# What was your classical first love?



## andrewsmolich1 (Jan 14, 2016)

What was the first piece of classical music that you fell deeply and madly in love with? Is it still a favorite today? How often do you still listen to it?

For me this would be Beethoven's Op. 132 quartet. When I was 20, I had my interest piqued in classical after hearing the Grosse Fuge and listened to all of Beethoven's late quartets. I thought the SQ 15 was the most beautiful piece of music I had ever heard. Since then, classical has been almost all that I listen to. Op 132 is still one of my favorites, but I've found others since then that top my list.


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## EarthBoundRules (Sep 25, 2011)

Beethoven's 9th. I checked it out after watching A Clockwork Orange and ended up listening to it so much that I can't stand it anymore.


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

When I was about five, my grandmother played Schubert's fifth symphony, a very tuneful and approachable work. I begged to hear it over and over. Haven't listened to it for years now, but it's still a lovely, fresh symphony.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)




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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

_Symphony No 3 in C minor_, Camille Saint-Saëns, for organ and orchestra. First heard on a Columbia LP label with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Philharmonic and the late E. Power Biggs at the organ console.

(Columbia cat. ML5212)


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

*Rossini*: William Tell Overture.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I think I've told this story (or parts of it) before, but it's still a good one. I didn't start liking classical music until; my late 20s/early 30s. I had pretty much only listened to rock/soul and heard a small number of classical works. My girlfriend (now wife) is a violinist, and she was playing Tchaikovsky when we began living together. Our apartment was small, and I could always hear her practicing. I got to know the work rather well. 

She played with the Delaware Symphony then, and one concert had Elmar Oliveira playing Tchaikovsky. From Oliveira's first note until the work was finished, time seemed to stop. It was simply the most wonderful thing I had ever heard. I still adore that work - it's my favorite violin concerto (tied with Brahms). So my wife catalyzed my love for classical music and instilled me with adoration for one of the greatest works ever written. I tend to listen to modern music more than earlier works (at least recently), but I will always play Tchaikovsky now and then to hear those sublime sounds.


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

On one Saturday in the middle of April, when I was in 7th grade, I was absentmindedly flipping through the pop music on my mp3 player while traveling by car. Bored with all the songs I had, I noticed an anomaly amidst the titles. I had managed to get Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto. I guess it appeared while I was searching for new music, and I bought it out of sheer boredom. 
Having clicked on the piano concerto, I listened to the first 55 seconds in utter absorption. Love at first listen, really. Then the mp3 stopped playing, at which point I angrily restarted the work. Same thing. 
I rebooted the mp3 two or three times and kept trying to get the rest of the concerto to play for the 20 minute ride home. When I got home, I found out how to fix the problem. After I heard the whole thing, I became "hooked on" classical music. Rach soon became my favorite composer. 

I still listen to the piano concerto, even though I've been exposed to immeasurably more classical music since. And Rachmaninoff is still my favorite composer.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

EarthBoundRules said:


> Beethoven's 9th. I checked it out after watching A Clockwork Orange and ended up listening to it so much that I can't stand it anymore.


I hope that's hyperbole. That would be so sad.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Schubert's Unfinished B minor symphony. I still love it but am careful so I don't listen to it that often. Maybe once every few months.


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

EarthBoundRules said:


> Beethoven's 9th. I checked it out after watching A Clockwork Orange and ended up listening to it so much that I can't stand it anymore.


Same. If someone mentions it, my first thought is of Alex jumping out the window. Sadly, my second thought is of Alex's rape of the two children while the symphony is playing. It's ruined for me.


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## EarthBoundRules (Sep 25, 2011)

mmsbls said:


> I hope that's hyperbole. That would be so sad.


I still put it on once in a while, but I've got the whole thing memorized so I don't really need to.


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## vampireslugger (Aug 5, 2015)

The first time I came to love a classical work was only a few years ago, and it was Arvo Part's Tabula Rasa. I'd heard some Reich and was kind of interested, but Part I really loved. Goodness knows why I started listening to minimalism -- I otherwise only really listened to metal -- but the second movement to Tabula Rasa, Silentium, was irresistibly sad and beautiful.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Brandenberg concerto no.3
William Tell overture by Rossini
Vivaldi's Four Seasons
Mozart pieces


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Holst's _Jupiter!_ I liked classical music before then, a number of things (thanks to Fantasia and some other music my mom shared with me), but that was the piece that really struck me as something amazing, and it ended up being the first CD I ever bought for myself, which had the whole Planets. That was in 2005, I believe, 12 years old.

I choose not to listen to it anymore, but it's still a piece I recommend to other listeners.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Beethoven's Emperor Piano Concerto. 

My father had both LP's lying around near a small "Victrola" and I was fascinated by the music. I must have been 5 or 6.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Rimsky-Korsakov _Scheherazade_


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Montagues and Capulets from Prokofiev's Rome and Juliet and Fanfare for the Common Man on a classical compilation tape when I was 12. There may have been some stuff before that - but this the specific stuff when I really knew I was smitten.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A (K. 488). It's still in my rotation but not as heavily as it once was. Still consider it to be one of his finest concertos.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2. It was a live broadcast from Lincoln Center of Andre Watts performing with the NY Phil in 1988. I was hooked after that.


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## StDior (May 28, 2015)

Beethoven Symphony 5 attracted me from pop music to classical music. Still I admire it.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

mstar said:


> Same. If someone mentions it, my first thought is of Alex jumping out the window. Sadly, my second thought is of *Alex's rape of the two children* while the symphony is playing. It's ruined for me.


Wow! Glad I never saw that movie.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

For me it was Beethoven's fifth symphony and it was my dad who recommended it to me. Always was and always will be a favorite of mine.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

As a child at home, listening to 78s of Borodin: Polovtsian Dances; Grieg: Peer Gynt; Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf. First purchase: Rachmaninoff PC #2, with Eugene Istomin and Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Florestan said:


> Wow! Glad I never saw that movie.


That occurs only in the book, not the movie.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Mahler's Symphony No. 01 in D major (Titan)

The funeral march is very often playing in my head.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

.d.e.l.e.t.e.d. .p.o.s.t.


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## Ilarion (May 22, 2015)

Rachmaninov's 3rd just blew me away, especially with the *ossia cadenza* in the 1st movement.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

My first ever own Vinyl (I still have it) given by my parents.

Beethoven's piano concerto no 5 .
Nikitta Magaloff playing


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

J.S.Bach's Preludium in E major. I had heard some of his compositions before, but this was the first piece of his that was on the very first classical record that I had owned, and it really did set me on the track to become the Classical music loving curmudgeon that I am today.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Cesar Franck Symphony in D
Rimsky Korsakov Russian Easter Overture
Mussorgsky Pictures At An Exhibition
Bach Air For The G String
Beethoven Symphony No. 7
Borodin In The Steppes Of Central Asia


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## bz3 (Oct 15, 2015)

I played a lot of Vivaldi when I was learning violin and many were among my favorites because it's such a joy for a beginner to roll pleasant melodies off after 2 years of Schradieck. But the first piece I recall falling in love with as a listener was Mozart's 40th Symphony.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

Everyone who didn't start with a Beethoven piece got cheated out of their classical integration.


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## Potiphera (Mar 24, 2011)

Early school days we had Bach, Jesu Joy in assembly. 
Out of school forever played in the shopping malls, Pachelbel canon, I still love this piece. 

Later in life, Vaughan Williams, Lark Ascending and Theme on Thomas Tallis. 
I liked Prokofiev and later introduced my children to Peter and the Wolf. Still love it
I never tire of Prokofiev's brilliant Dance of the Knights!


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Two of the earliest works that I remember really having an impact on me were J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Ravel's Jeux d'eau.

*edit *- I still love both works and listen to them fairly often.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Brahms Violin Concerto at age 7 or 8.
Later discovered the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto & Rachmaninof 2nd Piano Concerto, then the Beethoven Violin Concerto.
And I was hooked for life.


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## Guest (Jan 26, 2016)

Bartok's string quartets.
I don't remember how or why I got them, amongst my decades of rock, jazz and blues but they impressed me deeply and I still love them. I always fancied that they were the classical equivalent of King Crimson (circa Larks Tongues).


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto. It's no longer at the very top of my classical chart as I gradually morphed into a Mozart nut first and foremost, but I still love it.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

When I was 10 my father took me to a recordstore in Nairobi were we lived for 4 years. I was allowed to get a cassette of my choice and picked Mozart symphony no. 29 + one more. Forgot which version...


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

Sergei Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé; this was a school project when I was about 9. I really wanted to be a hussar bold!


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

I grew up with popular classics being played regularly but I started to get seriously interested when I was 18 an Aunt gave me a copy of Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor as a flat warming present. I still have it and still love it. She also gave me Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto no 1 which I also still have.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

1. Tannhäuser
2. The Alpine Symphony.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

dogen said:


> Bartok's string quartets.
> I don't remember how or why I got them, amongst my decades of rock, jazz and blues but they impressed me deeply and I still love them. I always fancied that they were the classical equivalent of King Crimson (circa Larks Tongues).


do you know this?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Schubert's Unfinished - which has remained a perennial favourite.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

When I was a child I had an automatic record player similar to this one
(in Italian "mangiadischi", i.e. "record-eater", I couldn't find a proper word for it in English)










and a birthday my parents gave me a collection of about twenty 45's of a classical music series I cannot remember the name of.
There were short popular pieces such as Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers, Chopin's Heroic Polonaise, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2, Grieg's Morning Mood, etc.
I used to play them most of the day, they were my classical first loves.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

17 years old I heard the beginning of Mahler's first symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra & Bernard Haitink. That was like Paul seeing the light on the road to Damascus. I got struck by the opening sounds... In those days the Dutch radio featured special Mahler broadcasts from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with Christmas. After Mahler came Bruckner, came Shostakovich (all Concertgebouw + Haitink), and from there I started to explore backwards & forward Classical music from all ages. Yes, I do return to my first love and wonder: it renews like at first sight. That's by the way the secret of Classical music.


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## Harmonie (Mar 24, 2007)

This movement and particular recording of Handel's Water Music - Andante. It was on a tapeset that I listened to at my grandparents' house the summer of 2005. I fell in love with it, and also the bassoon part!

I still very much like it... In fact, the version that LSO released on digital platforms (album: Passions & Pleasures) is a slightly different recording and you can hear the bassoon even more!

Now that I play the oboe, I actually like it even more. The bassoon and oboe are amazing together.


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

So many ....can hardly say what was the first...

then, let's start : first it was *Brahms op.117* and after that madly in love with *Andante from his Third Symphony*, couldn't stop listening to it. Then it was *Three arias of Delilah* from Samson and Delilah by Saint-Saens of which "Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix" was my favoritissima :lol:

After that I matured and *R.Strauss with his final trio from Die Rozenkavalier* became my next "first" love which has been lasting until now including majority of his other vocal works, well, instrumental are not abandoned as well


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

The Ritual Fire Dance caught my imagination when I was six.

Handel's March from Scipio (violin homework) sparked a frisson of admiration when I was thirteen. 

Rodrigo's Guitar Concerto aroused warm affection when I was fifteen.

An LP of Music from the French Court (Sixteenth Century) made me moonstruck in my twenties.

But falling deeply and madly in love? That had to wait till I was a sexagenarian and heard Lully played by Jordi Savall and L'orchestre Du Roi Soleil. 

And yes, my feelings haven't changed, and they never will. :kiss:


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

mstar said:


> Same. If someone mentions it, my first thought is of Alex jumping out the window. Sadly, my second thought is of Alex's rape of the two children while the symphony is playing. It's ruined for me.


That which Adrian Leverkühn only dreamed, Stanley Kubrick has effortlessly accomplished.


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

With me the beginning was Beethoven's 7th Symphony (which is now one of my least favorite of the nine).


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

helenora said:


> *Rozenkavalier*


Now there's a glorious (presumably unintentional, alas) put down.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings
Holst The Planets
Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition
Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf

were all pieces that I listened to over and over as a kid


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## Guest (Jan 26, 2016)

Mozart, Piano Concerto #21 in C Major!


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Badinerie said:


> I grew up with popular classics being played regularly but I started to get seriously interested when I was 18 an Aunt gave me a copy of Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor as a flat warming present. I still have it and still love it. She also gave me Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto no 1 which I also still have.


Sponsored by 'Embassy', I see - did she give you a packet of ciggies too?


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

senza sordino said:


> Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique


Me too. I remember the music teacher playing us extracts from this and telling us the story about it. I thought little more about it until 8 or 9 years later when I saw this in a jumble sale for 20p and gave it a few listens









after a slow germination, the seed of 'classical' music took hold and for the last 20 years or so, I have enjoyed 'classical' music of many different types


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## Guest (Jan 26, 2016)

norman bates said:


> do you know this?


Ha! No I didn't so thanks! A bit more Discipline-period KC methinks!
Cheers!


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

Headphone Hermit said:


> Sponsored by 'Embassy', I see - did she give you a packet of ciggies too?


No...but I think she bought them with her Embassy Coupons!


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)




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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Enrico Caruso singing Una Furtiva Lagrima. When I was very young a relative used to play Caruso in my presence during visits, and that aria--which I couldn't understand a word of--tore me apart.






God, this takes me back!

Great idea for a thread.


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

I'd been listening to classical music before but I didn't fall "deeply, madly in love" with any piece until Mozart's 27th piano concerto when I first saw a performance of it in March almost 11 years ago. I still have the concert program from the night: An Evening with Mozart, with performances of the Overture from La Clemenza di Tito, Piano Concerto #27, and Symphony #41. It looks like the night before, there was a performance of the clarinet concerto and the 26th piano concerto. If I had been the fan back then that I am today, I would've bought tickets to both concerts without hesitation.


The 27th concerto is still a favorite, but because I get such an intense emotional reaction from it I have to be in the right mood and frame of mind to listen. It's even more so today because the pianist I saw perform it passed away a couple years ago and I can't help associating her with the piece, especially during the second movement, so listening to it always makes me a little sad.


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

That last piano concerto is quite magnificent. I feel the same way about the first mature concerto, no. 9, K271, the jeunnehomme. That slow movement nearly always brings me to tears: it is so desolate and so beautiful. If I could take only one collection to a desert island, I think it would have to be Mozart's piano concertos. (Unless I was allowed the Philips Great Pianists of the Century set, 200 CDs).


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Bruno Walter conducting the Allegretto from Beethoven's Seventh was my epiphany. I was in high school and found it in my dad's rather limited classical music collection.


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## Jeff W (Jan 20, 2014)

Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 with Janos Ferencsik conducting the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra. I got this set when I was pretty young (I think it was for Christmas) after being completely entranced with Disney's 'Fantasia'. Not all that spectacular a recording (it was probably not all that expensive since we didn't have that much money...) but I listened to it over and over and over again. So much so that everyone else was sick of hearing it!


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

My first classical love was Beniamino Gigli singing famous arias, "Je crois entendre encore", "Che Gelida Manina", "Una Furtiva Lagrima", "Apri la tua Finestra", etc. etc.

However, that was a good while back and it didn't necessarily spark my love for classical, so to speak. I credit that with my former professor who would play Wagner in class. Intrigued, I would go home and get on YouTube and explore classical. I soon found three works that I was obsessed with for a while.

Beethoven's Ninth
Mozart's 40th
Mozart's Requiem - Now you know where my part of my username comes from.

Soon after that, I discovered Brahms' first symphony and Schubert's ninth symphony.


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## drnlaw (Jan 27, 2016)

Story (true) time, with the observation that sometimes old war horses get that way because they're ridden by so many people.

So I'm about 11 years old, in sixth grade, and the teacher across the hall from my classroom, Mr. Johnson (who was also the World Book salesman in my town, and a close friend of our family), kept a standard issue Rheem Califone record player on his desk. One day after lunch I hear some cannons going off, accompanied by some music, so I wander in and ask him what I'm hearing. The Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture, I learn. 

"Neat!"

"You know, I'll bet your dad has a copy of this."

"Cool, I'll check it out when I get home."

So the school bus drops me off at home, and I check in the cupboard where my Dad keeps his records, mostly 78s, but a few LPs, and sure enough, on 78s, he has a copy of the Tchaikovsky 1812 overture. Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, if I remember correctly, but I wouldn't swear to it. So I play it – and I play it again – and then I play it again, and about that time my Dad comes home, and he's very pleased that I'm listening to classical music – and I play it again, and again, and again. After about the sixth or seventh straight playing of it, Dad says to me, "Dave, I'm thrilled that you like this piece of music, but rather than playing it a seventh time in a row, why don't you see if there's anything else in that cupboard that you think you might like?"

Well, that sounds okay to me, so I pull out the Beethoven Seventh Symphony, again on 78s, and listen to that, and then the Schubert Ninth, and by that time I'm hooked!

Now it's pretty much the late Romantics and the early post-Romantics and not much else, but it all started out with that warhorse among warhorses, the 1812. Which I haven't heard for many a year.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

When I was 13 or so, I heard Ravel's Ma Mere l'Oye, Bolero and La Valse for the first time. I was dazzled by them then, and I'm still dazzled by them today. If only I could orchestrate like that!


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

I have a few "introduction" works that I'm still in love with.

The oldest is Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite. My grade school's annual tradition is a play version of the story, with the music from the suite in the background. I'll never tire of it! Especially the Waltz of the Flowers.


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## Martyn Harper (Jan 27, 2016)

For me it would have to be Beethoven's Moonlight piano sonata, which I heard at the age of 16. I found it intensely moving (I guess everything is intense at the age of 16!). This started my interest in classical music which has stayed with for the last 35 years.


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## rwm (Dec 24, 2015)

The Nutcracker Suite. First heard this at about 5 years old.

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini was next, some years later.

Still love both now.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Shostakovich's 8th string quartet, perhaps.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

science said:


> Shostakovich's 8th string quartet, perhaps.


It took me YEARS to come around to Shostakovich. My older brother had a record of his 5th Symphony and liked to march around the house in grandiose fashion to the development section of the first movement. I became quite tired of it* -- though I have since become reconciled.

My own start was with the usual suspects -- Beethoven's Pastoral, Eroica and 7th Symphony, Schubert's Great C major, Dvorak's New World, Grand Canyon Suite, 1812 -- all of which I still love, thank you very much. Went from there to the Symphonie Fantastique and the Rite of Spring, and my doom was pretty much sealed.

*My sister was even worse with her Elvis records. My father discovered that the LPs of that age were, indeed, unbreakable.


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## Dedalus (Jun 27, 2014)

I came from listening to rock and metal, and one day I just got curious about classical music so I looked up music from the only names I really know at the time. These are basically Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. I actually found all three of them quite hard to follow, understand, or enjoy at the time. I was doing some research, I found this site, and I looked at the TC top 100 symphonies. At the time symphonies were basically what I thought most of classical music was (had never even heard of a concerto) and it's still one of my favorite genres of classical. Anyway, at the top of that list is Mahler's 2nd symphony. 

Previously, the Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart were difficult for me to follow and enjoy, but Mahler's 2nd hit me square in some special place. I knew as soon as I heard it that it was something special. Everything from the first movement funeral march (something I didn't even know it was, I just knew I liked it) to the orchestral screams, to the almost over the top grand choral finale. I listened to it several more times, and it really solidified the idea in my head that there was something in classical worth discovering. I soon got into Mahler's 6th, and then Bruckner, and along the way Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven started making more sense, and I've since expanded much from there. But it all comes back to Mahler's 2nd for me. That was the big one that just blew me away. As others have stated about their favorite piece, I make sure not to listen to it too often. For the magic of a loved piece to evaporate due to over-listening is just tragic.


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

science said:


> Shostakovich's 8th string quartet, perhaps.


Perhaps? Hardly decisive.
I was idly browsing an old Private Eye the other day and came across this immortal answer from 1990s British politician Paddy Ashdown. Asked to choose from a list of descriptions which most fitted him, he replied: "Er... perhaps decisiveness?"


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Steatopygous said:


> Perhaps? Hardly decisive.
> I was idly browsing an old Private Eye the other day and came across this immortal answer from 1990s British politician Paddy Ashdown. Asked to choose from a list of descriptions which most fitted him, he replied: "Er... perhaps decisiveness?"


I really don't trust my memory. It was either that or Takemitsu's _From Me Flows What You Call Time_, Crumb's _Black Angels_, or Golijov's _The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind_. Chopin's funeral march (just the one movement) and Mozart's 40th symphony and Requiem weren't far behind.

This is a _long_ time ago. My memory sins.


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

science said:


> I really don't trust my memory. It was either that or Takemitsu's _From Me Flows What You Call Time_, Crumb's _Black Angels_, or Golijov's _The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind_. Chopin's funeral march (just the one movement) and Mozart's 40th symphony and Requiem weren't far behind.
> 
> This is a _long_ time ago. My memory sins.


Not to worry. I only replied as I did as a chance to get the Ashdown story into print cos it tickles me so much. 
Your first couple of options would be unusual, but they are encouraging too.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

My first ever "live" opera 1996 New York , 9 years old , my parents took me to see Otello.
Renée Flemings big break to international stardom.
I still have the singed synopses and I feel her hand on my head.
Love at first sight


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## Lyricus (Dec 11, 2015)

Mozart's "Der Hölle Rache" from _Die Zauberflöte_ and "Dies Irae" from _Requieum_ were two I was certainly infatuated with, maybe the latter before the former. However, the first _true love_ was _sine dubio_ Liszt's "Liebestraum #3.

Like Huilunsoittaja, _Fantasia_ also introduced in me a deep love for Mussorgsky's (I guess via Rimsky-Korsakov) _Night on Bald Mountain_, more than anything else in that movie. But each of the pieces were beloved classics.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Lyricus said:


> Like Huilunsoittaja, _Fantasia_ also introduced in me a deep love for Mussorgsky's (I guess via Rimsky-Korsakov) _Night on Bald Mountain_, more than anything else in that movie. But each of the pieces were beloved classics.


Fantasia, which also incidentally was one of my introductions to classical music, doesn't use the Rimsky-Korsakov version of Night on Bald Mountain. It uses Stokowski's own version based on Rimsky-Korsakov's.


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## poconoron (Oct 26, 2011)

Mozart's symphony 40, piano concerto 20, and Requiem.
Beethoven's symphony 5


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

My dad had a few random CDs that included Liszt's Totentanz, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (Ravel's arrangement), Respighi's The Pines of Rome, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and Prokofiev and Rachmaninov's 3rd piano concertos. I would listen to them over and over as a kid until I had them memorized.


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## Lyricus (Dec 11, 2015)

Mahlerian said:


> Fantasia, which also incidentally was one of my introductions to classical music, doesn't use the Rimsky-Korsakov version of Night on Bald Mountain. It uses Stokowski's own version based on Rimsky-Korsakov's.


Yes, that's why I said "via", or "by way of", as I figured that they were Stokowski's was obvious.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

clara s said:


>


Yeah. When I was first listening to CM when I was around 5 or 6, I listened to Ravel's Bolero a lot. My dad had a recording by the Chicago Symphony conducted by Frederick Stock. A "golden oldie". 
I sure played it a lot!


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

I remember buying a tape of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It had traffic lights on the front.
My brother bought me a tape of Schubert's Unfinished c/w Beethoven's 8th which was well loved.
And I had a vinyl of Beethoven's 9th with a picture of an ear trumpet on the front.

There was also a double vinyl in the house of piano favourites although I only remember listening to Side 1, Track 1 which was Fur Elise. 
And in my 1st year at Junior School we were doing something about Planets and I listened to my Dad's vinyl of the Planet Suite on headphones.

I couldn't tell you which of these was the first though. If there was anything before - it is long lost in the mists of time.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

Turandot. I listened this opera live when I was 15. My first love was opera, later I expanded to others musical forms.


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## Open Lane (Nov 11, 2015)

For me, i think it more or less started with schoenberg. Not sure what piece exactly. I received a lot of guidance by the time i got into classical. I was turned on to stuff such as schoenberg, berg, webern, and even wuorinen early on. Also, brahms was a big one for me early in, although i don't currently reach for him as much as i once did.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

hpowders said:


> Yeah. *When I was first listening to CM when I was around 5 or 6, I listened to Ravel's Bolero a lot.* My dad had a recording by the Chicago Symphony conducted by Frederick Stock. A "golden oldie".
> I sure played it a lot!


Stupid me! I should have been out there dating and tasting fine bourbons!


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Yeah. When I was first listening to CM when I was around 5 or 6, I listened to Ravel's Bolero a lot. My dad had a recording by the Chicago Symphony conducted by Frederick Stock. A "golden oldie".
> I sure played it a lot!


the only thing I have listened by Stock and Chicago Symph Och. is Schumann's 1st.
When was he? in 1930s?

I first heard Bolero, around ten years old, danced live by the Béjart ballet.
My favourite is Jorge Donn, but i have seen him only in videos dancing the Bolero...


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Stupid me! I should have been out there dating and tasting fine bourbons!


you did not change

you drink oolong tea instead of tasting the beauty of JD hahaha


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

One of my first major exposures to classical music was the film Amadeus, and I remember being thunderstruck hearing even the snippet of the 23rd Piano Concerto in it. I bought the soundtrack and was hooked from then on. Yes, it still remains a favorite piece that I listen to fairly regularly, along with Mozart's other concertos.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Rimsky-Korsakov's "Russian Easter Overture" was the first piece of music that made me see just what classical music could be--I was blown away by it at age 8. I still love it to this day.

Other pieces that had a strong impact on me were Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony and The Nutcracker, both of which are still ranked highly in my list of all-time favorite classical works.


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## atsizat (Sep 14, 2015)

It was Bach air. I was shocked how there could be music like this in 18th century. After I heard this music, I started searching about Bach's music. After I felt I was done with discovering Bach's works, I started searching about Vivaldi. Right now I like Vivaldi more than I do Bach. When I first started listening to classical, Bach was my number one composer, I was always listening to Bach's works but after I started to discover Vivaldi's works, Vivaldi became my number one composer.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

clara s said:


> the only thing I have listened by Stock and Chicago Symph Och. is Schumann's 1st.
> When was he? in 1930s?
> 
> I first heard Bolero, around ten years old, danced live by the Béjart ballet.
> My favourite is Jorge Donn, but i have seen him only in videos dancing the Bolero...


I'm glad my father purchased it. It was the last copy in stock.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

clara s said:


> you did not change
> 
> you drink oolong tea instead of tasting the beauty of JD hahaha


The Oolong tea doesn't seem to elevate my mind the way a nice JD over ice does.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

1967/68

I liked classical before falling in love with a specific piece. I had discovered it through the movie 2001: a space odyssey and also through Wendy (or Walter) Carlos. I had inherited a Vox LP of Beethoven's Piano concerto No. 5 (with a rather ridiculous cover showing 19th century ballroom dancers as I recall), but found the opening bars a pretentious bunch of hooplah at the time.

The first piece I really fell in love with was *Dvorak's Symphony No. 5 (now No. 9) "From the New World."* (Zubin Mehta and some orchestra or other.) It's the first album I bought with my allowance or lawn mowing money. Being all I could afford for some time I listened over and over until I had the piece well memorized. We didn't have a stereo -- it's not that we were poor, it's just that music wasn't a big thing for the rest of my family and a little portable mono record player was deemed good enough -- so I rigged up some wires in my room and ran some of them to a salvaged bass speaker I found in my grandmother's basement, the other to some tweeters I rummaged from used parts from the AM radio station where my dad was an engineer. This was my "stereo." I'm sure it sounded horrific due to an impedance mismatch, cheap needle, and also since it was still very much mono in spite of my efforts. But I loved it.

Later I purchased a Furtwangler mono version of Strauss' Death and Transfiguration / Til Eulenspiegel and a Claudio Arrau Schumann/Grieg piano concerto LP. I wore all of those out, but it was the Dvorak that really caught my fancy.

Today I can barely listen to it without yawning, but I do deeply love the Emperor Concerto I once dismissed as pretentious.


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

hpowders said:


> The Oolong tea doesn't seem to elevate my mind the way a nice JD over ice does.


just name a classical piece that goes with oolong tea
and one that can be enjoyed while tasting a glass of JD bourbon huh?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

clara s said:


> just name a classical piece that goes with oolong tea
> and one that can be enjoyed while tasting a glass of JD bourbon huh?


Oolong: Pachelbel-Canon.

JD: Tchaikovsky-final minutes of the 1812 Overture and the beginning of Respighi's The Pines of Rome.


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## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

Bach Well Tempered Clavier, by playing.


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## drnlaw (Jan 27, 2016)

OldFashionedGirl said:


> Turandot. I listened this opera live when I was 15. My first love was opera, later I expanded to others musical forms.


Turandot was my first opera as well, and it's still my very favorite opera today. The Met was on tour in Detroit - this would have been sometime around 1973 or 1974 - and I was on leave from the Navy, visiting my sister in Pontiac, who had lined me up for a blind date with a friend of hers. So for this blind date I took her to the opera. It was a fine performance -- Franco Corelli as Calaf, Eda Moser as Liu - and I don't remember who played Turandot, but whoever it was had a beautiful voice but not so beautiful face and figure, while Eda Moser, in her mid-30s, not only had a beautiful voice, but was very pretty. The whole opera long, I kept thinking, Calaf, you idiot, why are you messing around with this homely, psychotic boetch of a Princess, while your beautiful slave girl worships the ground upon which you walk?


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

drnlaw said:


> Turandot was my first opera as well, and it's still my very favorite opera today. The Met was on tour in Detroit - this would have been sometime around 1973 or 1974 - and I was on leave from the Navy, visiting my sister in Pontiac, who had lined me up for a blind date with a friend of hers. So for this blind date I took her to the opera. It was a fine performance -- Franco Corelli as Calaf, Eda Moser as Liu - and I don't remember who played Turandot, but whoever it was had a beautiful voice but not so beautiful face and figure, while Eda Moser, in her mid-30s, not only had a beautiful voice, but was very pretty. The whole opera long, I kept thinking, Calaf, you idiot, why are you messing around with this homely, psychotic boetch of a Princess, while your beautiful slave girl worships the ground upon which you walk?


I love Turandot, the entire score is amazing up to where the great master left it incomplete. It is truly a great opera.


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Oolong: Pachelbel-Canon.
> 
> JD: Tchaikovsky-final minutes of the 1812 Overture and the beginning of Respighi's The Pines of Rome.


Pachelbel -Canon? wow, it's very weak, no with Twining's oolong 
something more "cool"?

for JD 1812 Overture is too heavy, but Ottorino Respighi's Pini di Roma sono perfetti hahaha
which movement exactly? I pini di villa Borghese?


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

I bought Grieg's greatest hits for the 'Hall of the Mountain King' and 'Morning Mood' but fell in love with the Piano Concerto.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

clara s said:


> Pachelbel -Canon? wow, it's very weak, no with Twining's oolong
> something more "cool"?
> 
> for JD 1812 Overture is too heavy, but Ottorino Respighi's Pini di Roma sono perfetti hahaha
> which movement exactly? I pini di villa Borghese?


Yes. That was the point, clara s. I tried to match the Oolong tea to something dull with no spark to it. Just the opposite of my JD choices. Ha! Ha!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

clara s said:


> Pachelbel -Canon? wow, it's very weak, no with Twining's oolong
> something more "cool"?
> 
> for JD 1812 Overture is too heavy, but Ottorino Respighi's Pini di Roma sono perfetti hahaha
> ...


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

hpowders said:


> clara s said:
> 
> 
> > Pachelbel -Canon? wow, it's very weak, no with Twining's oolong
> ...


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

hpowders said:


> Stupid me! I should have been out there dating and tasting fine bourbons!


But, Ripple or Mateus may've got the job done.


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

Playing it.


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## rspader (May 14, 2014)

Beethoven's Symphony No. 1. It was the first classical LP that I had back in high school along with the typical collection of rock albums from the late 60s and early 70s. I don't know where the LP came from as my family did not listen to classical music (or much other music for that matter). I don't know where the LP went, but I still listen to No. 1 a few times each year.


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## drnlaw (Jan 27, 2016)

ArtMusic said:


> I love Turandot, the entire score is amazing up to where the great master left it incomplete. It is truly a great opera.


I agree that Alfano's ending, while I'm grateful to him for at least giving us AN ending, is not up to the master's best. But it will have to suffice.


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## drnlaw (Jan 27, 2016)

Tristan said:


> Rimsky-Korsakov's "Russian Easter Overture" was the first piece of music that made me see just what classical music could be--I was blown away by it at age 8. I still love it to this day.
> 
> Other pieces that had a strong impact on me were Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony and The Nutcracker, both of which are still ranked highly in my list of all-time favorite classical works.


Ah, yes, the Russian Easter Overture would be a great intro to classical music, along with Dvorak's Carnival Overture and Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture. Also the Overture to Reznicek's Donna Diana.


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## drnlaw (Jan 27, 2016)

Ah, and let's not forget our friend Shostakovich. His Festive Overture is, IMO, one of the most immediately listenable works in all of classical musicdom (if that were a word).


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

drnlaw said:


> Ah, and let's not forget our friend Shostakovich. His Festive Overture is, IMO, one of the most immediately listenable works in all of classical musicdom (if that were a word).


Odd that some people sneer at the Festive Overture. Not sure why!


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## drnlaw (Jan 27, 2016)

The Festive Overture is frequently played by concert bands, which for some people may disqualify it from being seriously considered as classical music. I disagree, of course, as I suspect you would.


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

Vaneyes said:


> hpowders said:
> 
> 
> > Everyone, do visit the Borghese estate when in Rome. :tiphat:
> ...


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I have answered many variations of this question. Here again, in a slightly different form, is my answer 

-Ligeti and Xenakis were the first, with Varèse likely within a couple of days of the former
-Stockhausen, Schoenberg, Webern, Penderecki and Messiaen followed within a couple of weeks at most

I was obsessed with these composers' music the instant I discovered them (there used to be 99¢ delete bins, so I was able to pick up stacks of recordings nearly daily and I had a knack a finding this genre of music).

With Ligeti, it was Lux Æterna, Lontano and others; with Xenakis, it was Persepolis, Morsima-Amorsima, Bohor, Pithoprakta, Orient-Occident and others; with Varèse, it was Déserts, Ameriques and Arcana; with Stockhausen, it was Opus 1970, Kurzwellen, Stop, Ylem and scads of others; with Schoenberg, it was Pierrot Lunaire, the String Quartets, the Chamber Symphonies; and so on.

It was a fun time to be a musicophile :tiphat:


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

hpowders said:


> clara s said:
> 
> 
> > Pachelbel -Canon? wow, it's very weak, no with Twining's oolong
> ...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

clara s said:


> Vaneyes said:
> 
> 
> > veramente!
> ...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

clara s said:


> hpowders said:
> 
> 
> > cheers to you too, hp
> ...


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

The story: during summer band camp of my freshman year in high school (14 tender years of age), we had some sort of "guest conductor" come in who put us through the "Mars" of Gustav Holst. I found it - well - _challenging_, let's say. So after I got home, and I was talking about my week with Mom, I told her that the hardest thing we did was a piece by Gustav Somebody. She said, "Was it Gustav Mahler?" I said I guessed so; I couldn't remember, but I thought it was interesting anyway, and said I would like to hear more. Somehow, she and Dad got hold of, and this may have been mere chance, the _Resurrection_. She plopped the discs onto the stereo, I lay on the couch, and 90 minutes later every synapse in my mind had been exploded, scrambled, and reassembled. I demanded to hear it again, immediately. She was tired of it and said maybe later. Well, it's now later (by some forty-odd years), and I'm still listening. I think that hearing the Mahler 2nd was the foundation of whatever culture I have managed to glean since then.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

Totenfeier said:


> The story: during summer band camp of my freshman year in high school (14 tender years of age), we had some sort of "guest conductor" come in who put us through the "Mars" of Gustav Holst. I found it - well - _challenging_, let's say. So after I got home, and I was talking about my week with Mom, I told her that the hardest thing we did was a piece by Gustav Somebody. She said, "Was it Gustav Mahler?" I said I guessed so; I couldn't remember, but I thought it was interesting anyway, and said I would like to hear more. Somehow, she and Dad got hold of, and this may have been mere chance, the _Resurrection_. She plopped the discs onto the stereo, I lay on the couch, and 90 minutes later every synapse in my mind had been exploded, scrambled, and reassembled. I demanded to hear it again, immediately. She was tired of it and said maybe later. Well, it's now later (by some forty-odd years), and I'm still listening. I think that hearing the Mahler 2nd was the foundation of whatever culture I have managed to glean since then.


Awesome story. Thanks for sharing.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

My first crush was Fiordiligi. And if I'm honest I have to admit she still makes my heart beat a little faster.


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## juliante (Jun 7, 2013)

Nice question. Classical music just didn't click for me for 20 years of music loving. Then I heard Mendelssohn's violin concerto on the radio one day in the car and the damn broke. That, his octet and Schubert SQ 14 were a threesome for my first love


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

My musical first loves were the vinyls my father used to put in his record player, for example:


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## Classical Performances (Mar 8, 2016)

Handel's "Water Music".

http://classicalperformances.com


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

After thinking about this for a while, my first introduction to classical music at age 5-6 were:

Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf

Britten Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5

Lalo Symphonie Espagnole

Ravel Bolero

Grieg Peer Gynt Suites


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Blancrocher said:


> My first crush was Fiordiligi. And if I'm honest I have to admit she still makes my heart beat a little faster.


Why not both sisters:lol:


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## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

The planets by holst after I played it in orchestra in 10th grade


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

My CLASSICAL first love? 

Probably Cleopatra.


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

My first love: the Prokofiev 5th Symphony.
Many years ago, as a bored teenager alone on a summer's night, i went rummaging through my parents' record collection, where I came across a 78 rpm several record set of the Prokofiev piece. My parents did enjoy light classics and excerpts from opera etc., and through them so did I, but until then, I had never listened to an entire symphony. The only reason we had the album was that years earlier, during the time 78s were phasing out and 33s transitioning in, they had bought a bunch of record shop bargain 78 blowouts, including this one which they had never played. So I placed the records on the phonograph and that evening was introduced to the symphonic form. At first hearing, I was overwhelmed, and also instantly understood what I was listening to. That symphony opened the door and I stepped right in. Sonofagun.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

hpowders said:


> My CLASSICAL first love?
> 
> Probably Cleopatra.


Went to High School during the Punic Wars did you? :lol:


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