First time this happened to me was years ago while I was listening to Bach's Fifth Brandenburg on the radio. This is maybe my alltime favorite piece in the world and it was an old recording I'd never heard before featuring Rudolph Serkin on piano (not the usual harpsichord). There is a very long solo cadenza at the end of the first movement, and Serkin just sort of waded gently into it. Gradually, so gradually you hardly noticed, he built up the dynamic tension of the music. At one point I put down the watering can I was using on my houseplants and sat down on the couch transfixed. By the time the cadenza ended, the energy of the playing was so intense that I was literally in tears. Astounding.
Apparently I'm not alone in this. I later read that when Serkin came to the first rehearsal of this piece with the Pablo Casals Festival Orchestra, the orchestra was so moved by his playing that at the end of the cadenza where the orchestra is supposed to come back for a recap of the theme and ending, they spontaneously broke into applause!
The other time I remember this was while I was listening to NPR while driving up the Taconic Parkway. This amazing a capella rendition of the Beatles' Helter Skelter came on. I literally had to pull off the road so I could fully concentrate on the music. The group was The Bobs (
www.thebobs.com), and I've become a huge fan. Their personell has changed over the years, but they're still fantastic. Check out their albums and even better hear them live if at all possible.
)artist.I saw him a few years back on his 'Sunshine Boys tour' with the GREAT Danny Thompson on Bass (one of my all time fave British Musicians).