see any concert

[Kapellmeister27]

How much would you be willing to pay for a front row ticket of a concert program of your choice to see any composer-pianist (bach, mozart, meethover, chopin, liszt, rachmaninoff, etc.) play a program and who and what would play?

[pianonut]

Dear Kapellmeister,

I don't think you can quantify the worth of composers in that way.  Being irish, i like free concerts, like the ones you find in the park, on sunday afternoons, or those quiet piano recitals noone hears about (staged in a library) and is spectacular.  i suppose noone would make money if they only played for free, but if a pianist/composer/conductor does it occasionally, he will have a huge fan club.

ok.  if rachmaninov were still alive, i'd probably switch from wanting to see andre rieu for $200.  i can't say i actually have the 200 to spend on the ticket, yet, but i think he's playing this spring here (lehigh valley).

[wintervind]

Clara Schumann- Period.

[SteinwayTony]

Well, with Rachmaninoff you at least have some idea of what you're getting, because he made a few recordings.  I thought his performance of the second concerto was fast, but (Arthur) Rubinstein's was actually faster.  Maybe it was the horrendous sound quality, granted it was a 1929 recording.

Anyway, with alleged virtuosos as (Anton) Rubinstein and, of course, Liszt, there's no objective account of how brilliant they really were, just stuff their students and audiences wrote about them.  So I'd probably see one of them.

But, be it Liszt or Lang Lang, you won't see me paying any more than $20 a seat.  I'm a student, darn it, and I'll be one for the next ten years until I get my Ph.D.! 

[shasta]

I would have loved to be in the salon when Liszt performed one of Chopin's nocturnes for Chopin, but hammed it up so much that Chopin ended up taking the bench out of disgust and performing it himself, the correct way of course.  Priceless.

[Kapellmeister27]

ha ha answering my own question, but i just thought of how great it would be to ask Rachmaninoff to play the prelude in c# minor and watch him cringe in horror