# Your very first Classical purchases / presents.



## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

I've been thinking about my formative days of listening to Classical music. For some of us this will be hidden in the depths of time. For others who came into this "genre" later, it will be easier to remember.
I was just wondering what were the first Classical CDs/tapes/LPs/78's you owned were.

I had three by the age of 10.

They were all on cassette tape.

My first was a present from my brother. It had Schuberts Unfinished with Beethoven's 8th Symphony on the other side. I think it was a Classics for Pleasure like the next two.

I loved Classics for Pleasure.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I began around the age of 17 with some Naxos cassettes that I almost never listened to, lost, and cannot remember.

About a year later, perhaps my first classical CD was the Kronos Quartet Black Angels CD, which I wanted after a friend played it for me. It was a good start; it's still one of my favorites. I got the Kronos disk of Glass quartets early on as well, and the Golijov "Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind" not too much later. All of those made really good impressions on me, though the Golijov took me the longest to get used to, it's probably my favorite now.

The O'Donnell recording of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Mass on Hyperion was another early purchase. It has recently been supplanted in my reckoning by Rattle on EMI, but I listened to it many times.

My grandmother somehow got a BBC magazine disk of Takemitsu's _From Me Flows What You Call Time_ and Walton's first symphony. The Walton has still not imprinted on me, but the Takemitsu has always been one of my favorites; now my favorite recording of it is the St. Clair on Sony.

About a year after those purchases, a Supraphon disk titled "Mirabile Mysterium: Sacred Music in Rudolfine Prague" was my introduction to early music, and it hooked me. I have no idea how I picked that disk up, but I _really_ hope it comes back into production someday, or at least becomes available as MP3s. I still have it of course, but no one else does! Fortunately, the group Cinqueciento is making more popular recordings of similar music.

Somewhere in there I got a Karajan recording of Mozart's Requiem, which also imprinted on me. Although I can recognize technical ways that other recordings are better, that one remains my sentimental favorite.

In retrospect, though I had some good stuff there, I really regret the aimless, clueless purchasing I did at that time, when I had so little money and so much time for listening. In particular I wasted too much money on cheap recordings that I now no longer listen to.

But my spending and exploration accelerated dramatically once I was gainfully employed and had my students loans mostly paid off. By then I'd learned how to shop with more discretion, and have regretted fewer purchases.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

First ever I was given with just Classical:
*HiFi Karajan!* (Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, G-Dur, KV 525 // Smetana - Die Moldau // Ravel - Bolero // Sibelius - Valse Triste, Op. 44 )









First I ever bought:
*Dmitri Shostakovich* - Symphony No 5 with London Symphony and André Previn on RCA









Still got both discs and the latter gets a spin now and then!

/ptr


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Schubert's unfinished symphony (in the dubious finished version) on Philips CD, 1986.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Wow, thinking about this made me realize how alienated I am now. In my real life, not one person that I know shares my interest in classical music. I only know one person in real life who shares my interest in jazz, and one who shares my interest in literature. No one in my family is interested in anything like this. Back then I was in a small, fairly tight community of people who were open to and interested in anything weird or "cultural," and we explored things like Schoenberg or Kundera or Kierkegaard together. We were alienated from the larger culture around us, but we had each other. And then in college I was of course surrounded by people with those interests. But now I have... talkclassical! You guys are it! And that must be why I spend so much time here.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I started off with two cheap cassettes - no idea now who the performers were, possibly they were eastern European orchestras - one with Grieg's piano concerto and the two Peer Gynt suites, the other with Scheherazade and Night on Bare Mountain.

First CD I bought, a couple of years later, was of some Tchaikovsky warhorses.


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## Conor71 (Feb 19, 2009)

I got this one as a gift about 12 years ago - my first disc of Classical Music:










It was a little while before I got around to collecting more classical stuff - got these 8 years ago:

















Still got them all!


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

Age 15 (1986) I accidentaly turned on the classical radio station just as they were starting the announcers introduction to a live performance of Haydn's Symphony 100, the "Military".

Can't remember what the announcer said to have piqued my curiosity. Can't now remember the performance, but it must have been electric - I ran out the next morning and purchased the only lp the store had. As luck would have it was Karl Munchinger's (in Decca's budget Viva! series). A recording I'm still very fond of.









I think I purchased a slew of DGs "Galleria" lps, which the store had at super-special prices, shortly after that


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Maria Tipo playing Chopin's _Nocturnes_.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

When I was in high school, I purchased a disc of Tchaikovsky excerpts (the usual Nutcracker, Swan Lake fragments, adagios, etc) that I ultimately did not listen to much. When I wanted to broaden my horizons about six years ago, I again dove into Tchaikvosky with his "99 most Essential" mp3 album. I listened and enjoyed but did not go much further than that. Two more 99 Essential sets followed a couple years later with Mendelssohn and Chopin, and it is those I credit for finally getting really interested in classical music.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

In fourth grade (this was back in the late 1950s) I went to the big Radio Shack store in Kenmore Square in Boston with my dad (a ham radio guy), and he let me buy an LP -- excerpts from "Swan Lake" on Capitol by the Ballet Theatre Orchestra (I assume NYC). I remember listening to it constantly in my room while I read the series of Dr. Dolittle books.


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## OboeKnight (Jan 25, 2013)

I think my first was a "Vivaldi's Best" disc.


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

Obviously, I had heard classical prior to purchasing my first CDs -- so these aren't just random pickings -- but I had a particular interest in the two composers below, and grabbed the two albums in a used book store on a whim one day. And time hasn't stopped ticking since...


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

GGluek said:


> In fourth grade (this was back in the late 1950s) I went to the big Radio Shack store in Kenmore Square in Boston with my dad (a ham radio guy), and he let me buy an LP -- excerpts from "Swan Lake" on Capitol by the Ballet Theatre Orchestra (I assume NYC). I remember listening to it constantly in my room while I read the series of Dr. Dolittle books.


Nostalgia.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

As I may have said on another thread (curse of doddering wits), the first piece of classical music I owned was an LP of Holst's Planets conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. I bought it at cost price (30 shillings) from my eldest brother, who'd bought it from Banks in York & gone off it straight away. He said that listening to Saturn, the bringer of Old Age, *made* him feel old.  I liked it, and I still do, but I prefer Venus now to Mars, which was nearly always the one played on 'Children's Favourites'.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Nereffid said:


> First CD I bought, a couple of years later, was of some Tchaikovsky warhorses.





> *Frasier Crane*: Remember when you used to think the 1812 Overture was a great piece of classical music?
> *Niles Crane*: Was I ever that young?


:lol:

On topic: I believe my first classical album was Gould's Goldbergs.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

When I was about 4-5, I had this CD and two others in the series:










A little later, my dad bought me this CD and a few others like it. These compilations that sampled various pieces of classical music are really what fueled my interest the most:










Either way, I've been listening to classical music since I was very little. My parents introduced me to it at a young age and opera was the first type of classical music I listened to.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

I didn't really listen to Classical until college, and even then I merely dabbled.

I remember owning a cassette of Also Sprach Zarathustra then. Maybe that was my first. 

After college, I think Gorecki's 3rd was my first Classical CD. It received some crossover publicity; I still wasn't into fully into Classical yet.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Well... the year was 1950, and the LPs were a Montgomery Ward (or maybe Sears and Roebuck) brand, direct transfers from 78s of symphony recordings in sound so bad that... well, bad. And that's as close as I can get to remembering. I can remember the record player though, because I treasured it.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

My father branched out in the 1960s & bought an LP called 'Philharmonic Pops'. I wish I had it now to see what were considered 'pops'. I remember it had something from Eugene Onegin & a Brahms' Hungarian Dance - both tunes that I still hum & like, though I notice that poor Brahms attracts a lot of sneers for his folk stuff. But then, I am a Pleb!


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Ingenue said:


> But then, I am a Pleb!


Aren't we all! Was it this LP?









I have a copy, bought at a Red Cross charity shop for 10p... :tiphat:

/ptr


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

My first two classical music recordings, bought in some supermarket in 2005, I think:

A selection of Wagner's orchestral music, conducted by Furtwängler:









A 2-CD-Set "Best of Beethoven" (Brilliant Classics):


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

ptr said:


> Aren't we all! Was it this LP?
> 
> View attachment 16765
> 
> ...


I think the cover is different; maybe a later remake - does it have the Brahms Hungarian dance & Eugene Onegin on? 
Clever you, anyway!


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Ingenue said:


> I think the cover is different; maybe a later remake - does it have the Brahms Hungarian dance & Eugene Onegin on?
> Clever you, anyway!


We've studied it carefully and Ingenue confirms that it is indeed the same one. (She also feels she might have forgotten the cover)

Not just clever you but lucky as well!


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Ingenue said:


> I think the cover is different; maybe a later remake - does it have the Brahms Hungarian dance & Eugene Onegin on? Clever you, anyway!


Yes it has, and I don't know about clever, just an apple for the teacher, you know... 



Taggart said:


> Not just clever you but lucky as well!


I'm just a chronic record collector and LP's still being dirt cheap at most charity shops and flea markets I buy in bulk, for me it is some considerable pride to own an IRL record library, the smell and tactile sensation of a half a century old album will most probably never (in our lifetime?) be available through listening via the internet! I mourn the next Generation of *Homo Sapiens*, the one that will bear the suffix; *non tactilus*! 

/ptr


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

My very first classical experience followed the first time I ever set foot in a Target.

I was in early elementary school, and my brother had just purchased a "boombox"; you know, those huge, bulky CD/stereo players. Although they were new to me, I decided that I was going to get a boombox of my own, and start my own personal CD collection. As I walked to the CD section, the current offerings didn't interest me much, indeed I have a vague recollection of walking right past an MC Hammer album.

I came upon a $4 album of Beethoven's 9th. Having heard of this work before, I decided to purchase this album [the conductor and orchestra are unknown to me, as it was quite long ago]. I got home and listened to the first movement [which today remains my favorite of the whole symphony], and I was immediately in love. It all began there, and, thank goodness, still hasn't stopped.


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

^

Oh man, I actually just searched for the Beethoven's 9th album that I mentioned [I remembered the cover art of it and a series of sister recordings by the same label, in order to identify the label itself, and then simply searched for that label's recording of Beethoven's 9th].

It was Alfred Scholz: London Festival Orchestra.

I'm going to order a copy, for old time's sake.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I think it was _The Complete Works of Edgard Varèse_ as recorded by Riccardo Chailly, the Royal Concertgebouw and the ASKO Ensemble on Decca.


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## Perotin (May 29, 2012)

I think it was Rachmaninov's 24 Preludes. I bought it after watching a movie called Shine. Even if it wasn't the very first, it was the first to impress me so deeply, that I began to explore classical music.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

I think I bought my first classical cds when I was 13 yo or something. Bach's organ works by Karl Richter, and some other orchestral works, Beethoven's piano sonatas by Daniel Barenboim, and Beethoven's piano concertos by Martha Argerich, with Abbado I think. One of these cds also contained Prokofiev's 3rd piano concerto.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

ptr said:


> [...]
> I'm just a chronic record collector and LP's still being dirt cheap at most charity shops and flea markets I buy in bulk, for me it is some considerable pride to own an IRL record library, the smell and tactile sensation of a half a century old album will most probably never (in our lifetime?) be available through listening via the internet! I mourn the next Generation of *Homo Sapiens*, the one that will bear the suffix; *non tactilus*!
> 
> /ptr


"...the smell and tactile sensation...", yes indeed. Precisely descriptive of old books too, and too an experience soon to be solely 'the province of scholars'.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Novelette said:


> ^
> 
> Oh man, I actually just searched for the Beethoven's 9th album that I mentioned [I remembered the cover art of it and a series of sister recordings by the same label, in order to identify the label itself, and then simply searched for that label's recording of Beethoven's 9th].
> 
> ...


No reflection on the performance, but both conductor and orchestra are pseudonyms.


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## IBMchicago (May 16, 2012)

It was 1987 when my parents purchased their very first CD player/stereo. The purchase came with a free CD containing music recorded for the movie Amadeus. My parents, who knew nothing of classical music, gave it to me and I immediately turned into an ardent fan and the strangest kid in 3rd grade.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I grew up on the Reader's Digest stuff including the Beethoven Treasury and Festival Sinfonico! Still, they contain some of my favorite recordings. I had a wonderful radio station which I heard for years before collecting. Among the first cd's I purchased were The Rachmaninov Piano Concerti by Earl Wild and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; a bunch I was quite familiar with from the RD releases. Then, after falling in love with Bach's f-minor keyboard concerto, the only cd I found containing the piece was an incomplete set by some dude named Glenn Gould. I know I would have eventually found him but I am thankful it was relatively early. 

The rest is a blur as I continue to purchase to this date...now, mostly online.


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Hilltroll72 said:


> No reflection on the performance, but both conductor and orchestra are pseudonyms.


Ah! Indeed! I like this pseudonymity.

My memory of that recording is fairly vague, although I specifically recall that the four trombone strikes on D after the end of the previous movements' theme repetition were perfectly timed [performers tend to rocket through these four eighth notes]. It influenced my who appraisal of this work.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Gosh ! I'm a dinosaur ! My first purchases of classical recordings were way back in the stoneage of LPs 
in the late 1960s ! I was a teenager , had discovered classical music and became wildly enthusiastic about it .
I can barely remember the first ones I got . I remember the Verdi requiem with Solti, the VPO, Sutherland, Horne, Pavarotti and Talvela, Giulini/Philharmonia in the Beethoven pastoral symphony, a Wagner album with German bass Theo Adam, and maybe a few others .


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2013)

Growing up, I had access to my dad's record collection. He had the complete DG Beethoven Bicentennial collection on LP. I still remember one time making a concerted effort to go through them all - I only made it through the symphonies (sadly I didn't discover the rest until later). He also liked listening to Bach's organ works.

But as for purchases that I made, the very first I remember was a Naxos recording of Dvorak's Slavonic Dances conducted by Zdenek Kosler. I remember it because I still have it. I bought it back in 1992. I was in Academic Decathlon, and the music portion included these works. My friend and I listened to it in the background while we studied, so we would be familiar with it. 

After that, I bought a recording of Mozart's Requiem on DG conducted by Karajan. I also bought a recording of excerpts from Mozart's Magic Flute - they were highlights from the Bohm DG recording. This was all back in high school. Then I bought nothing for a long while.

I finally got back into classical music a few years ago, and my very first purchase was the Klemperer recording of Mozart's Magic Flute on EMI - still one of my favorite recordings ever!


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

My very first classical record was Beethoven's 5th on MFP; I'd have been about 12. All my earliest purchases were on either MFP or Fontana Special because they were the cheapest and my local record shop had a good stock. I remember poring over the lovely Decca Eclipse record covers with their photos of scenes from across the UK, but they were more expensive (19/11d as opposed to 15/-).
My next few purchases included Prokofiev Romeo & Juliet, Shostakovich 5th and Holst 'Planets'. I still have the Prokofiev and Shostakovich discs and I remember this time as being one of discovery and wonder.


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## Silkenblack (Apr 12, 2013)

Sibelius: Kullervo (First recording)
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Berglund

Shostakovich: Symphony N 5
State Symphony Orchestra of the USSR
Maxim Shostakovich

Bought them 1972. Still great recordings.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

I suppose it must have been in 1968. I was 10. My very first LP purchase was a recording of the two Peer Gynt suites by Grieg performed by the Hamburg Staatsoper Orchestra with an uncredited conductor (whom I now suspect might have been Leopold Ludwig). It was on the Marble Arch label and had no useful sleeve notes. It cost 14/6 in old British money (72.5p now - about $1.20). My second purchase was Beethoven's 5th and the Egmont Overture on ther Hallmark label, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Josef Krips (this series of Beethoven symphonies has been reissused many times on a variety of labels and in varying standards of transfer).


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## Peterinch (Apr 24, 2013)

When I was 8, I got a portable cassette player for Christmas, and with it I was given a cassette of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra and Dance Suite (Haitink; Concertgebouw Orchestra). In retrospect, it seems like an unusual gift for an 8 year old, but it was my only cassette and I listened to it over and over again on my new cassette player. Unfortunately, I did something to the tape that introduced a 1 second gap near the end of the 4th movement on side 1 and at the same place at the beginning of the 5th movement on side 2. 
I now listen to the concerto on CD and it is one of my favorite pieces, but every time I listen to it I expect to hear the pauses in the 4th and 5th movements that were on my cassette.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Handel's Water Music, Tchaikovsky's Ballet Music, Strauss Waltz's, Mozart Symphony 40 and 41, Dvorak Symphony 8 and 9, Haydn Symphony 101, Mozart Musical Joke, L. Mozart(?) Toy Symphony, Emanuel Chabrier greatest hits, Saint Saens greatest hits, Holst the Planets, Bernstein West Side Story, Copland ballets, Brahms Hungarian Dances for orchestra.

Mixed tapes from really young.


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## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

The first ones I spent money on were Vivaldi wind concertos and some Bach, I think it was on brass and organ. Expanding into other genres it was Nonsuch and Turnabout LPs in the late 60s early 70s. Some Segovia LPS., Janacek, Switched on Bach, Sibelius LPs sent by my grandmother. I always liked the popular pieces like Finlandia, but it took another 40 years to "get" most of the symphonies. My most complete genre is baroque, excepting the operas and oratorios. After that, classical guitar.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

As some other posters here, my parents had a fair collection of classical albums I didnt buy my own LP until I left home at 17.
This one...The Adagio from the A minor was something I just 'couldnt live without'....Moi ?..a pretentious teenager? Lol!


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## Joris (Jan 13, 2013)

My very first recording was Rite/Le Sacre du Printemps conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. I had Rites of Spring, the 80's post-hardcore band, liked on facebook, and the giver misinterpreted this, so I got Stravinsky's work instead of something by the punk group as a present


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Those of you with musical families, you should be sooooo thankful. I have a good family, I can't complain, but most elephants grow up in more musical environments than I did. 

Curious thing for the nature/nurture folks - when I found my biological/birth family, it turns out they're extremely musical. Some of them, you wouldn't want to loan money, or leave alone with your kids, but every single one of them plays at least one instrument.


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