Any autograph-hunting stories, views or regrets?

[Beef Oven!]

Prompted by the Bernard Haitink mention on the Proms thread, I rue the fact that I don't have his autograph, despite having had many opportunities, especially when he was less frail.

Never given much thought to collecting autographs. I think I regret this.

I've met a quite few musicians before and after concerts, but only have a few autographs.

I got Elliott Carter's in 2004/5. He was about 147 at the time and quite frail. I felt guilty because I was about the 15th person to ask and I could see he was struggling, but he refused no-one. He seemed like a truly lovely person. Eventually one of his friends politely requested that he be relieved of this task.

Wish I'd got Boulez's and PMD's - I've had many opportunities with these two down the years.

[pastoralguy]

A friend of mine's father has a miniature score autographed by Sibelius. Very envious!

[Bryn]

Prompted by the Bernard Haitink mention on the Proms thread, I rue the fact that I don't have his autograph, despite having had many opportunities, especially when he was less frail.

Never given much thought to collecting autographs. I think I regret this.

I've met a quite few musicians before and after concerts, but only have a few autographs.

I got Elliott Carter's in 2004/5. He was about 147 at the time and quite frail. I felt guilty because I was about the 15th person to ask and I could see he was struggling, but he refused no-one. He seemed like a truly lovely person. Eventually one of his friends politely requested that he be relieved of this task.

Wish I'd got Boulez's and PMD's - I've had many opportunities with these two down the years.

I was never that bothered about autographs either, but back in the green room following a Boulez concert at the RFH many decades ago, seeing others proffering programmes for such, I did get him to sign my copy of the score of Le Marteau sans maître which I just happened to have with me*. Then, in 1982 I got Cage to sign a number of items, including my battered copies of Silence and A Year from Monday.

* Ironically it was on this occasion that I enquired of PB why he started a rallentando in The Rite of Spring a bar or so early, and got the Ghost Busters response, "it's a technical matter". Clearly he knew better than Stravinsky how to compose the work.

[Pulcinella]

Not really a hunter, but I have two I treasure:
Rita Hunter, on the CfP Götterdämmerung highlights LP (as mentioned elsewhere, she was the soloist in a performance in Liverpool of Beethoven's Choral on the day that that LP was released);
Michael Tippet, in the scores of The Vision of St Augustine and the Double string concerto (felt a bit bad about that, as I had taken both scores with me to the concert he conducted, and asked the guy behind me in the queue if he would mind getting one signed for me; Tippett was a bit surprised to see the Vision score, but I told him that it had come 'free' with the RCA LP recording; those were the days!). Also Tippett's on the vocal score of The Mask of Time, signed and dated on the day of the Proms performance, arranged by Schott (can't remember now if as a promotion or because I was bold enough to ask!).

And one now lost, sadly.
The great Ida Haendel gave a recital where I was a graduate student. I was a member of the committee that arranged the concerts, and must have gone to the concert venue beforehand to check up on arrangements, etc. Surprisingly, she requested a music stand, and equally surprisingly there was not one to hand. So it was a mercy dash home to collect my partner's rather flimsy one, and after the concert she signed the cardboard box it lived in. I ended up turning the pages for her accompanist too! The box got lost in one of far too many house moves.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Leonard Bernstein, RAH, VPO, 1971. a group of us clamoured for his autograph after the concert. He was very amenable, and chatted to us for a brief time, but explained that he has accepted an invitation from "your prime minister" (Edward Heath). No luck there.

William Walton, 1972(?), Philharmonic Hall Liverpool, following a staggering performance of Belshazzar's Feast, conducted by the composer. He was tired, and was escorted out, and he trod heavily on my toe. My enduring memory was the stench of tobacco. No luck again, but how many people can claim to have been trodden on by a great composer.

Anthony Payne, following the premiere of Elgar/Payne 3. This time the autographing season was pre-arranged, with a long queue. Both he and Andrew Davis signed my programme, CD and score. SUCCESS!

[richardfinegold]

I have never understood the fascination with autographs, even when I was a child. My mother was employed by a Charity that would be frequented by Detroit's professional athletes. She described waiting an hour in intense heat to obtain one of their signatures for me when I was about 13 years old and I remember telling her that she needn't have bothered.
When Barenboim was the Music Director here I was invited to a breakfast with a few other patrons (we all posted on an early internet message board that the CEO of the CSO participated in.) I was the only Physician in the small group and when DB discovered this he asked to speak privately to me. It turned out that he had a cold and after about 5 minutes of answering every conceivable question about the intricacies of post nasal drip, he suddenly thanked me effusively and grabbed my dirty, stained napkin and scrawled his autograph on it and then bolted out the door. He wrote so fast that he shredded the napkin

[gradus]

When in Bayreuth in 1978 I happened to walk through the garden of Wahnfried one evening- there were no gates and no one else was around - and caught sight of Winifred Wagner in the house sitting at a desk. She was of course excluded from the festival and reviled because of her friendship with Hitler but I regret that I didn't knock and at least speak to her and, yes, I would have asked for her autograph.
In the eighties when Victoria de los Angeles was nearing the end of her career she gave a recital in the Ipswich Corn Exchange (probably because she was nearing the end of her career). Afterwards we went to the stage door but found her and her husband along with Geoffrey Parsons in their car about to be whisked away. Graciously she wound down the window and signed our programme but not before my friend George, a keen accompanist said 'very nice dear' and proceeded to talk across her to Mr Parsons enquiring where he had found the music for one of the songs. Touchingly but not altogether surprisingly, her husband had been sitting near us in the hall with a small cassette recorder, something those of us with partners who sing would have been well used to in those days, no doubt phones are used now.
A few years ago I couldn't resist buying at auction a small postcard from Elgar addressed to Jaeger confirming that EE had returned some woodwind parts for Enigma in the same post. I have no idea why I treasure such an insignificant item but I suppose it is the combination of the people and the work.

[Jonathan]

More than 10 years ago, I was staying with a friend who had a house guest who turned out to be Marc-Andre Hamelin. I spent several hours talking to him about all sorts of things but mostly science fiction! I didn't get his autograph at the time but later he sent a copy of his DVD "It's all about the music" with an message to me written on the front. I've also met several other concert pianists but never asked any of them for their autographs.

[Nick Armstrong]

Prompted by the Bernard Haitink mention on the Proms thread, I rue the fact that I don't have his autograph, despite having had many opportunities, especially when he was less frail.

Never given much thought to collecting autographs. I think I regret this.

Wish I'd got Boulez's and PMD's - I've had many opportunities with these two down the years.

Went through a big autograph phase. Got Haitink and Boulez, among quite a few others. Having PB's provided a laugh when getting one of my Lenny autographs - he was signing a page next to the tiny precise Boulez signature, which he looked at with a jovial snarl saying "What's that guy doing here? I got nothin' to do with THAT guy!" and Lenny's signature (in red felt tip) is scrawled from one side of the page to the other...

Other memorable ones: Abbado, when we were both waiting for our taxi / limo respectively, and were able to talk about Schubert & Mahler symphony completions, and Tennstedt in the RFH artists lift - the utterly exhausted look, sweat-drenched clothes and stench of schnapps and cigarettes...

I think that's the value of autograph hunting, as well as the tangible record - the ancillary glimpses of the individuals 'off the podium'.

Encounters with Duruflé and Messiaen unforgettable for that reason, too.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Friend of mine relates how during his lunch break he realised he and Birgit Nilsson were walking in opposite directions along Floral Street. His request for an autograph resulted in a search for a pen, but neither had one. "Ah well, next time....." she said.

[Lat-Literal]

Once knew a fair amount about graphology as I had a book on it. Mostly bogus, I ultimately concluded, but some things are true. Signatures can be very different from people's general writing and it is often possible to spot musical symbols in those of musical people. This non-musical signature caught my eye as recently as the end of last week. It's reasonably artistic:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Roger_Federer_Signature_2013.svg

Rather than repeating my main autograph story I could mention my autograph book from 1974. Some celebs but mainly all of the people I was with at junior school on our final day. As far as elaborations are concerned, there are some oddities there. From one girl of some intelligence - "Keep it simple, keep it clean, you've got a figure like a Heinz baked bean". It was hardly relevant - and there are a few other bits and pieces equally odd. I can only assume that something similar had been written to her at one time and was recalled in the moment.

(Celebs off the top of my head - Dana, Hollins, Bremner, a lot of boxers from various eras who were at the Manor Place Baths, Walworth, New Seekers who were at the local Air Show)

[Beef Oven!]

Went through a big autograph phase. Got Haitink and Boulez, among quite a few others. Having PB's provided a laugh when getting one of my Lenny autographs - he was signing a page next to the tiny precise Boulez signature, which he looked at with a jovial snarl saying "What's that guy doing here? I got nothin' to do with THAT guy!" and Lenny's signature (in red felt tip) is scrawled from one side of the page to the other...

Other memorable ones: Abbado, when we were both waiting for our taxi / limo respectively, and were able to talk about Schubert & Mahler symphony completions, and Tennstedt in the RFH artists lift - the utterly exhausted look, sweat-drenched clothes and stench of schnapps and cigarettes...

I think that's the value of autograph hunting, as well as the tangible record - the ancillary glimpses of the individuals 'off the podium'.

Encounters with Duruflé and Messiaen unforgettable for that reason, too.

Love the Lenny/Boulez anecdote

And the typically humble Abbado getting a taxi.

[Nick Armstrong]

And the typically humble Abbado getting a taxi.

[pastoralguy]

I think Caliban is correct when he writes '...that's the value... the ancillary glimpses of the individuals 'off the podium'.

I thought it was very uncool to ask for autographs as a youngster but I've dropped that as I've got older. I do have a precious autograph from Igor Oistrakh on an SNO programme from 20th November 1981 after he played the Tchaikovsky with Gibson conducting.

I did get Ida Haendel's autograph on a rare copy of her autobiography when she gave a talk about her life in an interview with Steven Isserlis at the Wigmore Hall. Also, Victoria Mullova autographed a few CDs for me when she played the Brahms concerto with the OAE at the Alice Tully Hall in New York. Mrs. PG knows Chi-Chi Nwanoku quite well so she got us into the rehearsal in the afternoon. Ms. Mullova was gracious enough to let me see her Stradivarius close up!

The Edinburgh Festival is a great place to get autographs since our local independent music cd shop often organised 'meet and greets'. Alas, they closed earlier this year when the proprietor retired.

Perhaps my favourite was getting Cecilia Bartoli's autograph after a concert in Glasgow. I'd been unaware that she was singing since this was pre Internet days so I went very much at the last minute. I bought a cd in Glasgow and was delighted to be told she was doing a signing. I remember queuing and she gave me a big smile before looking at me with those huge brown eyes and said 'Thank you for coming tonight!' I floated back to Queen Street Station where I used the loo and it was only when I looked in the mirror I realised I must have brushed my hand against something dirty before I rubbed my hand across my forehead since I had a huge greasy black oil mark!

I managed to get Simon Rattle's autograph at last years EIF since Lady Rattle was doing a recital and I'd reckoned he would be there. We managed a bit of a chat about his Sibelius cycle with Die Berliner Philharmoniker and he told me the whole project had been a real struggle!

I always used to hope a little of these people's talent would rub of on me but, alas, it doesn't work that way! I think that we classical lovers are very lucky in having such comparatively easy access to our heroes. Imagine trying to meet the Stones or David Bowie or Aretha Franklin or Madonna!

Happy days.

[Stanfordian]

I have undertaken around 22 interviews ranging from Riccardo Chailly to Brigitte Fassbaender to Anne-Sophie Mutter. The first half or so I didn't ask for autographs but in recent years I have been requesting them to sign their CD booklets etc.