"Emotionally involving" music and your system...


I recently attended a concert performance of Brahms' 1st Symphony and found the experience, quite frankly, overwhelming. I had previously heard this piece at least a dozen times on my system. I had also attended roughly a dozen live concert events over the last several years. While I found each of these listenings on my system enjoyable and each of these live performances interesting, none had any real emotional impact. On this occasion, however, I felt swept up by the music. By the time the last few chords came crashing down in the final movement I felt emotionally drained and had shivers running down my spine. I still cannot explain my reaction. Perhaps I felt that same sense of exhilaration that Brahms must have felt as he composed those last few bars, casting off the great shadow of Beethoven for at least a few brief moments. When I returned home I put a copy of this same work on my system. It had none of the emotional involvement of the live performance.

My question, then, is this: What pieces of music have you heard performed live that have had this effect on you? Have you been able to duplicate this effect at home via a recording? (I am sure some of you might think my system needs an upgrade, and I agree, but I will save that for another post.)

krusty2k
I think the differences between recordings can be major, although the added interaction of audience and musicians can be much better.

Friends & I have been sitting down on Friday evenings to listen to and compare many different pressings of an agreed on piece of music (this past Friday it was Stravinsky's Firebird.) Some conductors have an affinity for the music in a way that the emotion comes through easily, and others produce a recording that is the musical equivalent of "white bread" or cardboard. I like the way Boulez brings new vitality to 20th century composers, while von Karajan or Bohm breathe life into Beethoven and Mozart. When you are listening to 8-10 versions of a piece in the same evening, the differences are immediate.

The best examples of "live" for me are a Mahavishnu Orchestra concert at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago about 1970-71? I met someone years later and we talked about greatest concerts we were ever at, and it turns out that he was sitting in about the same row and position on the same night. His experience matched mine exactly!

Another memorable performance was hearing Solti & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in rehearsal at Orchestra Hall for Beethoven's 9th Symphony. A week later they recorded it at the Kraennert Center in Urbana, IL for Decca's 25th Jubilee Anniversary (it was Georg Solti's 25 anniversary of recording with Decca.)
Pbowne, I heard the Mahavishnu Orchestra in Chicago in 1971 and was absolutely blown away! They performed at an outdoor venue and I ran out to buy an album the next day. Thanks for the reminder -- they must have been on a real roll that year.