I don't usually write here about concerts I've been to - mainly because, if I did, I'd not have time for anything else. But I'm going to make an exception tonight because I've been to one of the most staggering performances of my life. And given that there's been barely a week of my life since my teens when I haven't heard some sort of live music, you can see how many performances that is (I'm 41 now - you do the maths!).

There are some performances which you know as you hear them will remain with you for ever. The opening notes of Verdi's Otello at the Royal Opera House, conducted by Carlos Kleiber, were a sound the like of which I will never hear again. It was as if the earth was opening up and swallowing all the sounds which have ever been played. Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in Mahler's Fifth was an emotional roller coaster. Bernstein conducting the Concertgebouw in Mahler's Ninth was like hearing death itself. I could not listen to anything else for weeks afterwards. Sir Reginald Goodall conducting Tristan. Emil Gilels playing the Hammerklavier Sonata. Dawn Upshaw singing Purcell's The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation.

Tonight I heard something which I know will live on in my mind for as long as I am alive: Sir Simon Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in Bruckner's 7th Symphony. The sheer quality of the BPO's sound is usually taken as a given, but it shouldn't be. Glorious as it has always been, it can sometimes seem just too perfect - like a giant shag pile smothering sheen of sound. Rattle has given it something else; a transparency which has not detracted one iota from the perfection and the sheen, but has added a new dimension of character.

But it was the coupling of orchestral playing of unmatched brilliance - I don't think I have ever even imagined such perfection was possible - with an awe-inspiring interpretation of Bruckner's most perfect symphony which lifted the performance into legend. I've heard any number of interpretations of it, but never before have I felt that I was hearing something almost too painful to listen to. The Seventh is, in many ways, Bruckner's most lyrical symphony, and most conductors often merely hint at the pain which is also there. Rattle somehow managed to convey every ounce of the poetry and lyricism but at the same time laid out the despair which lies behind every bar, however sweet the notes may seem. The second movement, which was inspired by the approaching death of Bruckner's hero, Wagner, was wrenching.

Tne good news is you can hear it here. Click on Listen Online, then Prom 65, Part 2. I don't know for how long it will be available, so do it asap!