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We all know when we heard "that moment" - listening to a recording or a live concert. "That moment" stays with you the rest of your life.
For me, it was
Live: NYPO, Finlandia. Warren Deck on Frankenstein, circa 1990 in Avery Fischer Hall.
Recorded: CSO under Barenboim playing Bruckner 4, first movement chorale. Big Jake, presumably on The York.

Mine was live in the 70's at Carnegie Hall, front row balcony, the opening of the last movement of Mahler 7 with Mr. Herseth playing. I had to clean the seat before they would let me out.

Roger

I'll tell you one of the biggest. It was just a few years ago, when I was in the tenth grade. I had gotten Gene Pokorny's Orchestral Excerpts record and was poking around until "the" track came up. The Foutains of Rome. Listening to him fire off that explosive vamp and into the gorgeous rest of the excerpt was it for me. That's when I knew that the tuba was what I wanted to do. From there, I played in the symphony orchestra at my school and really fell in love with that playing.

Live -- without a doubt, a concert by the Swarovski Musik Wattens in Wattens, Austria (near Innsbruck). First time live hearing a band like this, with rotary everything (tubas, euphoniums, tenorhorns, flugels, trumpets). Must've been about 7 or 8 tubas, lots of euph and tenor horns, and only a couple of trombones for color.

It really was awesome. Very dark, thick, and full sound, with very precise playing. I still get chills to listen to it, for the "holy crap" memory it brings back. Our half of the concert was fun too, but night and day difference! It was very cool to meet the tuba players afterwards, too. I've got a picture of me with them somewhere around here...

Respighi's Church Windows, Mvt. II St. Michael the Archangel, by the Cincinnati Symphony under Lopez-Cobos circa 1994. Roman Festivals is also on that CD, which remains one of the best recordings of any classical piece I've ever heard.

I was a Tubist until my dad gave me that recording. The next day I ordered my first bass trombone from Brasswind and never looked back.

Boston Brass live at CBDA in 2007(06?). I was in the band on contrabass clarinet, and had actually quit tuba that week due to disagreements with my band director. Then I heard the BB (and especially Mr. Hitz), turned to one of my tuba friends that I was sitting with and said "f**k the clarinet". The rest is history

MartyNeilan wrote:We all know when we heard "that moment" - listening to a recording or a live concert. "That moment" stays with you the rest of your life.
For me, it was
Live: NYPO, Finlandia. Warren Deck on Frankenstein, circa 1990 in Avery Fischer Hall.
Recorded: CSO under Barenboim playing Bruckner 4, first movement chorale. Big Jake, presumably on The York.

Was that the Songs of Ascent concert?

...D

As dorky as this is...

Live: The Lord of the Rings Symphony by Howard Shore, Cleveland Orchestra. Performed at Blossom under the composer. The moments in particular: 5th movement, at the point in the movie that depicts the lighting of the beacons.

Recorded: Pines of Rome, 2nd movement (Catacombs). Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan.

Liberty Mo wrote:Respighi's Church Windows, Mvt. II St. Michael the Archangel, by the Cincinnati Symphony under Lopez-Cobos circa 1994. Roman Festivals is also on that CD, which remains one of the best recordings of any classical piece I've ever heard.

I was a tubist until my dad gave me that recording. The next day I ordered my first bass trombone from Brasswind and never looked back.

I was going to bring this up as well! I first heard this recording before I was playing the tuba and before I was taking music seriously...even then I knew that it really rocked.

Best live moment? CSO Brass choir concert...Liturgical Symphony, G. Pokorny playing Dance of the Golden Calf, et al.

Many close seconds though.

The "Brass Buddies" concert by the CSO Brass & Friends honoring Bud Herseth.
I couldn't applaud loudly enough.

Since then, I've attended the CSO Brass concert that is held in tandem with the Midwest Clinic every year that my schedule permits. I'm not alone. As I understand it, the first CSO Brass concert in conjunction with Midwest was supposed to be a one-time affair. I believe that Northern had a great deal to do with the organization of that concert--and now subsequent concerts. It has become an annual event--and has sold out every year.
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One other live AND recorded performance: Richard Bissill's brilliant arrangement of Duke Ellington's "Caravan." I first heard it live performed by members of the brass section of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at Pick-Staiger Hall at Northwestern University. I was blown away (sorry for that hackneyed pun) by their playing--and by the arrangement. Upon asking them, I was told that a recording of this arrangement was on London Brass' "Surprise" CD. Listening to it again confirmed in my mind that Chicago Brass Band Players, a 10-piece ensemble modeled after London Brass/PJBE, had to perform it. We bought the music, worked on it...and won First Place in the Small Ensemble Competition at the 2006 North American Brass Band Association Competition.

For live, one of my first WOW experiences was hearing the NYP play Prokofiev 5 in the early '90's. The sound that Deck had blew me away. Another early live WOW moment was with the Baltimore Symphony hearing Dave and Randy on Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet - the Monteque's and Capulets section. Not necessarily tuba related, but I will never forget hearing the Bolshoi Orchestra (don't remember the exact title they go by) playing Tchaik 6 and Capriccio Italien at the Kennedy Center. That may be my favorite orchestra concert I have been to. Actually, I could go on and on here. There are so many live concerts I have heard that make me go wow.

Recorded - I just can't remember. My earliest listening was the Canadian Brass in High School. So probably one of their albums.

Stefan

Live and recorded: Most anything with Chester Schmitz and the BSO/BPO. I grew up hearing Chester with the BSO on PBS every Sunday during the summer. Heard him many, many other times on TV. Bought several BSO/BPO CDs with Chester. Most beautiful orchestral tuba sound I have heard. He still holds that title even after retirement...

Wow, excellent question... there are so many, going back so far.

One of the earliest: Also Sprach Zarathustra - Sonnenaufgang from 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I probably saw on a full screen in a theater with a serious sound system for the first time around the time I was 11/12. I was asssssstounded, with goosebumps, hair on end, breathless, tears to my eyes. That music could do THAT, with such huge, towering, time collapsing power, earth rocking bass and shimmering, piercing, enveloping lushness, overwhelming meaning and excitement.... I knew I wanted to play an instrument. Probably a bass one. (That recording was probably the 1967 (although could have been the 58/59) recording by Vienna Philharmonic under von Karajan*. No idea who the tuba player was). It helped set me up to totally LOVE the movie. Humorous note: My first job out of college I worked for the guy, Mel Maron, who as head of (MGM?) theatrical distribution decades earlier, was in charge of selling the movie to America. A tough, no-nonsense street kid from da Bronx whose idea of scifi was more Buck Rogers / Robinson Crusoe on Mars (he brought Godzilla to the US), he said he walked out of the management screening in a cold sweat: he not only had no idea what the movie was about, he had even less of an idea of how to sell it to America -- what with that disjointed puzzle of a plot, an ending which makes no sense, and all that classical music! He was certain of disaster. Who knew?

The next moment was an ur musical experience. In the second week of seventh grade, sitting in English class, the door opened and there stood Mr. Leister! And, he was asking if I could come with him?! Mr. Leister was a courtly, charming southern gentleman of the old school -- smooth, gracious, relaxed, and a politeness which which while burnished from practice and training, radiated from real love of people. He'd been a teacher of mine for a few weeks of a summer sports program, and he'd made me feel better about sports and my performance and abilities and self and ability to relate to a teacher, especially a man, than ever. My father was insecure, uptight, and not at all good at supporting, caring, teaching. We had an uncomfortable relationship at best, where he mostly inspired disappointment, anger, frustration in me. But Mr. Leister was calm, competent, confident, caring -- and I loved it. And there he was -- who knew! -- the junior high school band teacher! My mom had called and told him I wanted to play an instrument. So, here we were walking through the maze of empty, unfamiliar, intimidating junior high school halls to the band room, catching up on the rest of the summer. And what kind of instrument was I thinking playing? Something bass -- maybe the bassoon? Well, at that time I was a big kid, and he needed a tuba player. So, he told me how great I'd be at playing the tuba, and they really needed a tuba player like me, someone he knew to be so serious, and thoughtful, and capable. Well, I didn't know about the tuba, but if Mr. Leister needed me... and I was so goooood.... And he showed me how to buzz into a mouthpiece, and I buzzed into the mouthpiece -- I got it the second time I tried! Very impressive he said. I was already on my way. Then he put the mouthpiece into that huge tuba (a tarnished, beat up Miraphone on a stand) and showed me how to play a note. It was a huge sound from a huge instrument -- just the kind of big, bass, shaking sound that had so moved me in the Also Sprach Zarathustra. I wasn't sure if I could do that... but I knew, no matter what, Mr. Leister would be help me and he would teach me -- he'd be supportive, and positive, and no matter what I did wrong, he'd keep showing me until I got it right, so I WOULD GET IT RIGHT and it would be fun! And so I just tried.... and BLAMMM, my first time I got a note - an open F! Mr. Leister just burst out with a shout and literally jumped with glee: "Well gosh! You are a natural! A natural born tuba player! You're gonna be great! I can see it, and you're gonna learn so fast, you'll be amazing everyone just like me today! Wow, what fun! I remember when I first started to play the trumpet how exciting it was, always learning something new, and everyone so impressed. I wish I were just starting out again with you!" A tuba player was born - and made - that day.

The other transcendent, transformative turning point musical experience which comes to mind next came when I was about 15, playing in a surprisingly good community orchestra in Northern NJ. With an excellent professional conductor, a number of professional musicians, conservatory alumni now working at other jobs, and passionate amateurs, in addition to the classic tuba repertoire, I was often called upon to play the string bass parts of music pre-tuba. It was a fabulous education in epochs of music not usually experienced in orchestral performance by tubists: the cannon, composers, style, techniques: classical, baroque, renaissance, mezzo de voce, stringendo, etc. My first exposure to Beethoven's 9th was playing the string contrabass part. My moment arrived during the rehearsal when finally the chorus joined the orchestra -- and we reached the Ode to Joy. After all those long, intense, frustrating rehearsals, the hours struggling to keep up, get all the notes, the outrageous Bernstein inspired tempi, the wild stops and starts, the high notes, blending with the strings, the sustained held notes -- suddenly it ALL came together -- I found myself floating into another realm, beyond the earth, heavens opening and choirs singing in piercing, transfiguring harmony with the orchestra -- enacting -- the evolutionary, revolutionary transformation of humanity to a higher plane of sentiment, awareness, love!! It felt as if it were happening then and there -- to me, to all of us, perhaps to the world. How could humanity -- reality -- be the same after that. That was my first experience of getting teary eyed with joy discovering new worlds with music, changing the world -- by playing the tuba -- an experience all the more glorious because I also realized how far I'd come from the kid who marveled at the music of others to one who was a key player in making it.

Brian Bowman in a 1999 masterclass performing the opening of Fantasia di Concerto. Still the most beautiful thing I've heard on a euphonium.

Live: my jr. year in HS...

The Oklahoma Youth Orchestra performed a governor's command performance in combination with the old OKC Symphony. Mahler 1. 8 OSO horns and 8 all-state level OYO horns. 8 pros and 8 *REALLY* good HS players. I got to play the solo in the 3rd mvmt. That symphony, in that situation, was the first time I ever got goosebumps from listening to music. Those 16 horns laid waste the back wall of the OKC Civic Center.

Recorded: Strauss. Ein Alpine Symphony. Unknown mp3 that I came across. The low brass sounds like there's 30 of 'em.

In the basement of the University of Wisconsin library, listening (through good headphones) to Herseth and company play the opening of Mahler 5. Incredible does not begin to describe it.

Back in 2009 The NYPO came down to Miami and played pictures. Alan Baer was just a beast. One of my favorite recorings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLHj-eekdNU" target="_blank

My first live Chicago Symphony Concert. A Friday afternoon performance with Bud Herseth playing the Tartini Concerto in D and the Franck Symphony on the second half. I was speechless for the rest of the day.

1976 (or 1977)

Bruckner Symphony #8, Chicago Symphony conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini.

Oh my goodness..

Ken S.

KenS wrote:1976 (or 1977)

Bruckner Symphony #8, Chicago Symphony conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini.

Oh my goodness..

Ken S.

Unless they performed the Bruckner 8 with Guilini in successive years, it was actually late 1975. This was my freshman year at Northwestern and my first CSO concert. My buddy and I decided on a lark to go and see if there were any last minute tickets available on a Friday or Saturday night. I ended up in one of the first few rows, so close I could tell the Concertmaster was wearing blue socks with his tux.

The sound of the brass section was massive. It was the first time I had heard Jake live (other than in lessons) and was completely in awe. A night I'll never forget.