebumps test!