# My first three classical CD's (and what were yours?)



## otterhouse (Sep 6, 2007)

Hello all,

These were my first three classical CD's, bought somewhere in the mid '80, when I was still in college
http://classicalspotify.blogspot.nl/2016/04/my-first-classical-cds.html

What were yours?

Rolf, Netherlands


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## majlis (Jul 24, 2005)

I don't remember. It was also in mid 80s., when I was working as a lawyer.


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## Guest (Apr 28, 2016)

My very first three CDs were:
1) The Late *Beethoven* Quartets Vol. 4 (N° 15 op. 132 & N° 16 op. 135) / the Lindsay String Quartet;
2) *Beethoven* string quartets 2, 3, & 4 (ops. 18/II, III & IV) / the Végh String Quartet;
3) *Berio*, _Laborintus 2_ / the ensemble Musique Vivante.

I still have them, of course !!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

For sure: Schubert's 8th in the finished version (ASMF, Marriner)

Likely: Mozart's horn concerto 3, bassoon concerto, oboe concerto (with Haydn's trumpet concerto) (CSO, Abbado)
Likely: Mahler symphony 4 (CGO, Ameling, Haitink)


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## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

I couldn't tell you the first three I had; I was far too young.
I could, however, tell you the first three CDs I listened to with any degree of seriousness:
1- Tchaikovsky: The Ballet Suites- it was a CD that contained highlights from Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, with Efrem Kurtz and the Philharmonia Orchestra. The CD was meant to accompany a book about the three ballet suites, but as young as I was, I barely understood the book, so all I cared about was the CD. This is the recording that really set off my passion for music.
2- Tchaikovsky Symphony no. 4, Igor Markevitch and London Symphony. 
3- Holst: The Planets, John Williams: Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with Zubin Mehta and Los Angeles Philharmonic. 
My favorite piece, though was 1812 Overture. Drove my family crazy blaring the ending in my room.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

As far as I can make out from my long-ago aborted 'catalogue' of recordings, these were my first 5 CDs, probably bought all together just after I bought my first CD player in 1988. I already had a small library of what my catalogue tells me was 157 LPs and a number of (20 - 30?) cassettes, mostly home-recorded from my home city's very well stocked record library. Those mostly seem to have got lost in transit.

So I was buying these 5 to augment my core collection, and so that I'd have a small selection of CDs to play on the newfangled machine.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 36 / No. 7 in A, Op. 92 - Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan	[DG, 1977]

Elgar: Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 63 - LPO, Handley [CFP, 1981]

Gershwin: Piano concerto in F / Rhapsody in Blue / An American in Paris - Daniel Blumenthal, piano; ECO, Stewart Bedford [CFP	1983]

Smetana: Ma Vlast - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sargent	[EMI 1965 / CD 1989]

R. Strauss: Don Quixote Op. 35 / Tod und Verklärung Op. 24 - Berliner Philharmoniker, von Karajan [DG 1966/74]


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I had no classical on CD - in fact, the only classical on vinyl I had were three Wagner 'bleeding chunks' albums - until I was lured by the long-gone Britannia Music mail order service by their siren song in the shape of an introductory offer of £10 or thereabouts for the Solti Ring Cycle (as long as you became a member and bought three or more recordings at full price per month after that). Needless to say, once the internet in general and Amazon in particular came into my life Britannia lost my custom (although it was a bit of a struggle to extricate myself from them, as I recall...) and it seems they went under a few years later anyway.

Assuming I disregard the knockdown Ring as a _bona fide_ purchase then I can't actually remember what my first three recordings were.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

This is one of the first classical CDs I ever had, when I was around 4-5 years old in 2000-2001 (along with several others, one called "Showstoppers" and one with excerpts from La bohème):









There were also these (part of a set with "Opera Favorites"):















Most of the CDs of my early childhood were compilations, but it was they that introduced me to the wide variety of classical music out there.


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## Dawood (Oct 11, 2015)

My father bought me three CDs as a gift - they were my first classical cds

This:









Still my favourite Rite

Some sort of Wagner compilation - I didn't like it.

And an 1812 overture where the shop had put the wrong disc inside - and it was a Deutsche Gramophone disc that I ended up with so I figured I'd got the better deal.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

elgars ghost said:


> ...Britannia Music mail order service
> 
> ...(as long as you became a member and bought three or more recordings at full price per month after that).
> 
> ...it was a bit of a struggle to extricate myself from them, as I recall...


Ah yes, well remembered, I'd repressed the company name. Snap.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Eugene Istomin/Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphia: Rachmaninoff Conc. #2
Pierre Monteaux/Boston Symphony: Debussy La Mer and Nocturnes
Emil Gilels/Fritz Reiner/Chicago: Tchaikovsky Piano Conc. #1


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

All pre-CD era (LPs).


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

.......................


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I know that _Renée Fleming _ singing Mozart and _Dame Joan Sutherland _:" Voice of the century" where amongst them :tiphat:


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

When I bought my first batch of CDs in about 1984 or something, the one I recall most vividly was Gilel's DG disk of three Beethoven sonatas: 8, 13, 14. It was the opening of the Moonlight which was the most extraordinary demonstration of the ability of the CD to deliver the softest music free from the blizzard of hiss and crackle which inevitably accompanied any LP of the same work. And although I didn't acquire a CD of the work until many years late, the opening of Mahler 1 provided a similar experience.
cheers,
GG


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I remember two of them: Prokofiev's 5th Symphony, Slatkin, and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, by -- whom? I was an early switcher-overer, so it's all a bit hazy.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

My first three CDs in 1987, I know, I was a bit of a Luddite, Mahler 5 - Sinopoli, Shostakovitch 10 - Rattle and Wintereisse - Fischer-Dieskau/Gerald Moore. 

First three classical albums 1969 - Spanish Guitar Music of Five Centuries - Narciso Yepes, Concierto de Aranjuez - John Williams and Two Favourite Guitar Concertos - John Williams.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I got my first CD player in the late 80's and joined the Musical Heritage Society which mailed you a CD every month as I recall. So I guess these were amongst my first:

Dvorak: Complete Symphonic Poems. Jarvi/Scottish National Orchestra
Chopin Piano Concertos. Arrau/Inbal/LPO
Ginastera Harp Concerto. Allen/Batiz


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## bz3 (Oct 15, 2015)

The first I owned personally were a Heifetz "greatest hits" album and a Stern "greatest hits" album (both with selections from multiple pieces) and a multi-disc opera "greatest hit" selection. All 3 given to me by my grandfather when I first began to play music at about 8 or so. I was familiar by ear with a number of composers well before that though.

I still listen to the violinist albums but I can't find that opera collection and don't even remember what it was called.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I got my first CD player for Christmas 1990 (remember clearer my first LP's) They might have been Schnittke-Concerto grosso no. 1 ++, Denisov-Chamber music both on BIS records and Domenico Scarlatti sonatas with Andras Schiff. I used to buy cassettes until they disappeared. I have over 1000 CD's, but didn't count. Now there's spotify


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

All in 2011:
The Magic of Mozart (had previously on LP)
Chopin Recital--Ivo Pogorelich (had previously on LP)
Beethoven's Ninth--Karajan 1977 (had on LP in different performance). 

This Ninth was the first of what amounts to 40+ (I lost count after that) Ninths, only to find that had I purchased the one I had on LP, one recording would have sufficed since that is the best one (Fricsay).

EDIT: For the record, I cheated and looked up my first three classical purchases on Amazon. Otherwise I could not have remembered much.


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## Hannah85 (Apr 29, 2016)

1. Smetana's Má Vlast
2. Dvorák's Slavonic Dances
3. Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker


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## Guest (Apr 29, 2016)

1. Bartok's string quartets, performers unknown. Had this for years. On cassette, off vinyl!

Then when I started getting CDs I bought lots in a splurge so can't say for certain. I reckon The People United....(Rzewski) must have been one of the first (performed by Ole Kiilerich).


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Mine certainly included Bruckner´s 8th in Haitink´s first digital recording (superb); 
I´m not sure about the others, but I think I´ve skipped them.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

1. Dennis Brain's glorious recording of the Mozart Horn Concertos.
2. Moura Lympany's version of the Chopin Waltzes.
3. Louis Kentner playing the Chopin Ballades and Barcarolle.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

I have a better chance though still miniscule at remembering the first three classical LPs bought, but alas, I realize many TCers weren't alive in that era, and may only know LPs retroactively now. No matter.

I can't recall my first three classical CDs. They were probably culled shortly after purchase, and with culls I make an honest effort to forget them, pronto.

In the 80's, I was late to the buying of classical CDs, by choice. I still thought LPs did the job. Of course, that hasn't been the case for a long time. CDs rule!

Jus' sayin'.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

These are the first three that I bought; I used to be an avid visitor of city libraries...


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

I think my first was W Kempff playing Mozart pc27 and the double concerto with gilels and daughter on DG.
It was 1988 I think in my early days of discovery and I was blown away.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

otterhouse said:


> Hello all,
> 
> These were my first three classical CD's, bought somewhere in the mid '80, when I was still in college
> http://classicalspotify.blogspot.nl/2016/04/my-first-classical-cds.html
> ...


Re Pogo Chopin PC2, good perf., though the sound's disappointing. :tiphat:


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

My first was Beethoven 4 with Bishop-Kovacevich (in those days). That was the first of over 1000!


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

My first recordings were a dozen or so LPs and a few cassette tapes.

CDs, I may be wrong, but I think:

1. Anton Nanut's Beethoven 5 / Schubert 8, which I still have (and like)
2. Bach's Orchestral Suites, German Baroque Soloists 
3. Gorecki's 3rd, Zinman/Upshaw. This was right about when it was released.


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

I think these are the three earliest acquired CDs that I have in my collection, though not the oldest, if memory serves...

Mahler No. 4, Ljubljana Symphony, cond. Anton Nanut. (Stradivari Classics SCD-6050)
It is interesting to hear Max Cencic as a boy soprano in this, and actually this CD isn't all that bad.

R. Strauss _Also Sprach Zarathustra_, Boston Symphony Orchestra, cond. Seiji Ozawa. (Philips 400 072-2)
I think this still holds up pretty well. I remember it being pretty expensive when I bought it, and wondering whether I should invest in it, should the CD format be a passing fad.

Mozart, _Piano Concertos K.450 & K 467_ Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, cond. Neville Marriner (Philips 400 018-2)
I was wild about Brendel at the time, but I haven't listened to this CD in years.

But my memory is pretty faulty, and if you ask me tomorrow, it's very likely I will give you a different three.


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## Guest (Apr 30, 2016)

I purchased a CD player after the thing was invented and my brother, who knew my love for the movie "Amadeus" gave me this disc as a gift:
View attachment 84110

The Best Of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Neville Marriner and The Academy of Saint Martin In The Fields
It's compilation CD with movements of various works. It only made me want the complete works that were included on it. So I started collecting Mozart. 
I cannot be absolutely certain that these were the next two, but I think they were:
View attachment 84111

Flute and Harp Concerto, K299 & Oboe Concerto K314
Rampal, Nordmann, Pierlot, English Chamber Orchestra
View attachment 84112

Sinfonia Concertante, K364 & Violin Concerto No. 2, K211
Iona Brown, Josef Suk, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

When I was very young my father had a couple of Reader's Digest LP box setsof popular classics and popular symphonies, which I used to borrow and play on my little dansette record player. I probably ruined the LPs, but he didn't seem to mind as I was listening and learning to appreciate classical music.

When I was a little older, maybe early teens, I think the first classical LPs I owned were

*Khachaturian: Piano Concerto* played by Peter Katin, with Hugo Rignold conducting. i can't find a picture of the cover but I think it was on the Hallmark label and had a photo of the Royal Festival Hall on the front cover.

*Debussy:La Mer/Ravelaphnis et Chloe suites* Cleveland OrchestraL George Szell










*Raveliano Concerto/Prokovieviano Concerto no 5* Monique Haas/Sviatoslav Richter


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## Biwa (Aug 3, 2015)

On CD, I remember getting these two right off the bat.

Mozart - piano concerto nos. 12 & 13 (Ashkenazy)









Beethoven - symphony no. 3 (Bernstein)


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## billeames (Jan 17, 2014)

First Mahler 5 Sinopoli ($13), 2nd thru 16 Solti Ring ($160) all in mid 1986. I still have them. But I bought remastered Solti Rings too.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Beethoven piano concertos 3 & 5 Serkin/ Bernstein


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

1 Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra (my mother picked it up from a second-hand store after I was ecstatic about hearing the Rite, I had heard this piece prior to getting it though)
2 Xenakis - Metastasis/Eonta/Pithoprarakta (I brought this myself), changed my life literally!
3 Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (another secondhand gift I cherish)

4 Bartok - The Miraculous Mandarin (I outplayed this even more than the Rite!, I also brought this myself)


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I'm a child of the LP era, and as a teenager my first LPs were a Reader's Digest set of popular classical works. It was a great introduction to a wide range of music. I think my first discs of separate works were of Strauss waltzes and Tchaikovsky ballets, soon followed by Beethoven's "Eroica" and Mahler's Symphony #1. 

I didn't start replacing my LPs with CDs until 2002.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Mono LPs only of course
Handel Water Music - Boyd Neel
Tchaikovsky piano concerto - Katchen
Beethoven Pastoral Symphony - it was on a ten Bob record at the time with an unknown orchestra. I played and played it though.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I owned a few classical cassettes before moving to CD in 1990.

My first CD was Tchaikovsky played by the RLPO/Sian Edwards on Classics for Pleasure.







As the cover shows, the recording was sponsored by John West, which makes it the only explicitly dolphin-friendly CD I own.

I can't remember what I got next, though it might have been Clifford Curzon in the Grieg and Tchaikovsky concertos.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Strange Magic said:


> Eugene Istomin/Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphia: Rachmaninoff Conc. #2
> Pierre Monteaux/Boston Symphony: Debussy La Mer and Nocturnes
> Emil Gilels/Fritz Reiner/Chicago: Tchaikovsky Piano Conc. #1


Now that I look again at this thread, I see I missed the First _CD_ part of the question, and responded with my 3 first classical purchases--these were LPs, of course, as CDs were perhaps not even a gleam in its inventor's eye at that Paleolithic time. I can't remember at all my first classical CD purchases, but I was delighted whenever old vinyl favorites were reissued as CDs so I could replace worn and scratchy with new and clean. These might have included Heifetz, with various conductors and orchestras, performing the Sibelius, Prokofiev 2, and Glazunov violin concertos; Van Cliburn, with Hendl and Reiner and the Chicago, playing the Prokofiev 3 and Schumann piano concertos; and Samson François, with André Clutens and the Paris Conservatory doing the Ravel concertos and Gaspard.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

I honestly don't remember for certain which ones but a few that I got very early on were.

*Chopin: Piano Works*









I don't recall who the pianist is now. I still have the CD tucked away somewhere. Seems like it was a professor at like Washington State University or some place like that. Anyway, there was only one music store in town and it didn't have much of a classical music selection so this was one of the first CD's of Classical Music I remember purchasing.

*Gregorian Chorale*









A friend at work had mentioned how he used to relax listening to Gregorian Chant so I went to the only Music store in town and found this album. I actually still really enjoy this one although still know very little of this kind of music.

I also owned some Beethoven CD's on that Excelsior Classic Gold label that the Gregorian Chorale disc was on but I can't for the life of me remember which ones. I pretty sure it was the "Eroica" symphony or it may have had several CD's with some Piano Works like Moonlight Sonata as well, but it's been ages so I can't really recall.

One more thing I do recall was my very first Mahler CD. This one:

*Gustav Mahler: Symphony #6 "Tragic"*









Harold Farberman/London Philharmonic Orchestra

CD's were pretty expensive when they came out and we only had 1 CD player in our family so at the time it wasn't best to spend much money on them, but as it worked out the only music store in town only had these low priced discs with a very, very limited selection.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

These three, shortly after buying my first cd player in '86 Happy days!


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## acitak 7 (Jun 26, 2016)

otterhouse said:


> Hello all,
> 
> anyone for hooked on classics?


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

As I'm quite old, my collection began some 20 years before CDs were widely on sale. My first three LPs were:
Grieg - Peer Gynt Suites 1 & 2 (Hamburg Staatsoper Orchestra with uncredited conductor)









Beethoven Symphony No 5/Egmont Overture (LSO/Josef Krips)









Dvořák - New World Symphony (LPO/Hugo Rignold)


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

acitak 7 said:


> otterhouse said:
> 
> 
> > Hello all,
> ...


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## kanishknishar (Aug 10, 2015)

*One*

I only have one purchase physically [Try living in India!]:

​*Beethoven's Symphonies performed by London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Josef Krips.*

I have no distinct impression of the recordings as I heard them very early on in my listening experience. I gave the set away to my brother's fiancee. She does not seem to have opened it but I'll force her one day.


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## acitak 7 (Jun 26, 2016)

*acitak7 hooked on classics*

thanks for your comments re hooked on classics, I have to admit my post was slightly tongue in cheek,but I have found them a useful and quick introduction to some more famous and also more obscure composers, ie Glinka, poncielli,von suppe and Gounod,, to name a few, also introduced me to johann strauss jr who has written some great melodies. as I have only had a keen interests in classical music for 18 months I have barely scratched the surface of music that has been around for 400 years also it has introduced me to Mendelssohn and dvorak which I may not have got round to as the music I have listened to for the last 50 odd years is pop music of the 60s and 70s, the hooked on classics cds have also made me realise how many great melodies were written by Bach and Mozart which I have heard on many occasions but had no clue as to who composed the piece or what it was called.As I say it was slightly tongue in cheek but I do like the format, but understand that if you want to hear gustav holst planet suite, you have to listen to it in full


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I really like this one!

As a child of the vinyl age my first 3 classical purchases were of the black plastic variety but I will have to get back to you on them as I've forgotten most of them (I'll look in the classical vinyl boxes under the stairs over the weekend). I can confirm that one of those purchases was definitely Ormandy's account of Holst's Planets (I still have it). I think Beethoven and Tchaikovsky predated that but I'll check soon.

As far as CDs are concerned, I didn't get a CD player till 1989 but some of these are still firm favourites. I think these may have been the first 3. The Dvorak disc was definitely first.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

This was the first CD I purchased in 1985. Unfortunately I have no idea what the next 2 classical ones were


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## Geoff48 (Aug 15, 2020)

This seems a pretty old thread but maybe it’s not a bad one for resurrection.
My first two LPs were both Ace of Clubs. I had been bought a couple as a present, Curzon in the Grieg with Fistoulari and Fistoulari’s Gounod Faust ballet music with Mignon and Dance of the hours. They had been bought on the basis that they could be changed and as my parents had 78s of the Grieg with Ignaz Friedman and the Gounod with George Byng it seemed a good idea to exchange them. The shop didn’t specialise in bargain classics which meant that iI was limited to Ace of Clubs. However they had an Eine Klien Nacht music with Karl Munchinger coupled with the farewell symphony and Divertimento K136 neither of which I knew, and the Pastoral Symphony with Erich Kleiber. Despite a lack of repeats including the exposition in the first movement and the scherzo of the Pastoral I was lucky in that both were pretty good versions and I have both still in my collection albeit on remastered CDs. 
My third CD was an HMV Concert classics of five popular overtures including silken ladder, fingals cave, bartered bride, Mastersingers and roman carnival. I’d seen Malcolm Sargent on T.V. At the last night of the Proms.and that was a factor in my choosing it. Sargent was always competent if rarely inspired in standard orchestral music but it was a good choice. Again I have the contents as part of the Sargent Icon set.
Given that styluses in the early sixties were heavy I must have worn the records playing them constantly until such time as I had managed to increase my collection but that is another story. But it started an interest in buying records which is still with me. And whilst it is now CDs, and occasionally Spotify as I revisit favourites of my younger years, music has been a part of my life for many years and especially in these Days of social isolation.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I last posted in this thread about 4 years ago (see above) but I've since remembered what some of my first CDs were. Skip the Lenny Beethoven. That came later (and has now thankfully gone to the charity shop). The Macal Dvorak 9 was *definitely* the first CD I ever bought (to replace my worn out cassette) and that was followed by Reiner's Beethoven 9 (which I bought at Newton Heath library in Manchester in a CD sale for 50p). After that I bought Szell's Brahms Symphonies 2&3 on a single disc from the same library (that was 50p too). Can't remember after that but pretty sure Abbado's live Mahler 1st was an early Xmas present in 91. My classical CD collecting really didn't click in till a few years after that. I probably had about 20 discs until 1995 as I was still playing cassettes and vinyl. Gradually I phased them out and stopped playing vinyl and tape by the end of the century. My first Beethoven cycle on CD was probably Karajan's 80s cycle which I bought with an HMV voucher (it was quite expensive if I recall).


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Bach Orchestral Suites Casals ... still have it, converted it to CD, and prefer it to other interpretations








Beethoven Symphony 5 Bernstein ... long gone








Tchaikovsky Nutcracker suites ... long gone


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## sstucky (Apr 4, 2020)

My first three LPs, in 1965, were:
Hindemith, E-flat Symphony, LPO, Boult (Everest)
Bach, Magnificat, Schmolzi (Nonesuch)
Telemann/Vivaldi, Excerpts from Tafelmusik/Horn Concertos


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

First three CDs I still have, still play, and remember the excitement of buying them like it was yesterday. But it was 36 years ago next month as a matter of fact. I bought my first, very pricey Yamaha cd player then went right down to Circles Records and bought: Tchaikovsky Symphonies 5 & 6 (Lorin Maazel and the Cleverland (sic) Orchestra on CBS), and Dvorak Symphony no. 9 (V Neumann with Czech Phil on Supraphon). What's interesting to me is that in those days a new CD cost about $18 - there's been no change in all these years. But disks then were very short playing time, 40-50 minutes not uncommon.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I bought my first CD with my first CD player. Their bargain bin had Karajan's recording of Beethoven's 7th, and that's the one I learned to operate my player with. (You know, figuring out how to open the shrinkwrap and discovering which side is up in order to play it.)

My next one was Erik Satie's Socrate with Billy Eide singing and Billy Eidi on piano. I know it was written for an orchestra and three singers, but that was the only Socrate recording Tower Records had. In fact, the salesperson (a graduate of a Russian conservatory who couldn't get a job here because his credits didn't transfer) tried to talk me out of it because it was so expensive ($18), but I wanted to hear Socrate, so I told him not to spare the expense. Wow, I was so young and daring back then. 

After that, it's all a blur.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

mbhaub said:


> First three CDs I still have, still play, and remember the excitement of buying them like it was yesterday. But it was 36 years ago next month as a matter of fact. I bought my first, very pricey Yamaha cd player then went right down to Circles Records and bought: Tchaikovsky Symphonies 5 & 6 (Lorin Maazel and the Cleverland (sic) Orchestra on CBS), and Dvorak Symphony no. 9 (V Neumann with Czech Phil on Supraphon). What's interesting to me is that in those days a new CD cost about $18 - there's been no change in all these years. But disks then were very short playing time, 40-50 minutes not uncommon.


The Cleverland Orchestra? That's hilarious!


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Yes, one of the better spelling bloopers on CDs. Arg! But I misquoted it myself: CLEVERAND. There are many, many more.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I think my first three classical recordings were -

*Duruflé*: _Requiem_ - Michel Corboz, Cheur et Orchestre Colonne (first CD)

*Stravinsky*: _Le Sacre du Printemps_ & _Petrushka_ - Igor Stravinsky, Columbia Symphony Orchestra (LP)

*Bach*: _B Minor Mass_ - Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien (first LP box)

I know the Duruflé was my first CD (prior to that all I had were LPs), and _Le sacre_ was a work that I listened to very early in my classical journey. The Harnoncourt _B Minor Mass_ was something I vividly remember listening to in my room with two other friends from music school, circa 1970.


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## erudite (Jul 23, 2020)

Ah, another stroll down memory lane…

You asked about Classical CDs, but I am assuming you meant any format?

My first three… 1977

*The Maria Callas Album
*








*Beethoven - Triple Concerto
Karajan/Rostropovich/Richter/Oistrakh*









*Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture etc.
Karajan - Berliner Philharmoniker
*


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## billeames (Jan 17, 2014)

Solti Ring $160 

Mahler 5 Sinopoli. about $15

I don't know how to make files appear here.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

I must have been between 18-20 when I bought this Copland set. I had had some Copland on tape previously as a teen. This was a much more comprehensive dive into it.









One of my first purchases on Amazon. I think I was 23 or so. I had heard a Brahms sextet on Star Trek TNG and wanted to own it in its entirety.









Another early Amazon purchase, I wanted to explore more Brahms after the sextets.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

I can well remember my first two CDs:

















But I have no recollection of my third 

My first DVD was Lawrence of Arabia!


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

:lol:


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

I was an early convert to CDs, so choices were quite limited, but with my purchase of the player, I picked up five discs:

Schubert 9th Symphony - Solti
Bach Violin Concertos - Hogwood
Mozart Piano Concertos (12 and 20 I believe - got rid of the disc decades ago). Serkin/Abbado
Born to Run
Linda Ronstadt’s Greatest Hits

I have the other two classical discs. The pop/rock discs were replaced by remasters.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

My first deliberate purchase was the 1999 album of music for the film "With Fire and Sword".

The next two I don't remember.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

30 years ago


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

I do remember finding this one in my dad's collection as a little kid. Sinfonia (Le nozze di figaro), Eine kleine nachtmusik finale, K.488 piano concerto finale sounded really fresh to me at the time (They still do, lol).


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## Open Lane (Nov 11, 2015)

I'm having a hard time remembering but i think my 3 earliests were actually Rochmaninoff's Piano Concerti, Alban Berg's LuLu, and Chopin's Etudes


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## BlackAdderLXX (Apr 18, 2020)

My first three classical cds were Vivaldi: Four Seasons - iMusici, Prokofiev Piano concertos 1&3 - Graffman/Szell and Mozart Requiem - Karajan. I easily remember them because they were pretty much the only classical music I listened to for decades.


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