# How did you lose your classical music virginity



## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

10 years ago, while listening to the Beethoven sonatas for the first time. I was definitely on the receiving end, but it was amazing

You never forget the first time 


(In other words, the first time you heard classical and REALLY enjoyed it)


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Is this the first time we listened to classical music seriously? or the first time we listened to classical music and seriously enjoyed it?


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I think it must have been in 1968 or 69, going to see 2001: a space odyssey in Cinerama. The music was nearly at rock concert level. I remember feeling it in my belly at any rate. It was a most mind warping, terrifying, exalting experience for a very impressionable 11 year old. The "soundtrack" was the first album I bought with my lawn mowing money followed closely by Dvorak's 9th Symphony "New World," which in those days was called the 5th and shortly thereafter a double album The Art of the Fugue. I just bought things at random until I learned what I like, mostly big romantic orchestral works. I think this is a typical way for the very young to begin. Now of course I like nearly everything -- big romantic orchestral works too.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Weston said:


> I think it must have been in 1968 or 69, going to see 2001: a space odyssey in Cinerama. The music was nearly at rock concert level. I remember feeling it in my belly at any rate. It was a most mind warping, terrifying, exalting experience for a very impressionable 11 year old. The "soundtrack" was the first album I bought with my lawn mowing money followed closely by Dvorak's 9th Symphony "New World," which in those days was called the 5th and shortly thereafter a double album The Art of the Fugue. I just bought things at random until I learned what I like, mostly big romantic orchestral works. I think this is a typical way for the very young to begin. Now of course I like nearly everything -- big romantic orchestral works too.


Dvorak's 9th symphony used to be his 5th???? I had no idea!


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

The time I realized that classical music was _it_ was not so long ago, only about five years. Live performance of Sibelius 5. It was pretty special.

I had listened to classical among other things from the time I was little but didn't conceive a passion for it above all other musics until that concert.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

My parents had these pieces on recordings amongst other similar things, they were always being played when I was very young (listed in no particular order). These became the basis of many of my explorations later, I am still expanding & moving towards many different things -

*Mozart* - _Eine kleinne Nachtmusik; Divertimento in D major_, KV.136; two of his piano quartets

*Brahms *- Symphony #4

*Tchaikovsky* - _Piano Concerto #1; Romeo & Juliet fantasy-overture; Capriccio Italien_

*Vivaldi *-_ The Four Seasons_

*Wagner* - _Siegfried Idyll; Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg; Prelude to Lohengrin_

*Beethoven* - _Symphony #6 "Pastoral"_

*J.S. Bach* - _Toccata & Fugue in D minor _& other organ works; a couple of his_ Brandenburg Concertos _(Nos. 1 & 5, I think?)

*Chopin* - _Nocturnes & Mazurkas _for piano solo

*Liszt *- _Les Preludes; Hungarian Rhapsody #6 "Carnival in Pesth;" Rackozy March_

Historic recordings of tenors *Beniamino Gigli *& *Enrico Caruso*

Popular French chansons sung (many composed &/or arranged) by *Edith Piaf*


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

I was molested with Tchaikovsky when I was an infant.


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## Xytech (Apr 7, 2011)

I was in year 7 and had been playing the bassoon for a year and a half, got drafted at the last minute into music camp. We played Firebird (first piece, first rehearsal, entire orchestra stopped two bars in and the Conductor just looked at me... that feeling of it dawning of me what I was expected to do I will never forget), Finlandia, and Beethoven Symphony 1 first movement. 

A few pieces of mention in subsequent music camps/school:
Schubert Symphony 8
Khachaturian Spartacus
Berlioz March to the Scaffold (from Symphony Fantastique.. another "Oh ****" moment for any bassoonist) 
Prokofiev Romeo & Juliet
Sibelius symphony 2 
Beethoven Triple Concerto/Rachmaninoff Symphony 2/Beethoven Piano Concerto 1 (all done at school with exceptional soloists!) 

I could go on and on, but each time I was exposed to this sort of music in orchestra, it made a big impact!


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## Xytech (Apr 7, 2011)

violadude said:


> Dvorak's 9th symphony used to be his 5th???? I had no idea!


I found that really confusing too - I was playing Dvorak 8 and it said Dvorak 4 at the top and I tried to find a recording and they didn't match...


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

14 or 15 with _Brandenburg #3_. And I thought the harpsichord continuo in the background sounded so damn cool, even though I never understood then why was this instrument much "needed" that sounded so completely out of place until I bothered to read more about classical music in general.


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## hawk (Oct 1, 2007)

In 2007 after two days of concerts with the LMP (London Mozart Players) which for many reasons were awful, the third day of concert/workshops was incredible! LMP and I played a piece that I created and during the last preformance everything came together beautifully! It was a very moving experience for many (orchestra audience and myself). When my part of the program was finished I sat listening to Tchaikovskys Serenade for Strings. For a couple months Serenade could be heard coming from my workshop or my car or while on the computer. 
One day I realized there is a whole world of this music waiting to be discovered by me. I realized that the area where I live is a treasure trove for classical music. Two very well known schools/camps are a stones throw from my home~ Pierre Monteaux School http://www.monteuxschool.org/is around the corner (literally) while Kneisel Hall http://kneisel.org/ is about 30 minutes away.
There are many well know muscians who either live here full time or have a 2nd home in the area. Some I have known for a while now but did not know of their work until my introduction to classical while others I have met because of my new interest. I feel like a child in a candy store with an unlimited supply of money and permission from parents to buy what I like


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

I honestly have absolutely no idea.

I think the first CD of classical music I had was when I was 12, but I remember the colour of the case more than I do the music that was on it.

When I was 13, I took up piano lessons and, from there, just fell naturally into the classical world and became obsessed. But I have absolutely no idea when I started listening properly, or what it was.


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## Artemis (Dec 8, 2007)

I was exposed to a lot of classical music from an early age (7-8 ish) because most my parents loved it, and I had an older brother and sister who loved it too. 

But I didn’t become very keen until I started at “secondary” school, which is from age 11 upwards in the UK. There I had a music teacher who instilled her passion for classical music in me, and in several others. At that time, I recall that the piece I loved best was Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1. 

Things then happened rapidly. It wasn’t long before I discovered loads of other material that I liked too, as we had a good record library at home which I could easily tap into. Together with the Tchaikovsky PC, I liked best of all Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, Schubert’s Unfinished, Mozart’s Requiem. After another couple of years, by the age of 13, I was familiar with several hundred of the best known works across the main composers. Classical music had become my main musical interest, and this has remained the case since then.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Very young, in the cradle.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I was interested in a young lady who was a music major, so I took a music appreciation class. As they say, it had me at hello.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I was born into a classical music family. Classical music is all we heard on the radio when we were getting ready for school, so that's the only exposure to any music I had as a young boy until I got into my teens. The lasting effect of growing up in an all classical music family instilled my musical preferences. 

Yes, I do listen to other genres of music these days, but classical remains my preferred and most listened to musical style. 

Kh


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## Nix (Feb 20, 2010)

I started early but didn't get into anything too serious.

For awhile I was just fooling around with Beethoven. Then one day at music camp, we took it to the next level when I discovered his Eroica.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

While classical was always part of my childhood both through parents playing it and it actually being played more widely in tv and even in public,...I think I was about nine when HBO would play movies over and over (I know, they still do...but there were far less movies to rotate) and over,...they started to do this with a film named Amadeus and while at the age I didn't quite understand the film, I watched it just about every time they played it...this kept me on a steady classical track until my mid-teens when it exploded and I kinda went off on a strictly classical diet for about 6 years; made it hard to relate to people at my age and with these likings...I'm very glad that I did have friends and siblings, however, to expose me to other music as there is so much possibility in sound that the notion that classical is above all others and more intelligent; well, that notion is simply not intelligent. 

Basically, I've listened to it all of my life.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I remember loving classical music when I was very little, and thinking it was the best kind of music. As I got older I started listening to what my friends at school listened to - rock and pop. This continued for many many years until sometime around 6 years ago or so, - (like many other musicians here it was actually playing the music that made it 'click' for me again). My guitar studies led me to a few youtube videos of guitarists playing Bach and I was completely fascinated and moved by these pieces. I then went out and bought a song book of classical favorites transcribed for guitar, and that was it. Playing some of those pieces (Bach) was amazing, it felt like exactly what I had been looking for, it was food for my soul and I just fell in love.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

regressivetransphobe said:


> I was molested with Tchaikovsky when I was an infant.


That's like getting beat up by Mr. Rogers. I was violated by Varese and Lutoslawski after being caressed by the romantics.


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

A bit like Xytech: as a violinist in the school orchestra (the serious, newly-founded co-ed one with the girls school up the highway) we played movements from the Royal Fireworks, starting with the Overture. Until then (aged 14, in 1978) I'd bought about 8-10 pop music compliation LPs. Never bought another one...
cheers,
GG


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## Iforgotmypassword (May 16, 2011)

I lost my "virginity" in the womb. My parents are musicians and so I heard music as soon as my cortex was developed enough to register sound.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

What? Do you presume to suggest that I listen to 'classical' music! How _Dare_ you!


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Xytech said:


> I found that really confusing too - I was playing Dvorak 8 and it said Dvorak 4 at the top and I tried to find a recording and they didn't match...


The symphonies known today as numbers 1-4 weren't discovered until a few decades ago, so for a long time the symphonies known today as numbers 5-9 were numbered 1-5. When the four earlier works were discovered the symphonies we're renumbered.


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

When I was 6...I went with my mother to see La Bohème...But the real fanatism started when I studied piano with my weird-young-piano teacher...He showed me Schönberg, Berg and Webern. I was 12. At 14 I bought Lulu, at 15 I bought Wozzeck...and then I started a complicated "trajectoire"...Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich...I started with Monteverdi when I was 20, Mozart at 48...I believe I did a retrospective...But some composers I skipped...I don't like Vivaldi nor Haydn nor Haendel...very much

To live is to evolve. I'm always evolving.

Martin, 28 years old


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

myaskovsky2002 said:


> When I was 6...I went with my mother to see La Bohème...But the real fanatism started when I studied piano with my weird-young-piano teacher...He showed me Schönberg, Berg and Webern. I was 12. At 14 I bought Lulu, at 15 I bought Wozzeck...and then I started a complicated "trajectoire"...Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich...I started with Monteverdi when I was 20, Mozart at 48...I believe I did a retrospective...But some composers I skipped...I don't like Vivaldi nor Haydn nor Haendel...very much
> 
> To live is to evolve. I'm always evolving.
> 
> Martin, 28 years old


Martin, you say stupid things...We all know you are 59.

By the way you are incoherent...you have said when I was 48...Then...

Nikolai Myaskovsky


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

myaskovsky2002 said:


> Martin, you say stupid things...We all know you are 59.
> 
> Nikolai Myaskovsky


Well, Myasko, I feel 28

Martin


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## rrudolph (Sep 15, 2011)

My classical hymen was busted when I was a kid, couldn't have been more than 10 or 11 years old (which makes it around 1970). My dad was into "Hi-Fi" stereo equipment (to the point where he built some of his own components) and he took me to a high-end audio store. They were demo-ing some big speakers with a then state-of-the-art recording of The Rite of Spring. It was quite loud. I stood between two speakers that were as tall as I was and soaked it all in. By then I had already been studying percussion for two or three years, so the music really piqued my interest. When we got home, I began exploring my father's large classical record collection and never looked back.


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## moosmann (Sep 29, 2011)

I was 17, a cocky trumpet player, but Harold in Italy just blew me away. I then got a recording of Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale, and it just went on from there.


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## Lipatti (Oct 9, 2010)

I remember it perfectly. It was the summer before I started in fourth grade. My mother bought me a book about classical music, with some mixed information about composers, history of orchestra, important works etc. I started listening immediately. I still remember my first encounters with classical music: Bach's Magnificat, Vivaldi's Gloria, Beethoven's sixth symphony, Ravel's Bolero and The Three Tenors, among other things.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Nah, I wouldn't consider discovering Fantasia, Holst, Dvorak etc. as "losing" virginity, because they're pretty "innocent" composers that did me not harm, but good. With Glazunov, it was like... discovering the love of your life, but only going that far. He's treated me quite nicely, all respect. He'll probably propose to me within the year.

I think with Prokofiev, we had a chat at a friendly-looking cafe, and after I said good-bye, he must have followed me into a dark alley some place, and attacked from behind. That's all I can remember before everything went black.


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

QUOTE=Lipatti;212025]I remember it perfectly. It was the summer before I started in fourth grade. My mother bought me a book about classical music, with some mixed information about composers, history of orchestra, important works etc. I started listening immediately. I still remember my first encounters with classical music: Bach's Magnificat, Vivaldi's Gloria, Beethoven's sixth symphony, Ravel's Bolero and The Three Tenors, among other things.[/QUOTE]

Just a joke...I started when I was in 4th grade...I was 21! Oops!

:lol:[

Martin


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## bestcoaster (Sep 29, 2011)

In high school I went through an Ayn Rand phase. One of the characters in _The Fountainhead_ is a tremendous fan of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto. So I got it, and that was that.


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## Evelina (Sep 30, 2011)

Watching the movie Amadeus, then finding the soundtrack and tracking down every piece of music in the film that wasn't on that CD. (It took me forever to find Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra in E-Flat Major googling "mozart piano movie amadeus" in every way imaginable.)


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