Your Most Unforgettable Concert

[Petrushka]

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.

I'm torn between two: Bruckner 8 with Karajan and the BPO on June 19 1979 and Mahler 8 with Tennstedt and the LPO on January 27 1991.

In the end it has to be:

Bruckner: Symphony No 8
Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan

Royal Festival Hall, London, June 19 1979.

[pastoralguy]

Now that is a big question, Sir!

How about a very young Nigel Kennedy playing the Tchaikovsky concerto in the Kelvin Halls in Glasgow circa June 1980 with the SNO under Christopher Seaman? The only time I've ever seen a soloist get a standing ovation AFTER THE FIRST MOVEMENT!!!

Wonder what happened to that wonderful musician...

[Petrushka]

Now that is a big question, Sir!

It is, but I'm sure one such concert that fulfils the criteria will leap into people's minds straightaway. That's the one I'd like to know about.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The shortlist would include:
- my first ever orchestral concert: all Tchaikovsky evening
- Pappano's Proms Die Walkure
- VPO/Bernstein RAH 1971
- Elgar's Apostles, Halle/Elder
- Strauss Alpine Symphony Halle & BBC PO/Mena 2014

You can't have one that's more unforgettable; if it's unforgettable, it's unforgettable. So I'll just choose the best of them:

Elgar's Apostles, Halle/Elder

[Bryn]

Not easy at all. However, after thinking back to quite a variety, I think the first all-night Prom organised and led by Ustad Vilayat Khan in 1981 best fits the bill.

[johnb]

Difficult question to answer but there are three or four that qualify:

- Mahler 2 - Barbirolli/Halle at the Free Trade Hall circa 1963
- Messiaen Turangalila - Rattle/CBSO performed in Wells Cathedral as part of the 1986 Bath Festival. Wells Cathedral, though very beautiful, seems an odd venue - but somehow the venue and the music complemented each other, gloriously. Oliver Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod were present in the audience and Messiaen walked up the centre aisle during the applause.
- Shostakovich 4 - Gergiev/Kirov Orch, 2002 Proms
- Messiaen Vingt Regards - Osborne, Cheltenham, some years ago

Forced to pick one it would have to be the Barbirolli Mahler 2. I was around 17 and I found the performance completely over powering. Unforgettable.

[Dave2002]

Difficult question to answer but there are three or four that qualify:

- Mahler 2 - Barbirolli/Halle at the Free Trade Hall circa 1963
- Messiaen Turangalila - Rattle/CBSO performed in Wells Cathedral as part of the 1986 Bath Festival. Wells Cathedral, though very beautiful, seems an odd venue - but somehow the venue and the music complemented each other, gloriously. Oliver Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod were present in the audience and Messiaen walked up the centre aisle during the applause.
- Shostakovich 4 - Gergiev/Kirov Orch, 2002 Proms
- Messiaen Vingt Regards - Osborne, Cheltenham, some years ago

Forced to pick one it would have to be the Barbirolli Mahler 2. I was around 17 and I found the performance completely over powering. Unforgettable.

I shall steal your Gergiev Shostakovich 4, and add in Eugen Jochum, Brahms 1, think LPO at the RFH around the early - mid 1970s. Another was Mackerras in Stravinsky Petrushka at the Proms - also around the early - mid 1970s. I very much enjoyed Previn's Turangalila at the Proms. A much earlier one was John Pritchard conduncting the RLPO in the Philharmonic Hall in Ravel's Daphne and Chloe - absolutely brilliant. Jochum and Pritchard are the ones which really stand out - unless you want to include opera too.

[subcontrabass]

Mahler 8 - first performance at a prom. Charles Groves conducting. 24th August 1964. Post A level treat to myself.

[Serial_Apologist]

Two come immediately to mind, from the 1960s:

Hearing (and seeing!) Gunther Schuller conduct Ives 4 at the Proms
and
Boulez conducting Le Sacre at the RFH.

All those Boulez Proms were unforgettable, introducing YT to many of the early modernist classics. And I knew of a great little mews pub just around the back for interval refreshments, when the AH bar was, as always, overcrowded, living as I then was in a bedsit in nearby Elvaston Place.

[teamsaint]

two that changed some ways in which I think about music and performance :

Kraftwerk. Bristol Locarno. 1980. I think.

Isabelle Faust with the OAE at Basingstoke about 18 months ago.


Perhaps the most unforgettable atmosphere at any concert was for U2 at the Lyceum , Feb 1st 1981

Deacon Blue, Beefy ?! Blimey. I must have missed something.

[Beef Oven!]

Led Zeppelin - 1975 Earls Court.

Dr Feelgood - 1975 Hammersmith Odeon.

Stranglers - 1976 Woodford Girls School.

Deacon Blue - Rainbow Theatre Islington 1990.

Prefab Sprout - Hammersmith Odeon 1990.

Bruckner 9, Schubert 8 - Gunter Wand RFH 1991

Laibach - Electric Ballroom Camden Town London April 2015

(a very summarised list)

I wish I'd seen:

Cream (too young)

Herbert von Karajan (wasn't sufficiently into classical gigs)

[Dave2002]

OK Beefy

I'm adding in some more:

Duke Ellington and his band - several times. Brilliant. Cootie Williams - superb, and Ray Nance pretty good too.

Stomu Yamashta - Roundhouse ? 1970s

Oscar Peterson in Boulogne circa the late 1970s.

Peter Donohoe piano recital - Prokofiev 6th Sonata, Amersham Concert Club

John Harle recital, Amersham Concert Club

Alexei Grynyuk recital, including Mussorgsky Pictures - 2014, Claygate. Fantastic pianist!

[Dave2002]

Mahler 8 - first performance at a prom. Charles Groves conducting. 24th August 1964. Post A level treat to myself.

I wondered about Groves and Mahler 8 for my own list - I heard (??) it in Liverpool Cathedral. Like some other performances of Mahler 8 in cathedrals the orchestra and the choir were miles away, and occasionally sounded as if they were - otherwise they were nearly inaudible, though the organ was very loud. I think he was the first British conductor to drag that work back into the repertoire in this country.

[Beef Oven!]

OK Beefy

I'm adding in some more:

Duke Ellington and his band - several times. Brilliant. Cootie Williams - superb, and Ray Nance pretty good too.

Stomu Yamashta - Roundhouse ? 1970s

Oscar Peterson in Boulogne circa the late 1970s.

Peter Donohoe piano recital - Prokofiev 6th Sonata, Amersham Concert Club

John Harle recital, Amersham Concert Club

Alexei Grynyuk recital, including Mussorgsky Pictures - 2014, Claygate. Fantastic pianist!

I was at a Stomu Yamashta gig in the 70s - London. Cannot remember the venue for the life of me. We might've been standing next to each other.!

[Dave2002]

I was at a Stomu Yamashta gig in the 70s - London. Cannot remember the venue for the life of me. We might've been standing next to each other.!

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.