# What was the greatest performance you watched at a live concert?



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Mine is easy, since I don't go to concerts often: Neeme Jarvi conducting the Detroit Symphony in Martinu's Symphony No. 4. Amazing work and performance back in 2007


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## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

What a coincidence, mine was also with Neeme Jarvi and DSO but performing one of my favorite works, Mahler 2nd symphony ("Resurrection") in the DSO Concert hall back in 2001. Very memorable to me.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Saw Kovacevich play Beethoven's 5th piano concerto - something that sticks in the mind.

Also a concert by the a young Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir which was electrifying


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

DavidA said:


> Saw Kovacevich play Beethoven's 5th piano concerto - something that sticks in the mind.
> 
> Also a concert by the a young Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir which was electrifying


I have the recording of the Emperor Concerto with Kovacevich and Davis. My favourite version. Must have been awesome. What was Gardiner conducting?


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Now this is a difficult question as there have been a few...

Sir John Barbirolli doing the Mahler 9th with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Claudio Abbado doing the Mahler 3rd with the London Symphony
Salome with Maria Ewing @ Covent Garden, conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi
Carlo Maria Giulini doing the Bruckner 8th with the Los Angeles Philharmonic


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Beethoven Symphony Nine
Budapest Festival Orchestra
February 10, 2017
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

This was the most wonderful concert I ever remember attending. It went way too fast, not that the tempo was too fast, but that it was so good that the time flew by for me. The "Share Your Thoughts" comments at the bottom of the concert web page sums it up very well:



> Magnificent concert. Shimmering, iridescent playing from the orchestra in the crystal clear acoustics of Hill Auditorium. What a great journey it was to hear the progression in Beethoven's compositional style from his First Symphony (beautifully homogeneous from the orchestra) through the Fourth Piano Concerto (Richard Goode's scale work was amazing!) to the magnificent Ninth Symphony (some inspired revelations in the score that Iván Fischer brought out). I felt like I was in Vienna, or Berlin or at the Concertgebouw.





> I've heard a lot of other performances of Beethoven's 9th but this was the best one ever...a truly incredible evening.





> Many things to single out for praise, but let me mention the soloists in the 9th. In addition to their excellent voices, their expressiveness and stage presence were outstanding. They all added so much to the performance.


EDIT:
I must say that my second best concert was Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was Beethoven's 5th and Mahler #1 in October 2015. At the time I would not have attended for Mahler (really didn't know or care about Mahler), but Mahler 1 was excellent and some months later it hit me and I want on a Mahler binge.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Otello : Renée Fleming / Doming at the Met. 1995 live I might add, and Handel's Rodelinda in Paris also live 2000
Beside that, all concerts she did in my country.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

The first one that comes to mind is Christian Tetzlaff performing all six Sonatas and Partitas in an afternoon.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Two, if I may.

Berglund and the Bournemouth SO playing Sibelius 6, circa 1974-ish. Absolutely nailed this subtle and beautiful piece. I heard an audience member whistling the last movement first subject on his way out of the Royal Festival Hall, which is a rarity. 

And more recently, I heard for the first time RVW's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis performed as it was intended - in a cathedral, with the string orchestra spatially divided and the quartet off to one side. It was an amateur student ensemble, not absolutely note-perfect, but to hear that piece fully in 3D for the first time was magical.


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

Saw Barenboim and CSO performing Mahler #5 at Ravinia. Everyone was sweating on that hot summer night, but impressive performance.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Steven Isserlis with Connie Shih in Leeds! Was absolutely amazing. When he performed Saint Saens "The Swan" at the encore, I was in floods of tears as it was performed so beautifully! Met him afterwards! (Second time as met him at another recital few months earlier and he remembered me). Amazing Cellist, lovely guy!


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## Templeton (Dec 20, 2014)

Semyon Bychkov and the VPO, performing Brahms's 3rd Symphony, Franz Schmidt's 2nd Symphony, concluding with an encore of Elgar's 'Nimrod' from The Enigma Variations, at London's Royal Albert Hall, at the Proms 2015. A spine tingling performance and one of the greatest experiences of my life. Coincidentally the schedule for this year's Proms will be announced later today. Hopefully another trip to London beckons.


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## lehnert (Apr 12, 2016)

I think the best two performances that I attended were:

Rachmaninov - Symphonic Dances conducted by Mariss Jansons with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, 2017 in Katowice, Poland

Mahler - Symphony no. 1 conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk with Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, 2016 in Warsaw, Poland

It is hard to say, though, since I think I have attended more than a few amazing concerts. Unfortunately, quite a few bad ones, as well.


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## NorthernHarrier (Mar 1, 2017)

Over 40 years ago I was in attendance as Van Cliburn played Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto with the Minnesota SO. He had the flu, but you wouldn't know it by listening to his performance.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Jurowski/London Philharmonic I believe. Brussels. A Prometheus themed concert which ended, of course, with Scriabin's Prometheus. It was my first classical concert. Final moments blew me away... and possibly shook the very foundation of the concert hall.


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## keymasher (Nov 10, 2016)

My favorite so far would probably be Beethoven's 5th piano concerto with Jeremy Denk as the soloist. The orchestra was, yet again, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Pat Fairlea said:


> Two, if I may.
> 
> Berglund and the Bournemouth SO playing Sibelius 6, circa 1974-ish. Absolutely nailed this subtle and beautiful piece. I heard an audience member whistling the last movement first subject on his way out of the Royal Festival Hall, which is a rarity.
> 
> And more recently, I heard for the first time RVW's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis performed as it was intended - in a cathedral, with the string orchestra spatially divided and the quartet off to one side. It was an amateur student ensemble, not absolutely note-perfect, but to hear that piece fully in 3D for the first time was magical.


Brings to mind this passage from Thomas Pynchon's "Against the Day."

In September, Hunter would invite [Ruperta] to accompany him to Gloucester Cathedral, where as part of that year's Three Choirs Festival, a new work by Ralph Vaughan Williams would be having its first performance. Ruperta, who despised church music, must have seen some irresistible opening for idle mischief, because she went along wearing a sportive toilette more appropriate to Brighton, with a hat she had always found particularly loathsome but kept handy for occasions just such as this. The composer was conducting two string orchestras set like cantores and decani facing each other across the chancel, with a string quartet between them. The moment Vaughan Williams raised his baton, even before the first notes, something happened to Ruperta. As Phrygian resonances swept the great nave, doubled strings sang back and forth, and nine-part harmonies occupied the bones and blood vessels of those in attendance, very slowly Ruperta began to levitate, nothing vulgar, simply a tactful and stately ascent about halfway to the vaulting, where, tears running without interruption down her face, she floated in the autumnal light above the heads of the audience for the duration of the piece. At the last long diminuendo, she returned calmly to earth and reoccupied herself, never again to pursue her old career of determined pest. She and Hunter, who was vaguely aware that something momentous had befallen her, walked in silence out along the Severn, and it was hours before she could trust herself to speak. "You must never, never forgive me, Hunter," she whispered. "I can never claim forgiveness from anyone. Somehow, I alone, for every single wrong act in my life, must find a right one to balance it. I may not have that much time left."


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

jegreenwood said:


> Brings to mind this passage from Thomas Pynchon's "Against the Day."
> 
> In September, Hunter would invite [Ruperta] to accompany him to Gloucester Cathedral, where as part of that year's Three Choirs Festival, a new work by Ralph Vaughan Williams would be having its first performance. Ruperta, who despised church music, must have seen some irresistible opening for idle mischief, because she went along wearing a sportive toilette more appropriate to Brighton, with a hat she had always found particularly loathsome but kept handy for occasions just such as this. The composer was conducting two string orchestras set like cantores and decani facing each other across the chancel, with a string quartet between them. The moment Vaughan Williams raised his baton, even before the first notes, something happened to Ruperta. As Phrygian resonances swept the great nave, doubled strings sang back and forth, and nine-part harmonies occupied the bones and blood vessels of those in attendance, very slowly Ruperta began to levitate, nothing vulgar, simply a tactful and stately ascent about halfway to the vaulting, where, tears running without interruption down her face, she floated in the autumnal light above the heads of the audience for the duration of the piece. At the last long diminuendo, she returned calmly to earth and reoccupied herself, never again to pursue her old career of determined pest. She and Hunter, who was vaguely aware that something momentous had befallen her, walked in silence out along the Severn, and it was hours before she could trust herself to speak. "You must never, never forgive me, Hunter," she whispered. "I can never claim forgiveness from anyone. Somehow, I alone, for every single wrong act in my life, must find a right one to balance it. I may not have that much time left."


Oh that's gorgeous! I cannot claim to have levitated nor, unusually for me, to have wept, but apparently I sat stock still with my eyes closed and mouth open through the whole piece. Mrs Pat thought I was having some kind of seizure.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Been to too many concerts by tip flight perfomers to choose a "greatest" -- but one of the most memorable was the teenaqge Itzack Perlemanmaking his BSO debut in Symphony Hall doing the Sibelius Concerto.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Leaving aside the issue of greatness, the live performance that most lifted my spirits was of the 1812 Overture performed at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The booming cannons and the military aircraft speeding through the sky gave me such a temporary boost in morale that I felt like invading a foreign land.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

jegreenwood said:


> Brings to mind this passage from Thomas Pynchon's "Against the Day."
> 
> In September, Hunter would invite [Ruperta] to accompany him to Gloucester Cathedral, where as part of that year's Three Choirs Festival, a new work by Ralph Vaughan Williams would be having its first performance....


Pynchon's been a struggle since *Gravity's Rainbow* (1973). Too bad, the 40 years of Wasteland.

He returns somewhat to his best voice in *Bleeding Edge* (2013). Hopefully a sign of things to come. Righto! :tiphat:


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

Certainly the most electrifying live performance I ever saw was Kissin at Symphony Hall in Boston playing Prokofiev's 2nd Concerto. Kissin was in his late 20s/early 30s, and at the absolute height of his (technical) powers. 
Knowing the work very well, there were several times when I thought sure that the performance would go off the rails, but it never did. The 1st mvmt cadenza was as mighty as any piano music I have ever heard, (and THAT is saying something). The 2nd mvmt with it's literally restless line, was as fast as any I've heard. The whole afternoon was astonishing. Prokofiev would have loved it: (is there a more chest-pounding piano work?)

Many other concerts that I have attended have been more moving, and probably "greater". If pressed for just one, I would go with Bernstein conducting the Beethoven 9th at Tanglewood.


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## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

Chicago Symphony playing Lutoslawksi's Musique Funebre, Beethoven's 3rd piano concerto with Paul Lewis, and Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony. Christoph von Dohnanyi conducting. 
So far nothing has topped this. I had an opportunity that might have- I was invited to go on a trip with other members of my university's music department to New York to see Alan Gilbert's last Philharmonic concert. They're playing Beethoven's 9th and I know it will be spectacular. Unfortunately I can't make it.


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

Leon Fleisher playing the Brahms first piano concerto in the late 90s. He kept pressing his right hand against the piano, the hand that forced his early retirement in the 60s. In spite of this, the playing was gorgeous, especially the meditative adagio.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

In recent years I haven't been to many concerts, but I did see Ricardo Gallén play all 4 lute suites, the guitar concert I remember best as "the greatest performance". The most recent concert I went to was with the Vertavo string quartet & Paul Lewis, playing Beethoven, Ruders & Mozart (piano concerto w/ string quartet!). That was only my 2nd string quartet concert, the earlier being Kronos at a rock venue, amplified, and awesome! When I was in my early 20's I saw Håkon Austbø play Messiaens "Vingt regards...", that I have called "my favorite performance of all time"! I saw Pepe Romero play the Aranjuez with Oslo Phil. but they also played Lorenzo Palomo's "Andalucian Nocturnes", a nearly 45 minute guitar concerto! (He plays the Aranjuez like a boss). These concerts were all in Oslo. I saw San Francisco Phil. play an enormous piece by Peter Maxwell Davies, that put him in my top 10 composers. So there! Oh! Also Henning Kraggerud played the Nielsen violin concerto, amazing! I'll hopefully go to a chamber music festival sometime. Then that would be the greatest performance.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with Van Cliburn as the soloist accompanied by the NY Philharmonic--Lewisohn Stadium, on the campus of the City College of New York, one wonderful outdoor summer night under the stars.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

keymasher said:


> My favorite so far would probably be Beethoven's 5th piano concerto with Jeremy Denk as the soloist. The orchestra was, yet again, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.


Love Jeremy Denk! Seen him on You Tube alot performing with Joshua Bell!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I also attended an Artur Rubinstein solo recital at Carnegie Hall and his encore performance of Chopin's Heroic Polonaise brought the house down. A terrific memory!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I also had a chance to attend one of the Sviatoslav Richter solo recitals at Carnegie Hall and didn't. How dumb was that???

Oh well. I have the recordings of most of the music from those concerts.


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

Probably Glenn Gould in an all Bach concert at Severance Hall with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell. It was sublime, definitive Bach, and I could overlook the occasional vocalizing.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

There are rather many contenders.

Ferenc Fricsay conducting Bartok's concerto for orchestra 
Rafael Kubelik conducting the Choral symphony
Wilhelm Kempff playing Beethoven's op.31 no.3 and op. 57 among others
Claudio Arrau playing the Emperor concerto
Walter Kraft playing BWV 548 
Early Music consort, London with David Munrow twice, playing Medieval and Renaissance music

Edit: Forgot David Oistrakh playing Brahms violin concerto.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I've been to too many concerts to remember all of them and compare. But here are a few highlights I do remember:

Last September I heard the Escher Quartet perform Schoenberg's First String Quartet. This was intense and simply amazing to listen to. 

In 2004 I attended three operas in three nights at the festival in Verona: Il Travotore, La Traviata and Aida. During Il Travotore, someone rode a horse through. During Aida we had a rain delay and the crowd sang the triumphal march over and over, and we did the wave as we waited for the performers to return. Electrifying. 

Back in the 90's I heard Robert McDuffie perform Barber's Violin Concerto. It was the first time I had heard the Barber. I was mesmerised. 

On that Europe trip in 2004, I heard a busker perform the Bach Dm Chaconne in it's entirety while I sat and watched under a copy of Michaelangelo's David near the entrance of the Uffitzi. 

Two years ago I heard the Vancouver Symphony perform RVW's Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. I loved it. 

Last year I saw Itzhak Perlman perform the Bruch Gm. I watched him hobble out and then sit to play this amazing piece. His tone is so distinct.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I've noted every opera I've been to over the decades, but alas not the concerts. I tend not to go for star-power but rather for a piece I'd like to hear and see. Greatest performance? I'm not qualified to say. But here's a perfect night...

Charles Dutoit & Montreal Symphony Orchestra at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, performing Daphnis et Chloe in 1992. I was in town booking our accommodation for the upcoming Olympics. A favourite piece, by a specialist conductor in one of the world's prettiest concert halls in an amazing city did it for me. My previous night there was Bavarian State Opera performing Tannhauser at the Liceu. Complete coincidence that I was there at the same time for two amazing performances.

To have heard some of the performers that I listen to in recordings would have been a fine thing.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I remember seeing Gergiev in the festival after his name in my city, left me cold, but seeing Yannick Nézet-Séguin , every concert is a feast.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Shortly after the disintegration of the USSR, student string players and a pianist from the St. Petersburg Conservatory visited the conservatory where I was teaching in the U.S. (they couldn't afford to take the winds too). They did the best performance of Schnittke's Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra I have ever heard. Our students sent them home with supplies (reed stock for wind players, strings, etc.) that were becoming hard to get in Russia at that time.

Heard the Genelin Trio in Pittsburgh in the late 1980s — lots of free-form improvisation in a hybrid language between jazz and Stravinsky. Their KGB minders were given away by their cheap suits.

Maxim Vengerov performing Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic. 

King Crimson at the Stanley-Warner Theater in Pittsburgh. The original version of Boris Godunov in the same theater (renamed as the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts) just after the fall of the USSR.


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## Fat Bob (Sep 25, 2015)

Edinburgh festival in 1983.
Mahler, Das Lied Von Der Erde.
London Philharmonic Orchestra, cond Klaus Tennstedt, mezzo soloist Brigitte Fassbaender.
Spellbinding. I was truly, without exaggeration, unable to speak when I met some friends after the concert.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

I have seen/heard so many wonderful concerts over the years - but one stands out above all others - 
Mahler Sym #5 - Solti/CSO - Carnegie Hall, 3/70...
I heard this with friends, when we went to NYC to hear 2 concerts by Solti/CSO...the first night was Brahms Sym #1, Bartok- Dance Suite - amazing, great concert. the next night we heard the Mahler.
By this point in my life I had heard most all of the world's greatest orchestras, some of them many times....but this was something on a different plane....We had never heard an orchestra play with such virtuosity, technical facility, musical presentation; it was quite mesmerizing, the sound overpowering...these guys just did not miss. This concert has achieved a sort of legendary status among orchestra musicians and music lovers. Anyone who heard it seems to remember it vividly, as do the musicians involved.
The closing of Mahler 5 was overwhelming - incredible sound....the audience went absolutely nuts - kept cheering, whistling, yelling, hootin', hollerin', like at a sporting event...it went on for at least 30'....Solti finally came out for the umpteenth time - took the concertmaster by the arm - said to the audience "Sorry, We've got a plane to catch, we have to go!!"
I heard Solti/CSO quite a few times after that, and they always sounded magnificent - a late '80s Shostakovich #8 [they recorded it around then] was riveting and intense - a great experience - their recording is great, but this live performance was even better

Another great concert was with Ormandy/Philadelphia - in the Eastman Theater, Rochester, NY - Brahms Sym #2, Schuman "New England Triptych"....wonderful concert, superbly played, and thrilling to hear...

One of the earliest I can remember - Stokowski/American Sym Orch - Lincoln Center c'64, '65 - Ives Sym #4 [around when they recorded it], Also Sprach Zarathustra - I was still in high school at the time - but I remember the orchestra just played its a** off - really swinging for the fences, a pretty wild bunch!! It was very exciting for young ears!!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

One highlight for me was watching Pierre Boulez up close from a balcony seat overhanging the stage at Avery Fischer Hall, conduct the New York Philharmonic in Ravel's La Valse. A terrific memory, now that he's gone.


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## lluissineu (Dec 27, 2016)

I remember an unforgettable Mahler 6th with Haitink in The Proms in London. i think it was The european youth orchest.

Two other concerts I remember are both with The Royal Concertgebouw, one in London, with Eliahu Inbal conducting Mahler's 3rd. Chailly was the scheduled conducter, but he broke a shoulder (I think) and Inbal was called to conduct. Can't imagine how Chailly would Have conducted it, but I must say Inbal's version was superb.

Finally, in Barcelona I was able to see and listened to Bychkov conducting the RCO in Shostakovitch's 11th.


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## lluissineu (Dec 27, 2016)

wi-fi tricked me and sent Twice The same post. Sorry


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

I couldn't say what the greatest was but the most moving, for me, was Horszowski's final English performance at the Wigmore Hall in London in the late spring of 1991. He was almost 99 at the time of the concert and made some minor technical errors but the expressiveness with which he played was unparalleled in relation to any piano recital I've attended. The "Traumerei" with which he closed the performance is still the most serene and beautiful that I've heard. The concert was recorded and later released on CD and I listen to it relatively frequently but, as we all know, the immediacy of actually being there and hearing it in person is the reason why we go to concerts and cannot be reproduced through a recording although it's nice to have and I still stand by my view on the performance.

As a postscript, I actually hung around the stage door with a few other fans (there weren't that many, surprisingly) and told Mr. Horszowski how much I had enjoyed the performance and asked him for his autograph. He smiled at me benignly and whispered, "I'm sorry but I am blind" and then gave me an even wider smile and slowly ambled away together with his small entourage. Astonishing.


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