# Classical "First Loves"



## Guest (Nov 6, 2016)

What were your "first love" pieces when you discovered classical music? 

I am 40, I started listening to classical at 18 or so. There wasn't too much available then. No YouTube, Spotify! I bought a magazine about great composers and each came with a CD. That's how I found some music.

Because I didn't have more CDs, I listened to the same stuff over and over. These three pieces were my first loves:

- The Schumann A Minor Piano Concerto (and the Liszt 1st piano concerto was on the same CD!)
- The Mozart 21st Concerto in C (also paired with the 22nd concerto on the same CD!) 
- Beethoven's 9th Symphony

There was a more, of course, but these three come to mind.

And for this reason I'm still quite attached to these pieces!!! 

Yours?


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## Francis Poulenc (Nov 6, 2016)

Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

My first love was Tchaikovsky 1st Piano Concerto although when I was six, I was humming his 6th symphony.


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## ProudSquire (Nov 30, 2011)

Chopin Berceuse in D flat Major. :tiphat:


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## Weird Heather (Aug 24, 2016)

I discovered classical music when I was about eight years old - in the 1970s. Things were radically different back then. The CD didn't exist yet, the internet was only used by a few engineers and government workers, and there were fewer radio stations. Compared to people's average incomes, records were more expensive then than CDs and downloads are now. A typical household would just have a handful of records, cassettes, or 8-track tapes. My situation was typical; there were probably about thirty records in the house, and about a third of them were classical. My choices were therefore limited. Still, I distinctly remember two records that captured my interest, and I played them repeatedly until they wore out.

The first was a Columbia record entitled "Bach's Greatest Hits." It included excerpts from a few Bach albums that had been recorded up to about 1970 - even including an excerpt from "Switched-On Bach." I liked everything on that record, but being a young nerd, I found the crude electronic sounds of "Switched-On Bach" fascinating and eventually talked my mother into buying a copy of that record. I still love Bach, and even those primitive but creative electronic versions still hold some appeal for me.

The other was an RCA Victor record of Mussorgsky's music entitled "The Power of the Orchestra." It included "Night on Bare Mountain" (Leibowitz version) and "Pictures at an Exhibition" (Ravel version) - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Rene Leibowitz. I was endlessly intrigued by these pieces, and they are still among my favorites. After the record wore out, I couldn't find another copy, and the Rimsky-Korsakov version of "Night on Bare Mountain" always sounded odd to me since I was used to the Leibowitz version. Unfortunately, this turned out to be an extremely rare record, and it took forever to come out on CD. After many years, I finally found a pristine copy of the record and immediately digitized it. I still listen to it regularly.

I wonder how people now find first favorites like this. In my day, a very limited selection made things easy - in a way. I simply played the few records that were available, and some of them captured my interest. I suppose I got lucky; if none of them had interested me, I might never have discovered classical music, or I might have discovered it much later. Nowadays, the web provides a near-limitless selection. How does a new listener even know where to start? And with so much out there, do people even manage to find favorites like I did all those years ago?


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2016)

My friend played organ in the church and I sat frequently beside him, so it may not come as a surprise that Bach was my first and everlasting love.After the service when all the people hurried to get home he played mostly a piece by Bach.


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

Sibelius-Karelia Suite-dad's 78 when he was home from sea (that is how I remember it anyway,but I have retained a love for the composer throughout my life !).......


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

mine were so many....
first of all opera, arias, Overturas to Traviata, third act of Aida ( because of Amneris )
Bach Passacalia in c minor, Toccata and Fugue in d minor
Beethoven´s Sonata no. 8 op.13


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2016)

And with so much out there, do people even manage to find favorites like I did all those years ago? 



Interesting question,there are not many stores anymore where you can search and have a personal relation with the shopkeeper as a good customar.
It makes in my opinion a big difference and I have my doubt if the classical music wil survive.There is so much grey hair in the concert halls.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I started listening to classical in the late 1950's. My first love was the Shostakovich 5th followed by RVW's 9th symphony.


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## Weird Heather (Aug 24, 2016)

Traverso said:


> And with so much out there, do people even manage to find favorites like I did all those years ago?
> 
> Interesting question,there are not many stores anymore where you can search and have a personal relation with the shopkeeper as a good customar.
> It makes in my opinion a big difference and I have my doubt if the classical music wil survive.There is so much grey hair in the concert halls.


That is an interesting point. I have noticed in the last ten years or so that general-purpose CD stores have essentially crashed, and the internet has taken over. A few specialized used record stores still seem to be thriving, but they mostly cater to collectors of rock music and specialized genres within popular music. When I was in college, I searched thrift stores for records and found a few, but perhaps the most useful store was a classical music store. I got to know the employees, and they always made good recommendations. Naturally, this store is long gone, and in the chaos of the internet, it can be hard to sift through everything to find good choices. Perhaps forums like this help to fill in the gap left by the loss of the stores. I have noticed that newbies sometimes come here looking for advice; perhaps, on occasion, somebody finds a first favorite here on this forum.


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2016)

I hope that this forum will fill that gap .I am sure that there are many forum members who are able to give sound advice and not impose their taste on others .This is of course only possible when this forum is a friendly place.


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## PoorSadDrunk (Nov 6, 2016)

Bartok's _Concerto for Orchestra_ was the first piece of music I was able to digest (in a critical sense). I went to an open rehearsal at the NY Phil and was completely blown away.


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

Halidonmusic's Best of Bach video on Youtube still contains my favorite performances of the Brandenburgs. No performers are listed of course.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Schubert's 8th symphony
Dvorak's 9th symphony
Smetana's Vltava (Moldau)
Grieg's Peer Gynt suites
Debussy's La Mer
Mozart's Clarinet concerto

These were on the first classical CD's I bought, and I was hooked. Still love them all.


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2016)

> I wonder how people now find first favorites like this. In my day, a very limited selection made things easy - in a way. I simply played the few records that were available, and some of them captured my interest. I suppose I got lucky; if none of them had interested me, I might never have discovered classical music, or I might have discovered it much later. Nowadays, the web provides a near-limitless selection. How does a new listener even know where to start? And with so much out there, do people even manage to find favorites like I did all those years ago?


Not sure how new people do it but I still get my recommendations on which CDs to listen from essentially these sources:
- A couple of books I have, including "1000 classical recordings you must hear before you die" Good recommendations for core repertoire
- BBC Music Magazine (digital subscription)
- A local newspaper I read in Montreal with a good classical music reviews (Le Devoir)
- Amazon reviews

But then from these recommendations I stream on Spotify and get CDs once in a while.


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## Rhinotop (Jul 8, 2016)

My first meeting with the classical music was with Beethoven (Moonlight Sonata 1st movement, Piano sonata No. 17, Op. 31-2 'Tempest', 5th symphony 1st movement and 6th symphony 1st movement) and Vivaldi's Four Seasons.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Second movement of Beethoven's Seventh - Bruno Walter conducting - age 18 - my epiphany.


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## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

The Planets by Holst, Scheherazade, Dvorak 9, Shostakovich 5 were all pieces that got me into classical music.


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## psfrankel (Nov 5, 2016)

Stravinsky's *Firebird*.
I was a young ballet dancer, age 10 or 11, and I fell in love with the music as much as the dancing.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

My first classical loves were on two vinyl LPs that my mother had. Ravel: Bolero, La Valse, Ma Mere l'Oye; and a double LP of Copland's populist music: El Salon Mexico, Billy the Kid, Rodeo and Appalachian Spring, and, as an encore, the Dance from Music for the Theater. I still love it all, including Bolero, if only as one example of masterful orchestration....


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## James Mann (Sep 6, 2016)

I first heard Brahms Symphony no 1 when I was a little chap. Though I became preoccupied with rocknroll in my teenage years, it was a motivation for me as an adult to become a romantic. Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Strauss. It is all very wonderful.
Thanks for listening


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Beethoven: piano concert no5 played by Magaloff, "borrowed"from my dad's shelf ( still got it.
Verdi's; La Traviata my first ever opera seen in Amsterdam.
The very highlight: 1996 seeing Renée Fleming as Desdemona in the Metropolitan opera. at the age of 10.


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## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

Turangalila symphony and it scarred the hell out of me, but i was amazed by the utter power of messiaen, than i would discover cosmos conscieousness after and would be like woaw this is cosmic and it blew me away.


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## Bartfromthenetherlands (Sep 29, 2016)

I had more classical hates before I had any classical loves. Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Brahms, I always hated


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

The first classical record that I bought was Beethoven Symphony no. 5 - Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic 1977. I bought it in 1979. I do not have it anymore but I find the 1963 version a better performance. I think Karajan had more "FIRE" when he was younger. Three Gs followed by an E flat still captures my attention every time.

The first true love of classical music was Mozart - Eine kleine Nachtmusik. It was a cassette tape. Now, I have 5 different CD versions. Bring back so many fond memories....


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## Isiah Thanu (Nov 1, 2016)

Traverso said:


> My friend played organ in the church and I sat frequently beside him, so it may not come as a surprise that Bach was my first and everlasting love.After the service when all the people hurried to get home he played mostly a piece by Bach.


My friend( later best man ) was the assistant church organist- Teenager like me and our friends. Prior to evensong before the service began, he would be playing the organ, sort of wallpaper music.
Afterwards he would ask us what we thought of the music. He explained that he played tunes improvised from the latest Elvis records!!
The adults and old dears didn't have a clue what they were listening to and enjoying.

We lost touch in our twenties and he emigrated. A few years ago an impulsive internet search found him and we corresponded from opposite sides of the world. Relived old times, - then he died suddenly!

He was a good chap. Whenever I look back ( fondly ) on my teenage years (1950s ), I always think of him .
He was such a large part of my life then.


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## Isiah Thanu (Nov 1, 2016)

QuietGuy said:


> My first classical loves were on two vinyl LPs that my mother had. Ravel: Bolero, La Valse, Ma Mere l'Oye; and a double LP of Copland's populist music: El Salon Mexico, Billy the Kid, Rodeo and Appalachian Spring, and, as an encore, the Dance from Music for the Theater. I still love it all, including Bolero, if only as one example of masterful orchestration....


My first classical love was Ravels Bolero, too. On vinyl with Rapsodie Espagnole, played on a dansette record player. Still like Ravel! Got rid of the dansette though!


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## Guest (Nov 25, 2016)

My father has an enormous classical music collection. I grew up listening to it (I'm 58 years old) but never really developed an appreciation for it until about two years ago. I'd always listened to popular music, but had become bored and irritated by much of it. I discovered Joshua Bell's Voice of the Violin and Romance of the Violin. I mentioned these to my dad and he said, "Let me bring you some music I think you will like."

The first CDs he brought featured Bruch's Scottish Fantasy and Dvorak's Cello Concerto. I was hooked. Since then I have branched out a lot (my dad has endless material) but the cello concerto and the Scottish Fantasy remain two of my favorite works.

Of course there is also Brahms, Elgar, Schumann, Mahler, Beethoven, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, and others. So much beautiful music. My dad has always had a special affection for almost anything written by Dvorak. We live in Iowa and he has visited the Dvorak home/exhibit in Spillville several times. 

I enjoy this forum.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

carol235 said:


> My father has an enormous classical music collection. I grew up listening to it (I'm 58 years old) but never really developed an appreciation for it until about two years ago. I'd always listened to popular music, but had become bored and irritated by much of it. I discovered Joshua Bell's Voice of the Violin and Romance of the Violin. I mentioned these to my dad and he said, "Let me bring you some music I think you will like."
> 
> The first CDs he brought featured Bruch's Scottish Fantasy and Dvorak's Cello Concerto. I was hooked. Since then I have branched out a lot (my dad has endless material) but the cello concerto and the Scottish Fantasy remain two of my favorite works.
> 
> ...


Welcome to TC, carol235. It would be so wonderful to visit Dvorak's sites in Spillville. He produced some lovely music there and the Czech population in that area helped him feel at home.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

carol235 said:


> My father has an enormous classical music collection. I grew up listening to it (I'm 58 years old) but never really developed an appreciation for it until about two years ago. I'd always listened to popular music, but had become bored and irritated by much of it. I discovered Joshua Bell's Voice of the Violin and Romance of the Violin. I mentioned these to my dad and he said, "Let me bring you some music I think you will like."
> 
> The first CDs he brought featured Bruch's Scottish Fantasy and Dvorak's Cello Concerto. I was hooked. Since then I have branched out a lot (my dad has endless material) but the cello concerto and the Scottish Fantasy remain two of my favorite works.
> 
> ...


 A very warm welcome to Talk Classical carol235 great to have you with us.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

The first classical LPs I bought were Tchaikovsky's piano concerto 1 with Katchen / Gamba and Handel's Water Music with Boyd Neel. Then I was (as the saying goes) 'hooked on classics'. Then LPs were comparatively expensive. Never thought I'd own 1500 recordings then!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

carol235 said:


> My father has an enormous classical music collection. I grew up listening to it (I'm 58 years old) but never really developed an appreciation for it until about two years ago. I'd always listened to popular music, but had become bored and irritated by much of it. I discovered Joshua Bell's Voice of the Violin and Romance of the Violin. I mentioned these to my dad and he said, "Let me bring you some music I think you will like."
> 
> *The first CDs he brought featured Bruch's Scottish Fantasy and Dvorak's Cello Concerto. * I was hooked. Since then I have branched out a lot (my dad has endless material) but the cello concerto and the Scottish Fantasy remain two of my favorite works.
> 
> ...


I assume your dad loved a good tune!


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## Guest (Nov 25, 2016)

DavidA said:


> I assume your dad loved a good tune!


Yes, and he still does but his hearing is so poor that he doesn't get nearly as much out of the music as he used to. Hearing aids help a little. But he is happy that I am enjoying the music.


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## Guest (Nov 25, 2016)

Pugg said:


> A very warm welcome to Talk Classical carol235 great to have you with us.


Thank you so much!


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## Guest (Nov 25, 2016)

Every now and then a thread like this one gives me a chance to tell of my love affair with the music of Mozart.

It was the mid-eighties. The CD player had just been invented. Also the movie "Amadeus" got the best picture oscar. I loved that movie so much! I bought a CD with a few pieces that were featured in the soundtrack - just single movements. From that CD I decided I wanted the entire works of many of them. All my "First Loves" were Mozart. The Sinfonia Concertante, K364 is still my favorite piece of music in this world.


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## Guest (Nov 25, 2016)

Bettina said:


> Welcome to TC, carol235. It would be so wonderful to visit Dvorak's sites in Spillville. He produced some lovely music there and the Czech population in that area helped him feel at home.


Thank you! I have never been to Spillville; I hope to take dad back sometime soon.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

I've been listening to classical music literally all my life, from before I was old enough to remember, so I couldn't truthfully say which were my very first loves. The first piece I remember thinking of as my favourite was Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto.


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## Ralphus (Nov 13, 2016)

My parents had a few classical records in the house but I had paid no attention to them. When my grandfather was killed, we inherited his record collection. We didn't even know he had the records! My grandmother hated music and he wasn't allowed to play music in the house. (She once claimed to be "quite fond of" Hawaiian guitar, but I never saw her listening to it.) Due to the connection with my grandfather, I took care of those records and listened to them. The one that really grabbed me was a Columbia LP of the Ravel Concerto for Left Hand with Robert Casadesus, the Philadelphia Orchestra & Eugene Ormandy. (The B-side was a Mozart Concerto for 2 Pianos, with Gaby Casadesus. I don't recall ever listening to it. I'm sure I must have, though.) It wasn't just the music itself, or even just the connection to my grandfather, it was also the story behind the piece and the fact that it really sounded like two hands playing, at least to me back then. I still love that piece. I haven't been able to buy that performance on CD, but I do have the Mozart in a Casadesus Plays Mozart Sony box.

I also inherited boxes of blank tapes from my grandfather. Back then the ABC Classic FM station produced a monthly magazine that listed each day's programming. As soon as I got home from school, I pored over the magazine and taped anything that interested me. I'd label each cassette with a composer's name and 'collect' pieces by them. I had Beethoven, Beethoven 2, 3, etc. I remember a Rossetti horn concerto I taped on a cassette labeled, 'Rossetti'. I don't think that tape ever got anything else on it! I ended up with shelves and shelves of tapes of collected recordings!

My mum bought me some records from the local flea market, too. One was a Columbia record of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet with David Oppenheim and the Budapest Quartet. I loved that record! My mum also bought me editions of a Marshall Cavendish series sold at the newsagency called "The Great Composers". Each LP came with a magazine. I learned so much from those! By the time I got to university, my knowledge of music history and instrumental repertoire was pretty darn complete. My colleagues were surprised I knew their instruments' repertoire better than they did! All because of my grandfather's Ravel and the ravenous curiosity it created in me!


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## jailhouse (Sep 2, 2016)

Messiaen's Quatour Por La Fin Du Temps is the first piece that really clicked with me (although i had tried to get into beethoven and bach before but unsuccessfully besides maybe beethoven's 9th). And it took many years before I was willing to move beyond my prog, extreme metal, jazz, electronica bubble and seek out more classical music


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

As a young child my mom played lots of Russian music for me, and apparently I kept requesting it: Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Prokofiev and Rimsky-Korsakoff. Lost touch with it for a few years before reconnecting in my early teens, with the addition of Beethoven, Scriabin, Subotnik, Xenakis and lord knows what else. The Russian influence never left and I feel it's my native musical language if that makes any sense.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

My first loves were old 78s of (inevitably) Grieg's Piano Concerto (Backhaus soloist) and Borodin's Polovtsian Dances (recorded at Leeds Music Festival, 1934). I'm still very fond of both works.


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## Guest (Nov 26, 2016)

The Grieg piano concerto is another one of my first loves. When I took piano lessons 50 years ago my teacher used the John Schaum course. One of the books (G - The Amber Book) had a very simplified version of part of the first movement as a recital piece. I loved playing it. 

Another treasure my dad loaned me was the DVD with Julia Fischer playing the Saint Saens violin concerto No. 3 AND the Grieg PC. So good.


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## PresenTense (May 7, 2016)

Chopin - Rondo à la Krakowiak

Rachmaninoff - Preludes

Olivier Messiaen - Turangalîla Symphonie 

Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 2

K. Penderecki - Violin Sonata No. 2

Arvo Part - Pari Intervalo


I heard of Messiaen thanks to a singer called Melody's Echo Chamber and Radiohead's guitarist and contemporary composer Jonny Greenwood. Also, I saw Jonny worked with Penderecki so that was when I heard his works. 

I read a book about Mozart but I never fell in love with his music. I don't enjoy baroque/classical era that much to be honest. 

All that happened when I was 17. I'm 21 right now.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I think the first piece I remember really listening to was Pictures at an Exhibition 
I was fascinated by the music helping to paint a picture


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## Isiah Thanu (Nov 1, 2016)

Ralphus;1154559
The one that really grabbed me was a Columbia LP of the Ravel Concerto for Left Hand with Robert Casadesus said:


> Ralphus,
> I have checked with YouTube music , and if you search on there for Ravel concerto for left hand Casadesus ,Ormandy, then the recording comes up and you can listen to it. I see it was recorded in 1947.Good luck.


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## Conglomerate (Jan 30, 2016)

Verklärte Nacht and The Rite of Spring


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

Ravel's Bolero. After I finally got sick of incessantly playing "Squeegee the Clown".

https://m.youtube.com/?reload=7&rdm=236h9lv7#/watch?v=gNXFu3OPU9E


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