# Your Best/most Memorable Concert



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

What was the best concert you ever went to, or one that you'll remember the rest of your life?

I had mine this weekend. I'll never forget it. It was with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performing selections from Prokofiev's Cinderella, and they played my favorite movements, including the ending "Amoroso." I was floored. A truly emotional experience.


----------



## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

At the moment, I think my most memorable concert is a tie between a concert with the Toppen Symphony Orchestra in Hærøy Church and a concert with Bodø Harmonimusikk in Leiranger Church. I played in both of them.

In the Toppen one, we played the suite from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and Grieg's Symphonic dances. We played the waltz as an encore. It was such an amazing concert where everything just fit and everything worked.
In the concert with Bodø Harmonimusikk (my concert band), also in a church, we played Lars-Erik Larsson's Förklädd gud (God in Disguise) along with an 80 or so piece chorus. We also played a bass trombone solo piece (I don't remember what it's called) and a movement from James Curnow's Canticle of the Creatures. But it was the piece with the chorus that I remember the best. It went so well, and it is such gorgeous music. I had chills down my spine during the last movement.


----------



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

My wife used to play in a small professional symphony in Delaware, USA. They were fortunate to get Elmar Oliveira, and he played the Tchaikovsky violin concerto. It is one of my favorite all time pieces. At the time my wife was practicing that piece for a recital so I knew it fairly well. From the first solo violin notes to the last triumphant chord I was spell bound. It was simply marvelous. I had never heard any classical music that powerful up til then. The Delaware Symphony played wonderfully (better than their normal attempts). The entire piece seemed to fly by I was so in the moment.

I've heard many spectacular performances since then, but I think the first truly great one will always stay with me.


----------



## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

For me, personally, probably my junior college piano recital. I played the _Waldstein_ sonata and the 24 Chopin Preludes. It was so wonderful, being able to play in front of my family and old friends. I only wish I had had it recorded...


----------



## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

For me, and late in life - Having played an organ concert on this beautiful Frobenius Pipe Organ at Jørlunde Kirke in Denmark this past summer. It was the experience of a life time as my wife and I were also house guests of our site owner, Frederik Magle.


----------



## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Montreal 2001, Argerich/Freire/OSM/Dutoit - LvB PC2, Bartok Cto. for Two Pianos, Poulenc Cto. for Two Pianos.


----------



## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

Probably playing Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony with my old youth orchestra in high school, mostly because our conductor looked positively enraptured and it was contagious. I didn't think I was going to enjoy that concert because the Rachmaninov is _long_ and not my favorite piece I have ever played (though it has its moments) and also because I had gotten stuck playing bass clarinet (due to being the only clarinetist who read bass clef fluently) and was grumpy about it. But our conductor, despite being in charge of only a pretty good youth orchestra, appeared the whole time he was conducting as if he had been given the greatest blessing in the world. And I guess I caught his fever, because I had never felt so lucky to just be _playing music_, and there was a great sense of unity in the ensemble that was not usually there.

And there was also the time the Oregon Symphony invited my woodwind quintet to play in the lobby of the concert hall before their annual donor concert. Which meant we got to go to the concert even though we weren't big enough donors to get invited normally. It was an all-chamber music program, with a huge variety of styles and ensembles--the works performed ranged from the Mendelssohn Octet to a partially serialist piece by a contemporary Chinese composer (whose name I don't remember) for violin and percussion. It was really cool. And we got paid.


----------



## Stefano (Mar 25, 2011)

I saw only Beethoven concerts in Rome: 
- 4th, 8th, 2nd and 5th symphonies (2001, Abbado and Berliner Philarmoniker), Beethoven 7th,
- 7th (2003, Chung and Orchestra Santa Cecilia),
- 9 symphonies (2010, Masur and Orchestra Santa Cecilia),
- 3rd symphonie (2011, Temirkanov and Orchestra Santa Cecilia),
- 4th symphonie (2011, Luisotti and Orchestra Santa Cecilia).
It's not easy to tell you what is the best,maybe the 5th symbonie by Masur and the 3rd by Temirkanov,
but also Abbado was amazing.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I guess when I said "Your Most Memorable Concert" it sounded like I was talking about ones you participated in. Yeah, those are equally as great, but I open the topic to any concert you've attended.

For a concert _I_ was in, it was when I played Poem for Flute and Orchestra by Griffes with a local orchestra in my city. I'll never forget that either.


----------



## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

It's hard to beat playing in Mahler 1. That's my personal orchestral-concert-I've-participated-in high, easily.

As for non-orchestral concert I've participated in... it hasn't happened yet. I mean, my high school senior recital was pretty amazing and all, but I'm planning a recital that I think is going to top that some time next school year.

As far as concert I've attended, I've been to several that would have independently made that list, having been to several magnificent Cincinnati Symphony concerts, but the most recent one was the best; and it was the first I saw without Paavo conducting. Louis Langree instead presented an ecstatic Brahms 1 and the orchestra was simply on fire.


----------



## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

World Violist said:


> It's hard to beat playing in Mahler 1. That's my personal orchestral-concert-I've-participated-in high, easily.


Ooh! Lucky! I've never performed a whole Mahler symphony.

Perhaps the most memorable concert in which I did not play was the time I saw Britten's _Turn of the Screw_ (if you're counting opera), because it marked both the beginning of my interest in opera and the end of my silly and irrational trepidation towards 20th century music. An eye-opening (or rather, ear-opening) performance, indeed.


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I don't play an instrument like most of the respondents here, but as far as the best or most memorable concert I've attended, it's usually the last one I've attended (while it's still fresh in my memory). I try to go to at least one concert per month, but lately I've been going to more than that (at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in particular - a veritable chamber enthusiast's delight of a place)...


----------



## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

*Related thread*.

Quotation from prior thread:


Chi_townPhilly said:


> Hmmm... I have co-favorites- and it's hard to choose between the two.
> 
> It's either this one, or this one!


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

It was just a performance by a university orchestra and chorus of Mozart's Requiem, and there is nothing particular to say about it, but that the work was performed exactly the way I love it, and I was so, so happy to experience that.


----------



## Edward Elgar (Mar 22, 2006)

One that stands out for me was in the September of last year when the Orchestra of Opera North played Brahms Piano Concerto No.1 and Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. The pieces complimented themselves paradoxically in their opposition to each other. The opening of the Brahms was immense and I was blown over by the last movement of the Berlioz. They both are pieces that need to be heard live.


----------



## Pieck (Jan 12, 2011)

Today I listened to Maisky in concert plays Variations on a Rococo Theme, and Kol Nidrei. Was excellent.


----------



## Nix (Feb 20, 2010)

Levin conducting the BSO playing Mahler 2 was pretty amazing. Also recently attended a concert with 2 NEC alumni string quartets- one playing Haydn 74, the other Beethoven Op. 131, and then combining to play the Mendelssohn Octet. Awesome performances with the added perk of it being free.


----------



## Alrapo (Mar 18, 2011)

One concert that always comes back to my mind was a performance of the Russian National Orchestra in Mechanics Hall, Worcester MA a few years ago. Truthfully, I cannot remember exactly what the program was for the concert, but what made it stand out for me was just the sound of the orchestra. I have heard different orchestras before, but this one just sounded so perfectly in pitch and synchronized. The sound seemed so pure.
I do know they played a Mozart flute concerto, which of course made it all the better.


----------



## hespdelk (Mar 19, 2011)

Some years ago I was able to catch the Concertgebouw orchestra on tour with Riccardo Chailly. The highlight of the program for me was excerpts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet - my favourite recording of this work is with the same orchestra, but that night they outdid themselves.

It was also a powerful reminder of just how lacking even the best sound system and recording is compared to hearing a truly great orchestra live..


----------

