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?
I've never experienced that myself.
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.
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.
(https://www.telerama.fr/sites/tr_master/files/styles/simplecrop1000/public/medias/2016/01/media_136528/le-ring-de-wagner-la-production-du-tandem-chereau-boulez-fait-scandale-et-reste-mythique%2CM290750.jpg?itok=KLV2u7cZ) (https://seenandheard-international.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/bayreuth-chereau-walkure.jpg)
(http://ring.mithec.com/images/music_chereau.jpg) (https://richard-wagner-web-museum.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MVRW-TETRALOGIE-650x452-1.jpg)
Quote from: DavidW on June 03, 2022, 04:30:30 AM
I've never experienced that myself.
All that means is that it hasn't happened yet, so you have something to look forward to. 8)