# My First ever Clasical LP



## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

This week in a S/H record shop, (in a batch of 10 for £5.00!) I found a copy of the first Classical LP that I ever bought with my own dosh when I was 11 years old. Its in mint condition and Im enjoying a lot of good memories. I parted with my original copy decades ago as I though I had outgrown it, plus who looks after LP's properly at that age? 'Bare mountain' is especially fun!  
Anyone else rediscover or still have that first Lp or CD ( or '78 !)


----------



## Bach (Jun 2, 2008)

My first record was motets by Perotin - as that was the most harmonically complex music available at the time of my birth.


----------



## Moldyoldie (Apr 6, 2008)

*Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
New York Philharmonic
Leonard Bernstein, cond.
COLUMBIA*
From 1963, my imprint and reference recording of perhaps the most familiar work in the repertoire. Sure, when Carlos Kleiber's came along in the '70s, it caused quite a stir and I went ga-ga over it as well. However, this is the performance that marked my personal epitome in Beethoven's Fifth, even in mono. (Recordings were often marketed in both mono and stereo with the former about a buck cheaper. Even then I was aware of cost/benefit!) It still rocks my world to this day. Included was a short-play record with Bernstein talking about "How a Great Symphony Was Written".

It finally became available on CD sometime in the early '90s on the Sony label. Over the years, critics predominately loathed the performance, but I was in classical heaven!


----------



## Methodistgirl (Apr 3, 2008)

That was a good symphony too.
judy tooley


----------



## BAWIG05 (May 14, 2008)

I have that Bernstein recording on Tape, but it is indeed availible on two CDs.

1. Bernstein Century- Beethoven's 5th
2. The Leonard Bernstein Royal Edition

The latter series features paintings by Prince Charles, of all people, and also some really bad remastered sonics. Still, if you can find it, this is well worth having for the music.


----------



## CML (Sep 10, 2006)

I can't remember the very first classical recording that I ever bought, but my first purchase that I can remember vividly is the recording of Rachmaninov's third piano concerto with Riccardo Muti conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra and Andrei Gavrilov
on piano. 
It was recorded in the late 80's and I bought it not long after it was released.
I walked in the record store and it was playing over their sound system.
I had never heard anything like it. 
I bought it immediately.
Since then I've taught myself to play the keyboard ( at beginner's level ) and bought lots of recordings. 
It is still one of my all time favorite recordings.


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

My first purchases were with an allowance, so I had to go fairly cheap. I'm pretty sure my first classical album was a hand-me-down on the Vox label, sort of a 50's and 60's version of Naxos. I had the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 played by Alfred Brendel (I think) handed down, and with my allowance I bought the Dvorak Symphony No. 9 (then called No. 5), Zubin Mehta conducting on the same label. 

Back then I thought the Beethoven was pretentious and over the top grandiose, therefore silly. Boy, have I changed over the years!

I can now find no evidence on the web that either of these albums ever existed, but I rememeber them.


----------



## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

I was about 16 years old. The English teacher at my school walked into the classroom and said "We're not doing English Lit today - we're going to listen to _this_." 'This' was a recording of Berlioz's _Symphonie Fantastique_. He gave us a brief description of the programme underlying each movement and then we were off.

I'd never heard anything like it before. It was as if a whole new dimension of imagination had opened up, and the following day I went straight to the record shop and found the cheapest version I could lay my hands on - it was on the Supraphon label, though I can't now recall the conductor/orchestra (I didn't know, back then, that such things might matter). The LP itself was dispensed with many years ago, its grooves completely worn-out after so many playings (no doubt with damaged styli in those early years), so I can't check.


----------



## BAWIG05 (May 14, 2008)

Weston, 

They certainly exsisted, as Brendel had a ton of work on Vox. This is still being released today as historical material, and Vox is indeed still around.

Mehta's Dvorak 9th may or may not be out yet. Australian Eloquence would be the most likely candidate to put it on the market.


----------



## BAWIG05 (May 14, 2008)

Elgarian, 

Given the label, the conductor was likely Karl Ancrel with the Czech Philharmonic. Other candidates include V. Talich.


----------



## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

BAWIG05 said:


> Given the label, the conductor was likely Karl Ancrel with the Czech Philharmonic. Other candidates include V. Talich.


Thanks for this. It was certainly the Czech Philharmonic, but thanks to your suggestion I was able to do a bit of effective googling, and I'm almost certain that the conductor was Carlo Zecchi.

My second and third LP purchases also had enormous impact. They were both on the HMV Concert Classics label, in mono, bought together a few months after the Berlioz:

Elgar _Enigma Variations_ and Vaughan Williams _Tallis Fantasia_ (Malcolm Sargent)
Rimsky-Korsakov _Scheherezade_ (Pierre Monteux)

They well and truly put me on the road.


----------

