[mahlernerd]

Please include the performer(s)/group(s) names, the pieces on the program, and why you picked this particular concert. For me it is the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's performance of Carmina Burana, absolutely marvelous. I am hoping and praying to God that I can attend the Berliner Philharmoniker's possible tour this November, where they are performing Charles Ives' Central Park in the Dark, Andrew Norman's Unstuck, and Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel and Ein Heldenleben. I chose the DSO concert because I remember being blown away by the size and power of the orchestra and choir performing, such a magical experience.

 

[Ulfilas]

https://www.medici.tv/en/concerts/k...treal-symphony-orchestra-jean-yves-thibaudet/

This concert.

Otherwise, here in New Zealand, Simone Young conducting Bruckner's 5th and 8th with the NZSO.

 

[Manxfeeder]

I've never been to a classical concert that I've been blown away by, and I feel bad about that. I guess I just don't know how to pick them. I've stopped attending them, which is a shame, I guess.

Jazz and R&B/soul concerts, though, there's another story.

So far the "best" concert I've been to was Joshua Bell and the Academy playing two Mozart concerti. The ensemble playing was incredibly tight and balanced. Of course, it was a little distracting to have two young co-eds behind me who were there to swoon over Mr. Bell, but I guess that's part of the live experience. Anyway, I had to leave at intermission because I had to get up early, so I know the young ladies appreciated the clearer view.

 

[Becca]

Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic doing the Mahler 2nd a very long time ago ... That one just convinced me, if I didn't already need convincing, to avoid Zubin Mehta concerts in the future Fortunately he left L.A. not long after and we got Carlo Maria Giulini instead.

 

[Becca]

On a more serious note, I can't say that any have 'blown me away' although there have been many memorable ones over the decades. Interestingly many of them were also Mahler concerts, including Barbirolli/9th, Abbado/3rd and Solti/5th. Others of note have been with Giulini, Rattle (when much younger) and Colin Davis.

 

[Kjetil Heggelund]

That's a seldom scene for me. In February a saw Mahler's 9th with the Oslo Phil./Vasily Petrenko and I and man in seat beside me were the first to stand up. I always love to see a big orchestra concert! I remember seeing SF Symphony playing Peter Maxwell Davies in mid 90's, which made him my favorite contemporary composer, but which piece was that? Since I'm a guitar guy, I love a concert I saw with Pepe Romero playing the Aranjuez and a really cool concerto by Lorenzo Palomo. Oh! And Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud playing Carl Nielsen concerto was really something.

 

[MrMeatScience]

I saw Michael Tilson Thomas in Mahler 9 when he was guest conducting here a year or so ago, that was definitely high up the list. I mostly go to operas -- I was at Placido Domingo's 4000th performance, which was in Simon Boccanegra, shortly before his fall from grace. That's definitely one of the better performances I've been to. I can't believe he's physically capable of doing what he does at his age.

 

[Becca]

Now if we add operas into the mix then there are a few...
Verdi - Falstaff - LAPO & Carlo Maria Giulini with Renato Bruson
Strauss - Salome - Royal Opera & Christoph von Dohnanyi with Maria Ewing
Britten - Peter Grimes - Royal Opera & Colin Davis with Jon Vickers (on tour in LA)
and even a complete Ring Cycle in Seattle. I don't remember the conductor (!) but it featured Alberto Remedios and Rita Hunter

 

[Knorf]

Too many to name, and some would be people or ensembles no one here knows. But here are a few:

Schönberg: Variations, Op. 31, Bruckner: Symphony No. 5. Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly. Do I need to explain why this was awesome? I was visiting Amsterdam, the performances were extraordinary... And I went to the concert with a woman I was in love with.

Stockhausen: Mixtur. Ensemble Modern, Peter Eötvös. It was in Darmstadt, oh and Stockhausen himself was there, running the electronics. Again, an extraordinary performance of extraordinary repertoire.

Ligeti: Piano Concerto. Florent Boffard, soloist; Ensemble InterContemporain, David Robertson. Again a superb performance of an incredible piece. Also on the program were pieces by Iannis Xenakis and Joël-François Durand, and Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat, which was just ok. I think they didn't rehearse It! Everything else was amazing.

Sibelius: Symphony No. 7, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen. Absolutely stunning! Also programmed: a very fine Ravel Mother Goose suite, and a terrible Beethoven 7. Luckily the terrible Beethoven didn't ruin the fantastic Sibelius 7. Again, I think they didn't rehearse Beethoven, and it was poor.

Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra. San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt, who is an underrated Strauss conductor. Again, a terrific performance, and the loudest acoustic musical sound I have heard anywhere, ever. Glorious! I don't remember the rest of the program.

Hindemith: Concert Music for brass and strings, Op. 50. Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Muti. Superb in every way! Also on the program, a tremendous performance of the Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition.

 

[Simplicissimus]

Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic doing the Mahler 2nd a very long time ago ... That one just convinced me, if I didn't already need convincing, to avoid Zubin Mehta concerts in the future Fortunately he left L.A. not long after and we got Carlo Maria Giulini instead.

I could very well have been at that same concert! The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, oh yes. The thing is, when I attended concerts in LA during my late adolescence, which I did frequently, I was blown away every time. Of course I can't remember what was on the programs in much detail, and the program notes that I carefully scrapbooked, well, those went missing at some point years ago during one of my trans-continental or international moves. After the concerts, the other music students and I would go to some all-night dive and talk about the performance and a thousand other things through the night. So what I'm saying is that I don't think any concert I have experienced in my adulthood and old age could be as marvelous as those I experienced during my most formative years.

 

[MarkW]

I went to lots of BSO concerts in Symphony Hall during my formative years, so can't pinpoint a most memorable. Also CSO/Solti/Mahler 5 on tour, same/Enigma Variations, Cleveland/Boulez/Symphony Hall, Cleveland/Maazel in two separate tour venues, Minnesota/Marriner/tour, New Mexico/Takeda half a dozen times in Albuquerque (most memorable a Berlioz Requiem), Louisville/Slatkin in situ.
Also Britten's Death in Venice at the Met, where I sat a row behind and several seats over from Bill Bradley.

 

[Manxfeeder]

After the concerts, the other music students and I would go to some all-night dive and talk about the performance and a thousand other things through the night. So what I'm saying is that I don't think any concert I have experienced in my adulthood and old age could be as marvelous as those I experienced during my most formative years.

You've put your finger on what I'm missing with classical concerts now. When I was in college surrounded by music majors, we were discovering everything for the first time, so everything we did was an event. Today, the times when I've gone to a classical concert, even with friends, we're talking beforehand about family or business, and afterward, we're just tired and go home.

 

[Judith]

Didn't have to think about this one.
Joshua Bell
ASMF

Performed in 2018 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

Vivaldi. Four Seasons
Beethoven Symphony no 2

Wonderful performance. We were sitting at the front so felt part of everything.

Met J Bell afterwards as he was signing autographs. Got two and a photo. Took me a while to come back to earth

 

[Manxfeeder]

Didn't have to think about this one.
Joshua Bell
ASMF

Hey, we both picked the same performers!

 

[Judith]

Hey, we both picked the same performers!

My favourite violinist and orchestra. Where did you see them?

 

[Manxfeeder]

My favourite violinist and orchestra. Where did you see them?

When they visited Nashville. We have a great symphony hall, and they were well suited to the occasion.

 

[Knorf]

If I include best opera I've attended, that's tough as well, but a clear leader would be Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, with Jane Eaglen and Ben Heppner, Seattle Opera, Armin Jordan. This is was the first run of this famous production, and some say was the best. Everything about it was tremendous. I've never been so mesmerized by four hours of adagio and two people singing about how doomed they are and how much they love each other! It shouldn't work, but because of Wagner's genius music, it does.

 

[Templeton]

Semyon Bychkov and the Vienna Philharmonic, performing Franz Schmidt's wonderful Second Symphony, as well as Brahms's Third Symphony, at the London Proms. This was topped off with an encore of Elgar's 'Nimrod', resulting in a noticeable frisson throughout the audience, as the first notes emerged. The highlight for me though was the Schmidt symphony, one of my very favourite works and so rarely performed on these shores.

 

[Heck148]

Live concerts are the best!! there's nothing like it, and even the best recording cannot duplicate the audio-visual thrill of live performance...
I've heard so many wonderful concerts - the greatest live concert I've ever heard was the Solti/CSO performing Mahler 5 in Carnegis Hall - 3/70...this concert has attained a rather "legendary" status [well-deserved]...It was really incredible, the conducting, the amazing virtuosity of the orchestra, great playing throughout...I had heard most of the world's greatest orchestras by then, and this was simply on a different level....the end of the symphony was unbelievable - loudest acoustical sound I've ever heard, and Trumpet I [A. Herseth] was the single loudest human being I've ever heard [He also totally aced all the tricky soft stuff]!! orchestra was going totally nuts volume-wise, with the trumpet just soaring, blazing over the top - no strained, forced sound, just clean, full tone, incredibly loud and pure....just soared over the orchestra...
The audience went crazy - instant SO - wild applause, whistles, yells, hoots, hollering, like at a football game or a rock concert...it went on non-stop for 35 minutes at least...finally Solti came out for the XXXteenth time, and dragged the concertmaster off - <<We've got a plane to catch!!>>

Many years later, maybe c. '89 - same forces, Solti/CSO - performed Shostakovich #8 in Boston Symphony Hall...that was really amazing, too...shattering experience - even better than their great live recording for London/Decca.

I heard Solti/CSO several times in early 70s @ Carnegie Hall - all unforgettable - great concerts - Ein Heldenleben, Bruckner Sym #7, Brahms #1, Tchaik Sym #5...

So many more great, honorable mentions, these sort of ottomh:
Ormandy/Phila - at Eastman Theater, Rochester - Schuman NE Triptych, Brahms Sym #2...wow!! what a show...wonderful Schuman - thrilling Brahms...
Salonen/CSO, Rite of Spring, Petrushka, Mahler Sym #9 - just a couple of years ago
Stokowski/American Sym - c 1964 - Lincoln Center [I think] - Also Sprach Zarathustra, Ives Sym #4, a Rorem piece...this was right around the time Stoki recorded the Ives. I was still in High School - was totally blown away!!
Ormandy/Phila - at Saratoga Perf Arts Ctr - Beethoven Sym #7, Sibelius #2
Levine/BSO - Rite of Spring, Schoenberg 5 Pieces for Orch
Nelsons/BSO - Shostakovich Syms 4,7, Mahler 6....very excellent performances.....
I probably missed a few....

 

[Open Book]

I went to lots of BSO concerts in Symphony Hall during my formative years, so can't pinpoint a most memorable.

Tennstedt, BSO doing Bruckner's 8th symphony probably around 1978 stands out for me. Also Qzawa and Strauss's Ein Heldenleben.