The end of the cadenza in the Prokofiev Second Concerto...just as the
orchestra enters it is like the heavens open and it is the Second Coming.
Mahler: Adagietto from the 5th and its close relative, the last of the
Ruckert Songs (in the Baker-Barbirolli performance of course)
Hartmann: finale of the Sixth Symphony...as a friend once described it,
an express train ride to hell, with the devil at the controls.
Wm Schuman: Symphony No.6 last ten minutes...from incredible violence to
profound repose.
Tippett: Corelli Fantasia
Ravel: Daybreak from Daphnis
Dutilleux: beginning of the final section of his Cello Concerto...what I
hope heaven is like...assuming I make it there.
Honegger: B theme in the rondo finale of the 4th Symphony.
Beethoven: Pf. Con. No.4, middle movement...for me, it is almost like
Beethoven trying to have a discussion with God.
Kalabis: Symphony No.2, scherzo (see Hartmann above)
and about a thousand or so other moments....
and some remarkable concert experiences...
first performance of Bernstein's Chichester Psalms
also from the same series of concerts, watching Milhaud, on crutches,
getting a standing ovation as he walked out on stage to conduct the New
York Philharmonic.
Horowitz playing a Chopin Sonata in his Dallas recital some 25 years ago.
I can still remember the slow movement...it was as though he was talking to
Chopin.
and some recent ones...watching Sandor in his 80s play the Bartok third
concerto...and most recently...hearing those brilliant and bombastic Etudes
for Piano and Orchestra by Lees, music of such power and strength and
then seeing this unimposing, pleasant looking man wearing a bow tie, the
composer, walk on stage. I was reminded of something Bernstein said about
his first meeting with Copland. Bernstein, who was playing the Copland
Variations at every opportunity..."I was expecting some towering, imposing,
Whitmanesque figure with a white beard. Instead I was greeting by a
delightful, affable, smiling, toothy man."
and...
Karl
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