The extraordinary giant flare of 1998 August 27 fromSGR&hthinsp;1900+14was the most intense event ever detected from this or any other cosmic source (even more intense than the famous 1979 March 5th event). It was longer than any previous burst fromSGR1900+14by more than one order of magnitude, and it displayed the same 5.16-s periodicity in hard X-rays that was detected in the low-energy X-ray flux of its quiescent counterpart. The event was detected by several gamma-ray experiments in space, among them theUlyssesgamma-ray burst detector and theBeppoSAXGamma Ray Burst Monitor. These instruments operate in different energy ranges, and a comparison of their data shows that the event emitted a strongly energy-dependent flux, and displayed strong spectral evolution during the outburst, itself. Here we present a joint analysis of theBeppoSAXandUlyssesdata, in order to identify the energy-dependent features of this event and understand some of the physical conditions in the environment of the neutron star which generated this flare. ©2000 American Institute of Physics.