# Can you remember your first classical music favorites?



## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I know! Mozart no. 40! I wore out my fathers LP. I have now gotten allergic to Karl Böhm, but still love it


----------



## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

First Three:

Shostakovich - Sym. 9
Vaughan Williams - Sym. 9
Berlioz - Sym. Fantastique


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Rimsky-Korsakov*: _Scheherazade_ is the first Classical work I remember hearing in my pre-teens and loving it. My mother would get these green boxed albums of "the Greatest Music Ever Written" from the supermarket where she shopped if she spent enough money. There were others but I don't remember them.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Mussorgsky/Ravel - Pictures at an exhibition. It was played in music class in highschool (I was probably 11 or 12). Favorite is a big word, but I liked it (still do). It would be another 18 years or so before I really started listening to classical music. Schubert's unfinished symphony was my first CD, and my first love in the genre (and still love it).


----------



## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

As a small kid before really listening to classical music: opera choruses (Carmen, Dutchman etc.)

As a teenager first real encounters: 
Tchaikovsky: Capriccio italien, Ouverture 1812, Marche Slave, piano concerto b flat minor, 5th symphony
Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite
Dvorak: 9th symphony

A bit later
Haydn: Drum roll symphony
Mozart, symphonies 25, 29, 38-41, last piano concerto
Beethoven: 5th piano concerto, 6th and 9th symphony, Pathetique, Appassionata


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I began my "classical" interest with the music of Tchaikovsky, specifically _Capriccio Italien_. I soon moved into other Tchaikovsky music, including the Piano Concerto, and Symphonies 5 and 6, and soon branched out towards Brahms and Bruckner, Schubert and Mendelssohn, Dvorak and Liszt ... and other (largely) Romantic composers, ever reaching out (backwards and forwards) to expand my musical dimensions. I never ceased the pursuit.

Bravo Tchaikovsky!


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> I know! Mozart no. 40! I wore out my fathers LP. I have now gotten allergic to Karl Böhm, but still love it


Me too! Except mine was Bruno Walter's recording (coupled with the Haffner) which I have still not tired of.


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Art Rock said:


> Mussorgsky/Ravel - Pictures at an exhibition. It was played in music class in highschool (I was probably 11 or 12). Favorite is a big word, but I liked it (still do). It would be another 18 years or so before I really started listening to classical music. Schubert's unfinished symphony was my first CD, and my first love in the genre (and still love it).


I remember first hearing _Pictures at an Exhibition_ from the *Emerson, Lake, and Palmer* version and then the Ravel orchestration, later.


----------



## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

I remember hearing Strauss' _Eine Alpensinfonie_ when I was in my early teens (the HvK recording on DG) and being absolutely sucked into it's sonic-world. This, I suppose you could say, was my first foray into classical music.


----------



## mparta (Sep 29, 2020)

My father bought me the Beethoven Bicentennial set, I was in grade school. He had ambitions. I did have a thing for Wellington's Victory:lol:

Moravec Beethoven and Chopin from Connoisseur Society

Boston Haydn and Handel Society Messiah, maybe Donald Graham was the baritone and the magnificent Adele Addison the soprano, before Bernstein

Alexander Gibson and whatever the Scots orchestra was before it got Royal, Dvorak 9. We thought that "british" orchestra had some great wind playing.

That's the cheap of it for firsts that I remember, the beginning of a long slide into --- talkclassical. Gateway drugs


----------



## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

Probably Fauré's Dolly Suite Berceuse as it was the closing theme tune for Listen With Mother (13:30) which I would have listened to as a toddler - though I'm not claiming that I knew what it was at the time!

After that, Holst's Planet Suite, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture or Dvorak's From The New World - all played by my parents/siblings when I was about 5 or 6.


----------



## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

A cassette tape of Beethoven's 5th and 6th symphonies borrowed from a High School friend around 1980. I made a (pirated) copy of the tape. It was my first exposure to classical music, and was my trigger for interest in classical music. My parents and family had absolutely no interest in music of any kind.


----------



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I do remember them, and when LPs started showing up on CD I bought them as soon as I could. I still treasure those performances:

Tchaikovsky Symphony 5 (Ormandy on Columbia)
Beethoven Piano Concerto 5 (Fleisher/Szell on Epic)
Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade (Monteux/SF on RCA)
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 1 (Gilels/Reiner on RCA)
Tchaikosky Manfred (Toscanini on RCA)

Tchaikovksy was a gateway for many listeners I suspect.


----------



## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

When I was a young teen I really got into Aaron Copland, especially Appalachian Spring, Rodeo Suite, and Fanfare for the Common Man. In my early 20s I explored some Brahms and went to a few concerts. 

It's in the past 3.5 years that I've dived really deep into CM and the whole repertoire.


----------



## Musicaterina (Apr 5, 2020)

Only my first favourite composer: It was Joseph Haydn.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Probably not the first piece I heard, but the first one I distinctly remember zoning in on as a kid was Dance Macabre in elementary school music class.


----------



## Knorf (Jan 16, 2020)

My two earliest, obsessive favorites: Stravinsky's _Le Sacre du printemps_, and J. S. Bach's Passacaglia in C minor, orchestrated and conducted by René Leibowitz. The Stravinsky was the first recording I ever purchased, on cassette, when I was 14. I don't remember the orchestra or conductor.

Other obsessions that followed shortly:

Beethoven: Symphonies 4 & 5, Krips/LSO
Strauss: _Tod und Verklärung_, Karajan/Berliner Philharmoniker
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5, Bernstein/NYPO
Mahler: Symphonies 3, 6, & 9, Bernstein/NYPO


----------



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

My first exposure was probably Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. My mother would take us most years to Lincoln Center in NY to see the ballet. I have always enjoyed the music.

The first piece I truly loved was Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. I was exposed when hearing my girlfriend (now wife) practice it.


----------



## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

When I was between 7-8, my favorites were:

1) Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Thanks to Tom and Jerry’s “The Cat Concerto,” the greatest single cartoon ever alongside “What’s Opera, Doc?”)

2) Ravel, Bolero

3) Beethoven, Moonlight sonata (I had started playing the opening triad by ear using both of my hands. This inspired my dad to give me piano lessons.)


I stopped being interested in my early teens but then experienced a renaissance of sorts in high school:

1) Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (learned the whole thing for memory)

2) Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade (I had it playing on my car radio when my girlfriend gave me my first kiss. How’s that for a classical nerd story?)

3) Mozart, Piano Concerto No 20

4) Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 3


Then in college, my love affair with Brahms began, starting with the Violin Concerto, still my favorite work. That was followed by the Piano Concerto No 1, the Requiem, and the 3rd symphony.

Around this time I started getting into recordings. It was towards the end of college and during law school that I discovered Furtwängler, providing what I thought were the greatest renditions of my favorite orchestral works. And that’s pretty much where I’ve been for the past 25 years. 

I was a late bloomer to Mahler appreciation. I finally got heavily immersed 5 years ago.


.


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

The first piece I really took to was Shostakovich's 5th symphony on a series of 78 rpm records that my parents had stashed away in a drawer. I guess that's why to this day I prefer Shostakovich with dodgy sound.


----------



## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

From earliest I can recall:

Stravinsky - Rite of Spring [Bernstein [NYPO]
Tchaikovsky Sym #4 [Bernstein, Ormandy]
Dvorak Sym #9 From New World" [Talich, Toscanini]


----------



## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

I was 12 in 1984 when Amadeus came out. That was pretty much where it all started.


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Swan Lake excerpts by the "Ballet Theater Orchestra" conducted by Joseph Levine on Capitol. (around Fourth Grade, purchased at the big old Radio Shack store in Boston's Kenmore Square.)

Eroica, 1949 Toscanini Carnegie Hall recording. Fifth Grade, gift from my older sister.

Still have and treasure both


----------



## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

I was a pianist as a teenager and I generally got excited whenever I got up to a new level and would listen to the next pieces to play...As I got more advanced works like Chopin's first Ballade, Liszt's HR2/Liebestraume No. 3/Un Sospiro, Rachmaninoff's Op. 23/5 and Elegie Op. 3/1, Beethoven's Op. 27/1 -basically works I was learning or wanted to learn- were the first works I'd consider 'favourites.'


----------



## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto. It was a bargain basement LP which didn't even give the conductor's name (soloist was one Eric Silver with the Berlin Symphony Orch.) and even a beginner like I was then could hear the major flub by the French horns at one point in the first movement, but the performance had tremendous _brio_ and really drew me in.


----------



## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Bach Brandenburg Concertos - Lorin Maazel.


----------



## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

"Can you remember your first classical music favorites?"

Tchaikovsky's _1812 Overture_, of course. After purchasing a CBS budget reissue by Leonard Bernstein and the NYPO; I then went back to the record store and purchased Mussorgsky's _Night On Bald Mountain_ which was coupled with _Pictures at an Exhibition_ by Mussorgsky/Ravel; but _Pictures_ became the favorite.


----------



## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Anyone remember this series?









Discogs says they are from the mid-1970s but my Dad had acquired a bunch of them around 10 years later (I wonder how he got them in Germany, I think they were English commentary only). Some were rather mediocre in pressing or flatness but it was my first "Emperor" (Brendel/Mehta) and Mozart K 595 (also early Vox? Brendel), we also had Wagner, Rachmaninoff 2nd PC, the Beethoven Pastoral (but there I already had the better quality Karajan/DG) and I think Royal Fireworks.

Or this one?









I didn't have any but a friend of mine who was a bit ahead and helped me get into classical had most of them on cassette tapes. These were really high quality recordings, mostly from Universal and they had beautifully illustrated large books with background information.


----------



## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

The Leibowitz transcription of the Bach C Minor Passacaglia and Fugue in that Reader's Digest box set from the 70s.


----------



## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

My first opera was Rigoletto.

We also had to learn Pictures at an Exhibition in school.


----------



## FrankinUsa (Aug 3, 2021)

Beethoven Symphony 3 Eroica. I borrowed it from my local library. It was one of HvK later recordings. I remember I already knew the opening notes of Sym.5 so I wanted to hear something different from Beethoven. Now I have a couple of thousand CDs


----------



## FrankinUsa (Aug 3, 2021)

Can anyone remember this.


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

SanAntone said:


> I remember first hearing _Pictures at an Exhibition_ from the *Emerson, Lake, and Palmer* version and then the Ravel orchestration, later.


"Death is Liiiiiiife."


----------



## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

FrankinUsa said:


> Can anyone remember this.


Yep, I certainly remember seeing that commercial way back when, maybe right after my family finally got cable TV.


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

FrankinUsa said:


> Can anyone remember this.


Ugh! I remember the Longines Symphonette doing the same thing. Why be bored with an entire symphony when you can just listen to the hummable tunes?


----------



## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Manxfeeder said:


> Ugh! I remember the Longines Symphonette doing the same thing. Why be bored with an entire symphony when you can just listen to the hummable tunes?


Wellllllll maybe listening to such mashups and extracts might lead to someone's exploring the hummable tunes in their complete context.


----------



## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Yep. Mom had some CDs of a collection of classical music highlights and since an early age I was interested in Mozart and Brahms, although at the time I didn't know who they were or even what the term "classical music" stood for. I was just listening to music and enjoying the process. My first favorites were the first Allegro of _Eine Kleine Nachtmusik_ and the introduction to the finale of Brahms' first symphony (I wouldn't listen to the entire movement though - too long, I thought at the time).

Later on I discovered Disney's _Fantasia_, and instantly became a fan. My favorite cartoons were the one with _Rite of Spring_, the one with _Night on Bald Mountain_ and, of course, the one with _Sorcerer's Apprentice_ that starred Mickey Mouse.

But I would only begin to really explore classical music years later, when I discovered the _Tannhäuser_ overture and became deeply impressed by it. Since then, exploring CM has turned out to be my most passionate hobby.


----------



## MrMeatScience (Feb 15, 2015)

My entry points to classical music in a serious way were principally the Rite of Spring and the Miraculous Mandarin, which I encountered when I was maybe 10 or 11. I had seen _Fantasia_ earlier and I did play parts of it (again, Rite of Spring, but also the Mussorgsky and the Dukas) very often, but I didn't listen to the music out of that context until I picked up the oboe in school (later switched to bassoon). I took an odd route -- after those first-gen modernists I expanded into late 20th century music in my early teens, and only after that did I turn to the core common practice period canonical repertoire.


----------



## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Bach Orchestral Suites

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker suite

Beethoven Symphony No. 5


----------



## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> I know! Mozart no. 40! I wore out my fathers LP. I have now gotten allergic to Karl Böhm, but still love it


Gustav Holst- The Planets


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

To the best of my knowledge, mine were all warhorses such as......

Beethoven - 7th Symphony, quickly followed by the rest of Beethoven's symphonies (Karajan) 
Dvorak - Slavonic Dances (Kubelik) 
Dvorak - 9th Symphony (Macal) 
Holst - Planets (Loughran) 
Khachaturian - Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia
Satie - Gymnopedies (Ciccolini)


----------



## mossyembankment (Jul 28, 2020)

Both of these were among the first classical I listened to repeatedly (probably starting age 13 or so).


----------



## Wilhelm Theophilus (Aug 8, 2020)

Tchaikovsky opened the way for me too. My wife gave me a CD of Beethoven sonatas. I liked them a little but it didn't make me want more. Tchaikovsky got my attention and sparked my interest. After that it was Sibelius. Then Wagner knocked me side ways. Then Mozart.


----------



## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Beethoven Symphony no. 9 has long been one of my favorites. However, I now think the Beethoven late quartets surpass it.


----------



## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> I know! Mozart no. 40! I wore out my fathers LP. I have now gotten allergic to Karl Böhm, but still love it


Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, as performed by Stokowski et al. in Disney's Fantasia. Still one of my favorite movies. Then, Mozart's Jupiter Symphony, as played by Sir Thomas Beecham and his RPO. Still one of my favorite records.


----------



## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Grieg, Piano Concerto (of course!). Backhaus, on 78s
Borodin, Prince Igor. Also on 78s, recorded at 1934 Leeds Festival.

Grieg and Borodin remain firm favourites


----------



## Cadenza (Sep 24, 2012)

Grieg’s Piano Concerto for me too, on a cool, clear, crisp Autumn evening.


----------



## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

Pat Fairlea said:


> Grieg, Piano Concerto (of course!). Backhaus, on 78s


Fantastic recording. That and the old Gieseking are my two favorites.


----------



## hawgdriver (Nov 11, 2011)

Embarrassingly, or not, depending on your elitism, it was David Lelfgott's solo piano version of Mussorgski's Pictures that I minded in 2000.

That was the bait. I was downloading random garbage off napster in 2000, I had that cd. No clue that he was the dude from the movie shine. No idea about anything, just...that cd had Pictures and Rach 23/5. (not a particularly scintillating version now that I've met Sviatoslav). The rest followed.


----------



## Ice Berg (Aug 29, 2021)

favorite composers by age

5-7: liszt
8-12: beethoven
13: stockhausen
14: alkan
15-16: mahler
17-18: schnittke
19: bruckner
20: beethoven

Since then, I'm not quite sure I can say who my favorite is.


----------



## chipia (Apr 22, 2021)

Probably 

Debussy - Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Stravinsky - Rite of Spring
Mahler - Symphony 9

For some reason I found late 19th / early 20th century music much more accessible as a teenager than the common practice era. It took me a longer time to get into Bach and Mozart.


----------



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

At home there was a _Reader's Digest_ box of albums, some of which contained classical music. This was off limits for me while I was of the age when anything in my hands was asking to be damaged, but when I was a little older and trusted to be alone I fished the box out and played one of the discs at random - I can't recall what was on it except for an excerpt of a liturgical work by Grechaninov. I recall struggling with his name and that the excerpt was called _The Creed_. This is the set in question, but for some reason I always thought the box was orange rather than red. I must be getting mixed up with something else from back then, I suppose...










I can't remember anything else until I was at middle and then high school when we had a once-a-week music lesson - a couple of Schubert songs (_Die Forelle_ and _Der Lindenbaum_) which we sang in English, _Peter & the Wolf_, and the _Háry János Suite_. I never became a keen classical listener until I was in my mid-30s, though.


----------



## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Ice Berg said:


> favorite composers by age
> 
> 5-7: liszt
> 8-12: beethoven
> ...


That's an interesting analysis. My Alkan phase was a decade later than yours. At <10 yrs, I found Tchaikovsky really appealing, then sort-of grew out of him. Now in my 60s I'm coming back to him, mainly through his chamber and solo piano works.


----------



## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

All on LP

My college roommate’s set of the Brandenburgs - Nonesuch. I’ve seen the cover posted here, but can’t recall it. Chamber orchestra.

Four RCA two disc sets: 

Rubinstein playing the Brahms concertos
Rubinstein and Heifetz playing Beethoven concertos (No. 5 for Rubinstein)
Heifetz playing the Brahms, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky
Rubinstein playing the Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov

Then the Beethoven Symphonies conducted by Walter.


----------



## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Solti's Decca recording of "Siegfried". I hadn't been the least bit interested in music previously, but was forced to attend a children's promenade concert where they played the Siegfried Idyll. I was instantly hooked... not on the Idyll, but on the story of the Ring, which the concert's compère - I think it was Jack Brymer - told by way of an intro. I went to my local record library to explore the Ring further, and "Siegfried" seemed a natural place to start. They only had it on mono LPs, but it still sounded amazing, and it gave me a life-long love of Wagner, opera and classical music in general.

The first records I remember buying were Holst's "Planets" (Hallé cond. James Loughran), Beethoven's 3rd piano concerto (Ludwig Hoffmann with the Philharmonia Hungarica cond. Miltiades Caridis), and a Pickwick double-LP of popular classics. The latter featured, among other goodies, the Polovtsian Dances from Price Igor... yes, it said "Price" Igor on the cover, and for some time afterwards I thought that's what it was called.


----------



## JohnP (May 27, 2014)

I grew up with my parents' collection of 78s, and there are too many to list. Among them were:

Schubert. Trio #1. Rubinstein, Heifetz, Piatigorsky
Sibelius. Symphony No. 2. Koussevitzky, BSO
Mendelssohn. Octet. Heifetz, Primrose, Piatigorsky, et al.
Dohnanyi. Serenade for String Trio. Heifetz, Primrose, Feuermann
Numerous arias, duets, and ensembles with the likes of Caruso, Ruffo, Galli-Curci, Ponselle, etc.


----------



## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Brandenburg Concertos - Ristenpart
Beethoven Violin Concerto - Ferras/Karajan
Dvorak Cello Concerto - Rostropovich/Boult


----------



## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

Serenade/Drinking Song: Mario Lanza

The Dambusters March: Central Band of The Royal Air Force 

Hungarian Rhapsody No.2: Paderewski (78 recorded 1924)

The Planets: Ace of Clubs ACL 26, Sargent


----------



## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

My first was Beethoven's piano sonatas #21,23,26 by Gilels I got from my father.


----------



## 1846 (Sep 1, 2021)

I was six or seven years old at the most. (We're talking the late 50s here.) My father was a public school music teacher, and he would bring home records for my brother and me to listen to. Dad didn't care that much for classical but still that's what he would bring home. My favorite record was a collection of piano classics. One piece hooked me for life - Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2. That record lived at our house every weekend, and although I loved everything on it (and I swear I had them all memorized) the Liszt was my special favorite. Dad changed school districts the year I turned seven, so it had to be before that when this record came to me.


----------



## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

David Phillips said:


> The Planets: Ace of Clubs ACL 26, Sargent


This! It was my brother's, but the first that I would put on the record player myself. The stereo treated version of the same recording was the first classical album I bought when I was about 12 (with a picture of Stonehenge on the cover), together with a recording of Grieg's _Peer Gynt Suite _and Lennon's _Imagine_ (my first rock album). Three albums for £5: great value.


----------



## Jen L (Sep 1, 2021)

In my late teens a friend and I were given tickets to a performance of the B Minor Mass. I had no idea what that was all about but, for some reason, thought a mass would only last about 20 minutes, so it was low risk… My friend became fidgety and left in the interval but I remember being increasingly drawn in, and by the Agnus Dei was completely hooked. The friendship didn’t last, but my relationship with Bach continues, rock steady, to this day…


----------



## hawgdriver (Nov 11, 2011)

Mussorgsky's Pictures


----------



## RussianFlute (Jul 26, 2021)

I've played classical music since I was a little one, but I never really listened to it. I remember one day listening to movie soundtracks and Kalinnikov's 1st symphony popped up in my YouTube recommended and I decided to listen to it, thinking it'd be good study music. I was hooked. Shortly thereafter I was reintroduced to Scheherazade. It only went on from there as I heard Borodin's On the Steppes of Central Asia and Tchaikovsky's 1st symphony. I've been hooked on Russian music since. Now I have a playlist of exclusively Russian/Soviet works, consisting of nearly 400 pieces.


----------



## AaronSF (Sep 5, 2021)

I recall hearing Jose Iturbi playing Chopin's _Fantasie Impromptu_ on a red vinyl RCA 45 rpm disc when I was 3 years old. I listened to it over and over. About the same time I recall sitting under our grand piano as my (much) older sister played the pieces from Brahms's Op. 117, and I have loved Brahms since. My first orchestral exposure was Beethoven's _Eroica_ and Schubert's _Unfinished_ when I was 9-10, both of which I still love. The first recording I bought with my own money was a paring of Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto and _Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini_; I was 15 and was deeply moved. Next was Debussy's _La Mer_ coupled with his orchestral prelude _Nuages_, _L'apres-midi d'un faune_ and _Jeux_. I was transported. Ah, youth!


----------



## Sondersdorf (Aug 5, 2020)

We had a set of 45s that introduced the instruments of the orchestra. The tag line was, "And the monkey played the bassoon!". The last side made a pitch for the majesty of the orchestra. Then, they played Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 23. For some reason, I still can't stand that piece.

On a positive note, when I got to high school, I bought Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and Beethoven's Symphonies 3 and 7, Karl Ristenpart. Those I like.


----------



## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Cliche, but Für Elise was my first classical favorite and got me into learning classical piano, so that I could play it. I believe my first encounter with the piece was a midi version on the CD _Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia 1995_, so I was 6 years old, and began piano lessons soon after.


----------



## KevinJS (Sep 24, 2021)

First piece was Air from Handel’s Water Music. Next was Sibelius - Intermezzo from Karelia Suite. I was about 6 when those two stuck in my mind. Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade both came across my radar early. First classical LP I bought was André Previn’s Holst-The Planets.


----------



## Tempesta (Sep 2, 2021)

Sibelius: _Night Ride & Sunrise_


----------



## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

My dad wasn't a classical music lover, but he somehow got his hands on a set of complete Beethoven symphonies with Klemperer/Philharmonia (probably some bycatch from a record club...)
And as a little kid (age 9 or 10) I played those records till there was only gravel left in the grooves. I must have been a peculiar kid, because at the same time I started piano lessons, and I abhorred the kind of popular music volumes the teacher tried to saddle me with. I wanted to play the Great Classics, period. I remember that at that age, I very much preferred Beethoven over Mozart because Mozart wasn't "serious enough" for my taste.


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Couchie said:


> I was 6 years old, and began piano lessons soon after.


Wow, I suspect you were










EdwardBast said:


> a cute child prodigy


----------



## sibylla (Jun 13, 2021)

Beethoven op. 125


----------



## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Five(?) years old: Peter and the Wolf, Night on Bald Mountain, Nutcracker Suite, Prokofiev Second Violin Concerto (Heifitz),


----------



## neofite (Feb 19, 2017)

George Bizet's Carmen


----------



## Sumantra (Feb 1, 2018)

Yes, Piano pieces of Mozart and Chopin


----------



## HerbertNorman (Jan 9, 2020)

Dvorak: New World Symphony
Beethoven 5th piano concerto
Tchaikovsky Nutcracker and Swan Lake...


----------



## Michael122 (Sep 16, 2021)

For Elise.
Hmm... What a fond memory!


----------



## atsizat (Sep 14, 2015)

Air............................


----------



## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

tchaikovsky tchaikovsky tchaikovsky. i was obsessed with him and maybe a handful of other composers (rimsky-korsakov and ravel mostly) before i even started exploring other classical composers. my early favorite pieces were tchaik 2+6, capriccio italiaen (i remember this is the specific piece that i heard for the first time and fell in love), and scheherazade


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Peter and the Wolf as a small child.

Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition as a teen after hearing Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's version.

Beethoven's 3rd and 5th that my father told me about, and a few others, one Dvorak and one Mahler symphony.

In my early 20s my boss mentioned Beethoven's Ninth, so I ran out and got a copy. Heard Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead on the radio and ran out and got a copy. 

There wer others, but then I pretty much was away from classical music for about 20 years. I jumped back in in 2011 and not long after, joined this site. Then I was taken with opera fever in about 2014.


----------



## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

Sibelius-Karelia Suite......when I was very young.


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Beethoven: Piano concert no3 and Triple Concerto was my first ever record. I saw them both in real before that.


----------



## szabomd (Dec 13, 2021)

I remember I was 9 years old (now 14) and we had got all the Mozart piano concertos on CDs.I strated to listen them and 20, 21, 22, 23 and 27 became my favourite


----------



## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

Borodin: Polovetsian Dances
Grieg: Sarabande from Holberg Suite
Grieg "The Last Spring" (Elegiac Melody no. 2)
Mendelssohn: Incidental Music to a Midsummer Night's Dream
Dvorak: Humoresque no. 7
Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Rogerx said:


> Beethoven: Piano concert no3 and Triple Concerto was my first ever record. I saw them both in real before that.


I have to correct myself , it was Beethoven 5th concerto.


----------



## Nawdry (Dec 27, 2020)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> Can you remember your first classical music favorites?


These are some works I recall that as a young adolescent particularly enraptured me...

Brahms: Symphony #1 (from a Columbia mono LP, Bruno Walter conducting the NY Philharmonic)

Bizet: L'Arlesienne Suite (heard in concert)

Shostakovich: Symphony #5 (probably first heard in concert, then mono LP)

Piston: Symphony #4 (LP I found in public library, then received my own copy for Christmas; Ormandy, Philadelphia Orch )

Vaughn Williams: Symphony #8 (heard in concert, where a significant proportion of the audience walked out, apparently displeased with modern music)

Rozsa: Concerto for String Orchestra; Theme, Variations, & Finale (Rozsa cond. London String Orch., Royal Philharmonic; Vox mono LP I picked up in bargain box in local record store)


----------



## Phredd (Jul 7, 2020)

My father was a bit of an audiophile and listened to classical records regularly (as well as other genres, of course). I would watch him, and he would explain what he was doing and why, from how to turn on the amplifier, to not touching the record grooves, to carefully brushing off the disk before playing it, to carefully lowering the record arm onto the platter (we didn't get a fancy turntable with a tonearm lowering switch until much later). But I was strictly forbidden from playing his records without his supervision, as I was only four years old or so, and he was worried that I would not be careful enough with the delicate equipment.

I was not a compliant child, however, and spent many a work day listening particularly to Brahms Symphonies #1 and #2, Mahler #1, and Tchaikovsky #4-6, as well as the occasional run through of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, thinking I was getting away with something. Of course, I have no idea why I thought my mother couldn't hear the music in the other room. She didn't let me know that my father was fully informed of my transgressions all along.

I was formally let loose upon the record collection within about six months, but those particular "illicit" pieces still strongly resonate with me.


----------



## Nawdry (Dec 27, 2020)

Nawdry said:


> These are some works I recall that as a young adolescent particularly enraptured me...


From my own list, I realize I've forgotten to include one of the most formative works in my early musical development:

Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps (Rite of Spring, LP with Ernest Ansermet cond. L'orchestre de la suisse romande)

Playing this several times a week, at high volumes to immerse myself in the intoxicating effect, I must have been quite a nuisance to my mother, and neighbors too on warm nights with windows wide open in a house built in the era before air conditioning.


----------



## SONDEK (Sep 29, 2017)

At the tender age of 6, my classmates and I were led into the auditorium for a class called "Music Thoughts".

We were to listen to a complete classical music piece, take notes, and write an essay later about what thoughts emerged in our imaginations.

I did just that. Little did I know, my essay got forwarded to the national daily newspaper and published in the childrens' section.

I was awarded a book voucher, for my efforts. The book I chose was titled "Robert the Rose Horse" - I was only 6, after all.

The piece of music played was Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave - still one of my favorites. (Mehta/LAPO is my fave...)

I'm still a big Tchaikovsky fan and decades later have a career as a writer.

Humble beginnings.


----------



## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

1812 Overture. My mother played it over and over again.


----------



## Beethoven123 (Nov 25, 2021)

Apparently I listened to Mozart Piano Concerto no. 20 when I was 1...I don't remember that.
My earliest fond memories are of Dvorak symphonies 5-9 and Beethoven Waldstein Sonata.


----------



## verandai (Dec 10, 2021)

Dvorak 9th symphony was the first classical music I remember, that I really enjoyed as a teenager - and I still love it!


----------



## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

My introduction to Classical Music was a bit unusual, thanks to both WNCN and WQXR of New York (the former now defunct, sadly speaking). WNCN in particular was something of a maverick in playing works of obscure composers, like Bax, Glazunov, Roussel. And I enjoyed their live broadcasts of concerts and opera performances.

So, with that said, my first classical favorites were (and still are, in particular):

Bruckner: Symphonies nos. III, VII, VIII, & IX
Glazunov: Symphonies nos. II & VI, Stenka Razin, The Sea, The Seasons, Violin Concerto
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov & Pictures at an Exhibition
Borodin: Symphony no. II and Petite Suite
Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony, Symphonies IV, V, VI, 1812 Overture, Piano Concerto no. II
Massenet: El Cid
Liszt: Dante Symphony and Totentanz
Stravinsky: Ballet "Firebird"
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
Strauss: Blue Danube Waltz, Tales from the Vienna Woods
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade and Antar
Nielsen: Symphony no. II
Sibelius: Symphonies I & II
Mahler: Symphony no. II
Brahms: Symphonies III & IV, Concerto for Cello & Violin
Beethoven: Symphonies III, V, VI, VIII, IX, Wellington Victory
Mozart: Symphony no. XLI "Jupiter"
Haydn: Symphony no. XXII "The Philosopher"
Reger: Piano Concerto and Serenade in G
Scriabin: Symphony nos. I & III
Rachmaninoff: Symphony no. I & Isle of the Dead
Lyapunov: Symphony no. II
Balakirev: Symphony no. I
Franck: Symphony in D and Violin Sonata
Chausson: Symphony in B-flat and Vivianne
Bax: Symphony no. VII
Walton: Symphony no. I
Vaughan-Williams: Symphony no. II
Verdi: overtures La Forza del Destino and Giovanna d'Arco
Lehar: Selections from "The Merry Widow"
Faure: Pelleas et Melisande
Dvorak: Symphony no. VII
Suk: Asrael Symphony
Elgar: Symphony no. II
Wagner: The Ring Cycle (1989 PBS broadcast with Levine and the MET) and Lohengrin
Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Also sprach Zarathustra, _Eine Alpensinfonie_
Ives: Symphony no. II & Three Places in New England
Barber: Symphony no. I, Music for a Scene from Shelley, & Adagio for Strings
Goldmark: Overture "Penthesilea"
Bartok: Symphonic Poem "Kossuth"
Kodaly: Psalmus Hungaricus & Peacock Variations


----------



## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

When I played the piano as a kid, I didn’t particularly enjoy the necessary Bach. But eventually I got to play Chopin Nocturnes. Those must have been the first classical pieces of music that I truly enjoyed. I was able to express myself through playing as well. Very inportant for a teenager.


----------



## composingmusic (Dec 16, 2021)

A few pieces I grew to enjoy very early on are the second movement of Beethoven op. 13, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker (such variety in the movements!), and Chopin's fourth ballade. I've expanded a lot since then, and particularly enjoy a lot of 20th and 21st century music now, but also enjoy lots of music from earlier time periods too (like Josquin, Dowland, and Ockeghem).


----------



## Wigmar (7 mo ago)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> I know! Mozart no. 40! I wore out my fathers LP. I have now gotten allergic to Karl Böhm, but still love it


Segovia. The lp 'Granada' (DL 710063) was my first gramophone experience with classical music (Sor, Albeniz, Granados) 
Wonderful musician 🎼


----------



## 4chamberedklavier (12 mo ago)

Vivaldi's four seasons & Chopin waltzes were what introduced me to CM


----------



## campy (Aug 16, 2012)

Wagner's Prelude to _Die Meistersinger _(Toscanini's NBC recording) and Brahm's Piano Concerto #2 (Serkin & Szell).


----------



## Philidor (11 mo ago)

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4. Don't know when, but I know, where ... so I know that it was at age of seven or less.


----------



## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

As a kid, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Mother played it over and over whilst doing the housework.
As a young adult, everything on the Classic Experience cassettes I wore out in the car and had to replace with cds.














































As a parent, Bach's Cello Suites No. 1, a family favourite featured in The West Wing.










As a trigger to get serious about classical music, Mendelssohn's Piano Trios.


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

_La Traviata, _Prelude to Act #1. Very young. Would implore my mother to play the 78 over and over while I had my ear pressed against the speaker. Other early favorites: Peer Gynt, Polovtsian Dances, all as 78s.


----------



## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

My first were, probably in this order:

Pictures at an Exhibition
Night on Bare Mountain
The Firebird suite
The Rite of Spring
Music for strings, percussion, celesta
Samuel Barber - Piano Concerto

Then from there, it was:
Schoenberg - Variations for Orchestra
Joan Tower - Concerto for Orchestra
Elliott Carter - Concerto for Orchestra

Not sure about much after that, great discoveries started coming fast and furious.




Chilham said:


> As a kid, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Mother played it over and over whilst doing the housework.
> As a young adult, everything on the Classic Experience cassettes I wore out in the car and had to replace with cds.


I love these covers!

Stylistically, they look a lot like some prog rock covers from the 80's.


----------



## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Simon Moon said:


> ... I love these covers!
> 
> Stylistically, they look a lot like some prog rock covers from the 80's.


I guess that was all part of the marketing. Get those who listen to Pendragon, King Crimson, Greenslade, Yes etc. into classical music. It was a "long burn" with me but it worked.


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

My grandfather's 78rpm record of Offenbach's_ Orpheus in the Underground_ [sic] ... I wasn't old enough to appreciate that underground and underworld were different concepts!


----------



## EvaBaron (Jan 3, 2022)

Danse Macabre, I first heard it in class when I was about 12, didn’t think much of it. About a few months later I think I went to a performance of it because the mother of a friend of mine from youth orchestra played it. I thought it was amazing and I remember after the concert asking what it was to the mother. She was incredibly nice and gave me the sheet music. Then I asked my violin teacher if I could play it (the violin solos) and she said yes. So that was really awesome. That was the piece that got me into classical and I remember listening to it a lot on vacation with my primitive earbuds.


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

yes .


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

My first Classical musical favorites were

*Gershwin* - _Rhapsody in Blue_ (piano roll recordings, which I heard around 1965 from my sister's bedroom)

*Bach* - _B Minor Mass (_Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien, Teldec 1968)

*Stravinsky* - _Le sacre du printemps _(Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez, CBS 1969)

*Stockhausen*_ - Stimmung _(Collegium Vocale Köln, DG, 1969)

*Mozart*_ - Piano Sonatas_ (Christoph Eschenbach DG box, 1971)


----------



## erudite (Jul 23, 2020)

Mozart — Symphony No. 40… my grandparents had a 78rpm player and some records.
To while away the tedium of family visits I discovered that lovely piece.

Sometime in the mid 70s my father came home one day with a Hi-Fi set — his audiophile friend had finally convinced him — A Sansui system I recall.
And of course a couple LPs.

Amongst them were…
Beethoven — Piano Concerto No. 5 (Decca's Favourite Composers)
Beethoven — Triple Concerto (EMI, Karajan, Richter, Rostropovich and Oistrakh)
Rocky Horror Picture Show OST…

Those were my first loves.

Beethoven still is my go to.


----------



## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

Bach’s concertos. Just about all of them.


----------



## catalf (7 mo ago)

Botschaft said:


> Bach’s concertos. Just about all of them.


Ferde Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite" I was enrolled in a grade 10 Music Appreciation class in high school and our music teacher used this piece as our introduction to classcial music. Funny that this was a 20th-century piece but then again, this was art music.


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Beethoven 5th concerto, was the first thing that stayed with me I bough: Nikita Magaloff / Otterloo , it was combined with Symphony no 5 . I still have it . My greatest pleasure was listening to the radio on Sunday. Belgium had a opera programme from 14.00 till 1600 as I recall. OH my wor............those good old days


----------



## SoloYH (8 mo ago)

Liebestraum 3
Waltz Chopin 64/2
La Campanella


----------



## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

I was about 10 or 11, and got my hands on a set of Beethoven symphonies by Klemperer that my dad (not a classical music lover) somehow acquired as by-catch from some book club.
I must have played those records till there was only gravel left in the grooves. That was more than 40 years ago, and it was the start of not only my love for classical music but of my professional career in music as well (I had piano lessons already and not long afterwards I started composing).


----------



## scott.stucky48 (7 mo ago)

Hindemith's E-flat Symphony in the 1958 Everest recording by Boult.


----------



## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

I played classical music for about 15 years but didn't have a "favorite" until after that. 

Bwv 911 from the opening credits of David Mamet's "House of Games", and a CD of classical music from Stanley Kubrick films.


----------



## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

For me it started with Shostakovich's 5th and Mahler's 1st. On first hearing, the former sounded folkish, synthetic, and 'heavy'—all of which I liked because it contradicted my then outmoded conception of classical music. I credit Mahler's first with providing solace during a difficult and seemingly unending phase in my life. As we all know, it's not his best work (by a long shot) but it does hold a special place in my stony heart. God Bless Mahler.


----------



## CatchARisingStar (7 mo ago)

Does anyone here remember the CBS Great Performances cassettes from the 80's? Of course, y'all do. It's how I cut my teeth on classical, from Beethoven to Brahms. My standout favourites were Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony, Beethoven's Seventh (especially that delicious Am Allegretto) and Dvorak's New World.


----------



## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

Ravel, Bolero; Nutcracker Suite. L.P. (1955?, U.S.) 

Mail order subscription service L.P. Tchaikovsky is credited to the real Kurt Graunke; the Bolero to Walter Bauer-- possibly a pseudonym. One LP. (no customer choice) In a standard "keyhole" paper sleeve shipped monthly on a "negative option" (buy it or return it) plan. The American Recording Service (ARS) was the company behind the label. Interestingly, the label and mail order service was revived in the late 1960s by the Grolier Encyclopedia company, using the same (monophonic) recordings; but this time with an "electronic stereo" option. The.major, easy to spot difference between the two series was the 1960s L.P.s were shipped in plastic sleeves.

The Tchaikovsky did nothing for me; however as a child I was mesmerized by the Bolero, my imprint on the work, and have spent years trying to identify conductor"Walter Bauer". (At one time I thought he was Artur Rother when the recording was uploaded to YouTube; however the accreditation was inaccurate and the recording removed.)

Incidentally, I don't recommend the recording unless one believes Ravel was really German.


----------



## Subutai (Feb 28, 2021)

Way back when, I decided to try classical music, as I'd always been appreciative of Film Scores. I heard a bunch, and then - Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto as played by Ashkenazy and conducted by Kondrashin on Decca. 
It was a moment that made me wonder where I had been all my 40+ years, obsessed with music, yet not heard that! It started a life long venture into discovering further 'classical' works. 13 or so years later I'm still discovering. I possess physical as well as digital media yet it seems that this isn't enough for one lifetime, yet I perservere.


----------



## Wigmar (7 mo ago)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> I know! Mozart no. 40! I wore out my fathers LP. I have now gotten allergic to Karl Böhm, but still love it


Yes, I recall playing many times a long playing record with Mozart's 'Eine kleine Nachtmusik' K 525, a Beethoven ouverture, 'Les Preludes' by Liszt and 'Die Moldau' from 'Ma Vlast' by Smetana, it was a DG issue, with Fricsay, recorded c 1960.
At the same time, I was fascinated by Andrés Segovia's rendition of 'Eight Lessons for guitar' by Dionisio Aguado, and Albeniz' 'Granada', recorded 1962 (Decca DL 7-10063).
Very nice impressions both of them 🎼


----------



## SoloYH (8 mo ago)

Liebestraum 
Waltz 64/2
La Campanella.


----------



## Otis B. Driftwood (4 mo ago)

As a youngster I had a wind-up toy that played "Wiegenlied", aka Brahms' Lullaby.
Ironically it might be his most famous piece of music, now that I think about it.


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I had to fish through whats left of my old vinyl (6 disorganised cardboard boxes) to find something for a friend, over the weekend, and I found that I still have the rereleased Ormandy Planets from 1983. I bought this for peanuts with a bunch of LPs (5 for £1) in Yanks in Manchester. I'm sure Szell's Tchaikovsky 5th is in one of those boxes under the stairs too. I bought that in the same group of discs and I saw it in that cupboard last time I looked. I might have a look through my remaining vinyl over the weekend. Still have about 500 vinyl left that I wanna shift.


----------



## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

I grew up a pianist, so I've known/known of, the great majority of the standard piano literature since I was very young. 

I do remember the first non-piano music I loved though; Mozart's symphonies. I had a record collection of numbers 35-41. And I also remember the first opera I loved; the Magic Flute.


----------



## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

Bach Brandenburg concertos was my first exposure


----------



## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty & Swan Lake Suites; 
Lieutenant Kije Suite & Hary Janos Suite (a Szell LP);
Rigoletto 

All in the mid/late 1960s heard in the home, but I never properly got into classical until the late 1980s/early 1990s.


----------

