# The Single Work That Started It All (Classical Music In Your Life)



## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

I have listened to both classical and popular music for many years, but it is only classical music that has affected my life profoundly. I would have been 'less than' without it. The moment in time that classical music took hold of me and never let go is a fond, warm memory.

I was listening to 'light' classical music (Peter and the Wolf, Hansel and Gretel), Swan Lake) as early as 3 years old only because they were the only records around to play on my toy record player. However, at 8 years old, I came across an old mono recording of the Brahms Violin Concerto and just happened to give it a try. I ended up playing it over and over for 2 or 3 hours. There was no looking back.

I'd say that the opening of the Brahms Violin Concerto is on the short list of one of the greatest openings of any classical work:






The next works that followed for me were the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and the Rachmaninoff 2nd Piano Concerto. Of course, there were so many thereafter, but, although I can't say that today the Brahms Violin Concerto is my favorite work ever, it will always have a special place as 'the first'.

What was your 'first' and perhaps the experience that led to it. Note that these are not your favorite works from early in your listening. This is the one that hooked you once and for all (if such a one exists ).


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

For me it's a tie between the Rach 2 and _Daphnis_.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

When I was 5 or 6, my dad always had some vinyls on the living room floor: Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Oscar Levant, Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole with Jascha Heifetz, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with Rudolf Serkin, Haydn's Surprise Symphony with Eduard von Beinum, Ravel's Bolero with Serge Koussevitsky, Grieg's Peer Gynt Suites with Arthur Fiedler and Franck's Symphony in D minor with Pierre Monteux.

I had no trouble rattling those vinyls off. Seems like only yesterday....

*I don't remember which one I played first*, but I did play them all and within one or two years I was completely addicted to classical music, which made me a proudly certified social outcast by age 8 or 9.


----------



## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Gee - my second mention of this in a post today:

Allegretto from Beethoven's 7th Symphony - Bruno Walter conducting.

I had certainly heard classical music before then. But it was listening to the 7th while in high school that triggered my pursuit.


----------



## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

For me it was this one:





Klaus Tennstedt and the London Symphony Orchestra playing Siegfried's funeral music. That particular video impressed me so deeply, that for a while I expected to hear the sound of a falling note stand every time I listened to Götterdämmerung.


----------



## poconoron (Oct 26, 2011)

It was a combination of Mozart's symphonies 40 and 41, along with the Figaro overture.


----------



## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Tchaikovsky Pathetique Symphony.

Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue.


----------



## Oscarf (Dec 13, 2014)

When I was 8 years old my father took my sister and me to watch Disney's Sleeping Beauty. The experience led to the purchase of a tape with a selection of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty conducted by Karajan, after that my next tape was the Pathetique symphony (definitely the best choice for an 8 year old  also by Karajan and there was no stopping after that.


----------



## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

I can't name a single work, but I listened to a lot of Tchaikovsky (PC 1, VC, Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture, 1812 Overture, and so forth) and Mozart early on when I "came back" to classical music. The aforementioned Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin was up there too.


----------



## Janspe (Nov 10, 2012)

Hearing the third (and final) movement of Beethoven's C-sharp minor piano sonata (Op. 27 #2) for the first time was a life-changing experience for me. I had played the first movement (without knowing what it meant or understanding anything) and listened to the second, but the third movement shook my world. _How could there be such music?_ I was transfixed. I listened to it over and over again, stunned by the overwhelming energy of the piece. That's when I knew that I needed to find more, and that there would be no turning from that path.


----------



## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

When I started school at 7, I got my own key and before leaving for school listened to my father's LP of Mozart no. 40 & 41 with Karl Böhm while looking at the grand building on the cover. These days I prefer Abbado or Mackerras. Symphony no. 40 is the most important symphony in the world!!! (to me)  I also remember, a little later, Schubert Sonatina for violin i a-minor D.385, that my dad had on a recorded cassette. I never found out who played on that. Also Beethoven's 9th was an early discovery, but only 2nd mvt. The sound of a pirate ship!


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

My first awareness of a thing called "classical music" may have come with hearing Warner Brothers cartoons (a common experience for my generation, I'll wager), but the seeds were probably sown when I was very young by a 45rpm "golden record" of the story of Cinderella accompanied by excerpts from Prokofiev's ballet. I had no idea what I was hearing then, but I felt the magic, and I was delighted many years later to learn what the music was. Discovering classical music when young certainly shaped my life. Without it I might have done something useful, been understood by friends and family, made money, and had some idea of what's been on television for the past thirty years.


----------



## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

It was Chopin's Polonaises, played by Pollini. My mother had this DG tape, which it was weird since she never used to play classical music. But for some reason I still don't know she had it. I still love that recordind: it was the beggining of the marvelous disasters to come.


----------



## mathisdermaler (Mar 29, 2017)

Shostakovich - Symphony 15


----------



## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

Nocturne (No. 2) in E-flat major, Op. 9/2

over and over and over

then Brahms' violin sonatas and then more chamber music and then more piano music and then contemporary music and then more and more andmore and more and more andf more and afmoeroad nd more and more adnf more and mroea nfasd krthaweotihasdlfasmndfpas - you get the idea. The pursuit of more music can feel, for me, like an obsession. As if I am searching for that one piece that will forever change me and I can't rest until I find it.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

DaveM said:


> I have listened to both classical and popular music for many years, but it is only classical music that has affected my life profoundly. I would have been 'less than' without it. The moment in time that classical music took hold of me and never let go is a fond, warm memory.
> 
> I was listening to 'light' classical music (Peter and the Wolf, Hansel and Gretel), Swan Lake) as early as 3 years old only because they were the only records around to play on my toy record player. However, at 8 years old, I came across an old mono recording of the Brahms Violin Concerto and just happened to give it a try. I ended up playing it over and over for 2 or 3 hours. There was no looking back.
> 
> ...


Yes. I agree, but also the breathtaking final moments of the first movement just after the cadenza ends is also one of music's most magical, most meltingly beautiful moments too.

Brahms at his peak.


----------



## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

4'33''. It gave me the feeling that something was missing so I started exploring.


----------



## Rach Man (Aug 2, 2016)

I believe the first piece that got me going was Emerson, Lake, & Palmer's _Pictures at an Exhibition_. I thought that it was terrific and played it all the time. Then I finally heard an orchestra play it and thought , "Wow, this is so much better."


----------



## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

I've told this story before on this forum, but I'll happily tell it again. During band camp of my freshman year in high school, we succeeded in playing Gustav Holst's "Mars" from _The Planets_ more badly than it had ever been played before; I doubt its awfulness will ever be surpassed. Nevertheless, the music intrigued me, so when I got home, I told Mom about this really interesting piece we played. She asked who the composer was, and all I could remember was the name Gustav, so I told her it was by Gustav Somebody. She asked if it might have been Gustav Mahler, and I thought that sounded about right. About a week later, Dad brought home the double-vinyl of Bruno Walter conducting the New York Philharmonic in Gustav Mahler's 2nd Symphony. 90 minutes later, my life had been irrevocably changed: I am Totenfeier!


----------



## Suwannee Tim (Jun 6, 2010)

I remember very well in 1974 I was 17 years old listening to Bachman Turner Overdrive and I was sooooooo sick of the same ole same ole. I started turning the dial (back then radios had actual dials you turned) and came upon Respigi's Pines of Rome. I was smitten. I never looked back and I didn't care what my friends said. For a decade or more I wouldn't even listen to popular music.


----------



## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

hpowders said:


> Yes. I agree, but also the breathtaking final moments of the first movement just after the cadenza ends is also one of music's most magical, most meltingly beautiful moments too.
> 
> Brahms at his peak.


Yes, those final moments are ethereal. IMO, the amazing thing about the Brahms Violin Concerto is that it sounds almost as if Brahms was determined to match the Beethoven in every respect: The wonderful opening, the beautiful closing of the 1st movement after the cadenza, the unbelievable 2nd movement and so on. And yet, Brahms doesn't borrow one phrase, one idea or anything else from the Beethoven. Not to mention that even though it was composed in 1878 vs. the Beethoven in 1806, if one didn't know better, one might think that both were composed around the same time.


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I think for me, I gravitated towards certain pieces over the years (while in piano lessons and afterwards) and have recently given in to my classical love.

Some pieces include Chopin's Nocturnes, Rite of Spring, Beethoven's Symphony 6, Debussy and Ravel works. I love Classical music, it's so sophisticated and luxurious!


----------



## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

My parents love classical music, so I grew up hearing it pretty much constantly. In fact, as I've posted on this website many times before, my mom listened to Monteverdi's Orfeo while giving birth to me. So I guess that is the single work that started it all! (I have no idea what they were listening to when I was conceived, and I am CERTAINLY not going to ask them!! )


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Bettina said:


> My parents love classical music, so I grew up hearing it pretty much constantly. In fact, as I've posted on this website many times before, my mom listened to Monteverdi's Orfeo while giving birth to me. So I guess that is the single work that started it all! (I have no idea what they were listening to when I was conceived, and I am CERTAINLY not going to ask them!! )


Hahahaha! :lol:


----------



## TennysonsHarp (Apr 30, 2017)

For me, it had to be Fantasia, the Walt Disney film. I first became exposed to Bach, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and others through that magical series of animations knit together by footage of the legendary Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. From there, my fascination became insatiable, as classical became the only music I listened to for many years. I'll never forget staying up till 1 in the morning, watching and re-watching Fantasia as a little kid.


----------



## Lenny (Jul 19, 2016)

One of the earliest such moments for me happened when I was working as a trainee on a cargo ship. During my evening break I was sitting in a dining hall and something very strange captivated me on tiny, black and white TV screen. Believe me, that TV was very very crappy. There was a monkey hitting dirt with a bone. Strange, beatiful, unearthly music in the background (which sounded like it was coming from a crappy telephone... ). Yes, the Zarathrustra opening by R. Strauss.


----------



## pierrot (Mar 26, 2012)

[video=dailymotion;x2o5y7d]https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2o5y7d[/video]

This of course in childhood, on more mature level my relationship with classical begun six years ago when someone shared the first movement of the Mahler's Ninth on a internet forum (not a glamorous start I guess), the haunting beginning stuck with me forever and there's that.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Beethoven: Piano concerto 5 and 3


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> 4'33''. It gave me the feeling that something was missing so I started exploring.


Still can't find a convincing recording for this one.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Bettina said:


> (I have no idea what they were listening to when I was conceived, and I am CERTAINLY not going to ask them!! )


To each other, one would hope. Or, failing that, to _Tristan und Isolde._


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

My first ever live opera experience. 
Recorded thank goodness.


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I had some exposure to classical about 35 years ago but never got very involved in it. Back in 2011 when I was listing to all blues for three years straight (and that mainly Johnny Winter) I stopped at a dollar store and there was this cheesy classical CD for a dollar and it had Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, which I remembered having had on vinyl years ago, so I bought the CD. I played the Bach piece and it was the trigger that got me back into Classical music. Since that day, I have mostly listened to classical. Then a few years back, I watched Beethoven's Fidelio on DVD and I that was the trigger to an opera obsession that continues to this day. Most of my listening now is opera, with occasional excursions into instrumental and a little non-classical here and there.


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Florestan said:


> I had some exposure to classical about 35 years ago but never got very involved in it. Back in 2011 when I was listing to all blues for three years straight (and that mainly Johnny Winter) I stopped at a dollar store and there was this cheesy classical CD for a dollar and it had Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, which I remembered having had on vinyl years ago, so I bought the CD. I played the Bach piece and it was the trigger that got me back into Classical music. Since that day, I have mostly listened to classical. Then a few years back, I watched Beethoven's Fidelio on DVD and I that was the trigger to an opera obsession that continues to this day. Most of my listening now is opera, with occasional excursions into instrumental and a little non-classical here and there.


For me, it was Bach as well, only the catapult was Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Though I actually was somewhat familiar with Toccata and Fugue in D Minor before that. At the time I just thought it was the "Transylvania Theme" or "one of those pieces from Fantasia". Didn't know it was by Bach (or should I say, "presumably by Bach") until I got into Classical music -- which, for me, really started with the aforementioned Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Just something so perfect and beautiful about that piece that caught my attention, steering me away from clogging my brain with more MTV (thankfully!) as an unsuspecting high school freshman, 22 years ago.


----------



## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

Florestan said:


> I had some exposure to classical about 35 years ago but never got very involved in it. Back in 2011 when I was listing to all blues for three years straight (and that mainly Johnny Winter) I stopped at a dollar store and there was this cheesy classical CD for a dollar and it had Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, which I remembered having had on vinyl years ago, so I bought the CD. I played the Bach piece and it was the trigger that got me back into Classical music. Since that day, I have mostly listened to classical. Then a few years back, I watched Beethoven's Fidelio on DVD and I that was the trigger to an opera obsession that continues to this day. Most of my listening now is opera, with occasional excursions into instrumental and a little non-classical here and there.


Wow, what a story. A love of classical music which started at a dollar store! Just curious, what CD was it? Do you still listen to it?

As much as we discuss and perhaps obsess about particular performances, performers, and conductors, I'm sure a lot of us started out by being amazed with no-name performances on very cheap CDs, LPs, cassettes, or whatever. Oh those simple days!


----------



## Lenny (Jul 19, 2016)

Klassik said:


> Wow, what a story. A love of classical music which started at a dollar store! Just curious, what CD was it? Do you still listen to it?
> 
> As much as we discuss and perhaps obsess about particular performances, performers, and conductors, I'm sure a lot of us started out by being amazed with no-name performances on very cheap CDs, LPs, cassettes, or whatever. Oh those simple days!


Exactly! I remember buying some "blue" noname CD of Beethoven's 9th for "one euro" (or was it finnish mark) and I was so happy about it.

I'll now go to my collection and finally try to find out some names.... The Hamburg Symphony Orchestra with _very small_ font saying Werner Ludwig Baum. So, yeah, I'm a fan of Mr. Baum!


----------



## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

First piece? Thinking back, it was probably Borodin's Polovtsian Dances, on a 78 disc that had somehow found its way into the house. More certainly, going to my first concert aged about 12 and hearing Shostakovich's 10th Symphony. That certainly made an impression.


----------



## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

I heard classical music before (usual suspects), but it was the music of Ligeti used by Kubrick on 2001 that convinced me that I had to start to investigate the genre.


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

AfterHours said:


> Though I actually was somewhat familiar with Toccata and Fugue in D Minor before that. At the time I just thought it was *the "Transylvania Theme" *or "one of those pieces from Fantasia".


I once went into the convenience store on Halloween and they had all kinds of decorations up and were playing Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. It really added to the spooky effect.


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Klassik said:


> Wow, what a story. A love of classical music which started at a dollar store! Just curious, what CD was it? Do you still listen to it?
> 
> As much as we discuss and perhaps obsess about particular performances, performers, and conductors, I'm sure a lot of us started out by being amazed with no-name performances on very cheap CDs, LPs, cassettes, or whatever. Oh those simple days!


Well I had a foundation from my late teens and my dad had told me to get Beethoven's symphonies 3, 5, and 6 as well as Wagner Flight of the Walkures. He was into classical but only listened on the radio. I think that having those works and some others (1812 overture, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, etc.) helped. But that dollar store CD was only a turning point. I never listen to it or even Bach for that matter. Mostly opera. But my journey led from that dollar store to an obsession with piano sonatas and then Beethoven's Ninth (have about 4 dozen now). What has stuck with me the longest is opera. But the real story is that I did a major changeover from non-classical to classical all triggered by that cheap dollar store CD.


----------



## Guest (May 4, 2017)

I grew up listening to classical music, as my dad was/is a big fan. However, like most kids, I preferred the pop music of the day. Two years ago I realized how much I liked the sounds of the violin and cello, and listened to some classical/pop crossover artists. When I told my father about them he suggested I listen to a few of his favorite Romantic-era classical works. He brought me Bruch's Scottish Fantasy and Dvorák's Cello Concerto. I enjoyed them both immensely and went on to listen to and enjoy Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Schumann, Beethoven, Grieg, Elgar, etc. I am so happy that I can share this music with my dad. We can talk for hours about the music.


----------



## SuperTonic (Jun 3, 2010)

I was 16 years old when I started avidly listening to CM. I played the cello and had been exposed to CM through playing in orchestras and in my private lessons. But it wasn't until I was in high school that it occurred to me that I might enjoy actually listening to the music that enjoyed playing so much. So I asked my high school orchestra director for some suggestions on where to start. He gave me a list of the usual suspects from various eras (varioius works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, etc). But the one that really caught my attention was Shostakovich's 5th Symphony. It was the first time I'd ever heard anything outside of the common practice era, and it completely blew my mind. I was fascinated and craved to hear more and to learn about why it sounded so different than I was used to. 

The earlier stuff didn't really appeal to me much at the time, but I quickly developed a love for music of the 20th century and late Romantic era (it was Dvorak's New World Symphony that was my "way in" to Romantic music, which I discovered not too long after Shostakovich 5). Over time my tastes expanded to include earlier music too and today I'm comfortable listening to music from any era.


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Bettina said:


> My parents love classical music, so I grew up hearing it pretty much constantly. In fact, as I've posted on this website many times before, my mom listened to Monteverdi's Orfeo while giving birth to me. So I guess that is the single work that started it all! (I have no idea what they were listening to when I was conceived, and I am CERTAINLY not going to ask them!! )


Good call, especially if it was Rite of Spring :lol:

@Woodduck ... Tristan & Isolde? Whoa, guess you can't beat that kind of passion and endurance. Imagine the calories burned!


----------



## Sol Invictus (Sep 17, 2016)

I've always had an interest in various genres of music and listened to classical every once in a while. One day, I was watching the film A Clockwork Orange and a scene came on in which the protagonist is listening to Beethoven's 9th, 2nd movement. Never before have I had a feeling in music that I could not explain. From there, I started searching for more classical music that could achieve this effect. I was in desperate need to find others who know more about the subject than myself and sure enough I found this forum last July.


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Sol Invictus said:


> I've always had an interest in various genres of music and listened to classical every once in a while. One day, I was watching the film A Clockwork Orange and a scene came on in which the protagonist is listening to Beethoven's 9th, 2nd movement. Never before have I had a feeling in music that I could not explain. From there, I started searching for more classical music that could achieve this effect. I was in desperate need to find others who know more about the subject than myself and sure enough I found this forum last July.


Good thing it didn't happen while your eyes were being pried open and forced to watch an unrelenting montage of vile propaganda on a giant movie screen for hours on end.


----------



## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

DaveM said:


> What was your 'first' and perhaps the experience that led to it. Note that these are not your favorite works from early in your listening. This is the one that hooked you once and for all (if such a one exists ).


Stravinsky - Rite of Spring


----------



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Heck148 said:


> Stravinsky - Rite of Spring


Heck of a start!


----------



## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

Beethoven symphony cycle, Joseph Krips conducting the LSO. Cheap 60's record club version.


----------



## Neward Thelman (Apr 6, 2017)

DaveM said:


> I was listening to 'light' classical music (Peter and the Wolf, Hansel and Gretel), Swan Lake) as early as 3 years old ).


Those aren't "light" anything, especially not Swan Lake. To this day, it's a cornerstone of the repertoire.

Hansel and Gretel? Humperdinck? Noooo. Not light. A thing of beauty - yessssss.

Congratulations. Unlike the vast bulk of humanity, you were a musically talented listener as child. Not quite like being Mozart - but light years ahead of pretty much everyone else. My early life was the same.

Most kids are being raised listening to whatever their parents listen to - that means all forms of rock. In my mind, it's tantamount to child abuse. At that point in human development, the brain is untra ultra ultra sensitive and wide open to all influences. Pumping THUMPING into a child's brain during early development ensures at least musically stunted growth.

By evidence of the overwhelming population in the world today, that damage appears to be permanent.


----------



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Neward Thelman said:


> Those aren't "light" anything, especially not Swan Lake. To this day, it's a cornerstone of the repertoire.
> 
> Hansel and Gretel? Humperdinck? Noooo. Not light. A thing of beauty - yessssss.
> 
> ...


What age did you listen to Beethoven's 9th, when you could grasp the meaning? Your musical life must have gone downhill pretty quick after that.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Schubert's Unfinished symphony.


----------



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

The thing for me is I was exposed to Vivaldi's 4 seasons, Pachelbel and Mozart at an early age, then got into the Beatles in Junior high, then top 20 pop like Mariah Carey and Wilson Phillips  in early high school, my Dark Age in music. I had to wring out my soft spot for excessively schmaltzy pop tunes before moving on.  Then got in classic rock in later high school before rediscovering Classical.


----------



## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

Oldhoosierdude said:


> Beethoven symphony cycle, Joseph Krips conducting the LSO. Cheap 60's record club version.


I have that one!


----------



## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

When I was perhaps five my father played a recording of the William Tell Overture, helpfully narrating it for me. Somehow it was transmuted into the story of a postman delivering the mail on horseback. It ended with him completing his round in a thunderstorm.


----------



## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Bettina said:


> My parents love classical music, so I grew up hearing it pretty much constantly. In fact, as I've posted on this website many times before, my mom listened to Monteverdi's Orfeo while giving birth to me. So I guess that is the single work that started it all! (*I have no idea what they were listening to when I was conceived*, and I am CERTAINLY not going to ask them!! )


I think mine were listening to Bluebeard's Castle...


----------



## BlackDahlia (Aug 12, 2013)

*"Marche Slave" Pyotr Tchaikovsky *(1876)

We played it in band when I was in 7th or 8th grade.

I played the crash cymbals, and I did not hold back!


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

BlackDahlia said:


> *"Marche Slave" Pyotr Tchaikovsky *(1876)
> 
> We played it in band when I was in 7th or 8th grade.
> 
> I played the crash cymbals, and I did not hold back!


That was one of my favorites from around 1980 when I dabbled in classical for a few years. To this day I will find myself humming it.


----------



## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

AfterHours said:


> Good thing it didn't happen while your eyes were being pried open and forced to watch an unrelenting montage of vile propaganda on a giant movie screen for hours on end.


Ah, so word of the BBC 'Newsnight' program has reached Oregon!


----------



## Schumanniac (Dec 11, 2016)

Adagietto of Mahler's 5th.

I had an occasional craving on a few beethoven works that i loved troughout most my life, yet never sparked a particular interest to abandon my usual realm of music, but when i did feel a need for more and i heard the Adagietto somewhere an insatiable hunger arose. The softness of it quieted the busy mind and quenched the pessimism and resentment within. Spent months just binging, only marking what i loved before rushing frantically ahead, unable to savour it, but needing more, needing to find 'myself' in a work i knew was out there.

I entirely understand what OP meant by becoming 'more', an inner strenght and thoughtfullness was rekindled these past 3-4 years, my life has improved and fortunaly so have i. Its been a milestone in my development to a degree that shocks me sometimes.


----------



## dillonp2020 (May 6, 2017)

For me, the following pieces really got me interested in classical. 
Beethoven's 9th symphony.
Beethoven's 3rd and 5th piano concerto's
Tchaikovsky's 1st piano concerto
Tchaikovsky's Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra
Chopin's Scherzo No.3 
and finally, Barber's Adagio for Strings.


----------



## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

The very first pieces I have memory that I found amazing and hooked me on classical music in my early teens (almost 30 years ago) were:

Bach - Brandenburg Concerto 2, 1st mov.
Wagner - Liebestod (orchestral only in that moment)
Rimsky-Korsakov - 1st mov. of Scheherazade
Beethoven - 5th symphony, 1st. mov (Karajan 1963)
Beethoven - Emperor concerto, 3rd mov.
Debussy - Prelude to the afternoon of a faun
Handel - Excerpts from Water Music (including the ever popular Alla Hornpipe)
Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No.2, 3rd mov.
Mozart - Kyrie from the Great Mass in C minor (I felt like I was seeing God!)
Holst - Mars from The Planets 

Again, these were only the very first ones. The rest is history.


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I really don't know ... it could have been a Caruso recording, or perhaps Gigli. It might have been Benno Moisewitsch ... All I can tell you is that it was due to my grandfather's collection of 78rpm records which, when I was young, I used to play all the time. It could even have been a record of (no kidding) "1914 Overture" ... although I only remember the name and nothing about what it sounded like.


----------



## NishmatHaChalil (Apr 17, 2017)

My parents met in a classical guitar lesson, so it would be hard to know, as classical music has always been a part of my environment. I can tell who were the composers most present in my childhood, though: Bach, Mozart and Villa-Lobos. My father is also a great fan of early music and HIP, so, at an early age, I was already acquainted with several Baroque and Renaissance composers. According to my parents, when I was one year old, I could identify whether a piece was by Bach or not, so there you go. I'm going to guess that the most present piece in my childhood was The Well-Tempered Clavier. It was also the collection I practiced the most on the piano. On the flute, probably Bach's Partita in A minor.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Becca said:


> I really don't know ... it could have been a Caruso recording, or perhaps Gigli. It might have been Benno Moisewitsch ... All I can tell you is that it was due to my grandfather's collection of 78rpm records which, when I was young, I used to play all the time. It could even have been a record of *(no kidding) "1914 Overture" ... although I only remember the name and nothing about what it sounded like.*


Do you remember machine guns going off to the tune of "We Don't Want to Lose You, but We Think You Ought to Go"?


----------



## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts on the television.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh now that dates me. I was young at the time. Very very young. Way young.


----------

