# Scenes from your childhood



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

When I was a kid, we had some classical records in the house, so I kind of grew up with it. Two I particularly remember: Bruch's Scottish Fantasia and Beethoven's fifth. I can't say I really listen to either that much anymore, but they always bring back memories, because they count among the very earliest memories I have of anything. We also had a recording of Beethoven's fourth, though I did not listen to it all that much at the time, because that brooding opening awed me so much I found it kind of scary. 

Feel free to share your early discoveries of classical music. Any of them you still consider favourites?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

My parents played German Schlagers from the 50s and early 60s - actually, I put a few on the car USB stick for nostalgia reasons.

My first encounter with classical music was in highschool (where "music" was one of the disciplines). Mussorgsky/Ravel's Pictures at an exhibition. Still a favourite.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Vivaldi's Four Seasons used to be played a lot both when my mother was pregnant and also when I was a toddler apparently. 

I grew up hearing bits of Mozart, Beethoven and Bizet thorough my childhood and never liked it (or music at all for that matter).


But when I fell in love with classical as a teenager, it was through modernism. Straight away into the heavyweights with very little classical-related theory knowledge at first: Stravinsky, Bartok, Xenakis, Stockhausen, Grisey, Messiaen and that has had possibly the biggest impact on me with music, but that's not my "child"hood.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

We had classical on all the time, my first crush was a Fonata L.P from my parents, Beethoven piano concert no 5 played by Magaloff/ Otterloo , coupled with symphony no 5 Igor Markevitch conduting.


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## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

High school band was an early influence with some Mozart and a couple of Mussorgsky's "Pictures." But Emerson, Lake & Palmer were the biggest influence, leading me to find the actual pieces that they were playing arangements of, like Pictures, Janacek's Sinfonietta, Copland's Fanfare, Prokofiev's Troika, etc. Pictures is still a favorite.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

The two pieces I remember most from childhood, school above all, are Rossini's _Wilhelm Tell overture_ and Chopin's C sharp minor waltz (op.64 no.2, though I didn't know this at the time!). I still love that waltz.


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## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

Actually, my earliest memories of CM were from cartoons as a young kid, but while that may have subconsciously influenced me, it didn't cause me to seek anything out. It was during high school that I did that (post above).


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## agoukass (Dec 1, 2008)

Both of my parents are musicians, so I grew up listening to music all the time either when they were playing or through recordings. The first pieces of music I remember listening to are Wagner's "Tannhauser" Overture and Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony.


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

Some of my earliest memories are of my father playing his vinyl. Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Elgar's Cello Concerto are two that I remember particularly clearly.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

As I've said before, my earliest encounters with CM was through cartoons but what really got me hooked were James Last LPs that my dad had in the 70s (yes, I really did say James Last). It was utter crud but it introduced me to pieces that I still love. I wouldn't ever want to hear them again  but as an introduction it did the trick. It was the first time I'd heard the Presto from Beethoven's 7th Symphony - I've loved that movement ever since.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

My mom played lots of Russian music and talked with me about it at a young age. Ballet suites by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, Mussorgsky's Pictures and Night on Bald Mountain, some Borodin. Also Grieg's Peer Gynt and some Sibelius.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

My parents and older sisters were not into CM. My first influences were what I picked up on old 78s. Greig Piano Concerto (Backhaus soloist), Borodin Polovtsian Dances (1934 live recording!). Both works are still firm favourites.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

One 'scene' I recall is going to the headmistress's office after school to receive a "prize" for answering a question about Pompeii during morning assembly. In her office she was listening to Janacek's _Sinfonietta_ (I soon learned) and after being there for about 5 minutes the 4th movement started. It used to be well-known as the theme music to an afternoon TV programme called _Crown Court_ and I referred it as such..."Oh, this the music from Crown Court".

She indicated the cassette box (the good old days) on her desk and I was afraid she would try and get me to pronounce Janacek's name. She asked if I liked classical music. I said that I liked some, but didn't know many names of the composers or music. She said I could take the cassette if I wanted to. To be honest I didn't particularly want it, but I accepted it and left after a bit of slightly embarrassed small-talk. I don't know what the actual "prize" was supposed to have been because when I arrived she couldn't even remember the promise from the morning, but I got the music anyway...which I didn't play or even look at for about ten years! My loss.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

In high school, I heard my mother's albums of the Copland ballets (Appalachian Spring, Rodeo and Billy the Kid) and Ravel's (Bolero, La Valse & Ma Mere l'Oye.) I thoroughly enjoyed them (and still do). They inspired me to deepen my study of theory and orchestration.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I was a constant reader from a yoiung age, often in my room with a CM record on the mono player I had. As a result I still associate some pieces with the books I was reading while listening to them. i.e. Excerpts from Swan Lake with the Dr. Doolittle series; El Salon Mexico with a teen scifi novel about the Martian moon Phobos. . .

I still have the Dance of the Apprentices from Die Meistersinger as the soundtrack to the scene in A Tale of Two Cities where a mob of Parisians are dancing the Carmagnole. (It fits, too.)


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