The Greatest

[LKB]

At some point in time, whether it be as a performer, listener or composer, all lovers of what is commonly referred to as " classical " music experience a culmination, an experience of such intensity, perfection and awe that subsequent musical experiences are inescapably measured against it.

What was yours?

[DavidW]

I've never experienced that myself.

[Mandryka]

For me it was a performance of Porgy and Bess, outside on Hampstead Heath in London. Beautiful summer's day, great picnic with great champagne, good friends. I remember lying on my back watching the clouds, slightly squiffy, as the music was playing and thinking to myself that I really don't want to do anything with my life other than this.

[ritter]

The Boulez / Chéreau Ring in Bayreuth in 1979. My teenage me knew --from the curtain rising to reveal the hydroelectric dam in Scene 1 of Das Rheingold, to the final curtain after Brünnhilde's immolation in Act III of Götterdämmerung three evenings later,-- that I was having the privilege of experiencing something that would become the stuff of legends.

 

[LKB]

I've never experienced that myself.

All that means is that it hasn't happened yet, so you have something to look forward to.