What was your first classical LP or CD?

[Spineur]

I believe, those were the two.  At the time I was in school abroad.  I was looking for a recording that embodied french spirit to its heart.  Regine Crespin, a fabulous diva, fulfilled my expectation a thousand times.
Rasumovsky string quartet is a nice story.  While in school, I had bought season tickets for classical music concert, and that year the Guarneri string quartet gave the full cycle of Beethoven string quartet.   This was the most intense musical experience of my life.  Looking for their recordings, I could not find any CD version (I just had bought my first player), so I settled for the Alban Berg version.  I still wish I could have found a recording of the Guarneri.

[Super Blood Moon]

Saw them live back in the day.  Farndon carried a bottle of something intoxicating on stage with him and at first it seemed he could hardly lift his guitar.  Chrissie talked about having to cancel her first date in our city because of a bad cold and then comes back and has yet another cold and "I sure hope you appreciate this!" then gave us the finger.  The crowd did it in return and she laughed.  My ears are still ringing from that concert, easily one of the best rock concerts I've ever been to.  But the Smiths beat all.

For live rock concerts I've seen, Talking Heads were the best. Positively uplifting.

[Cato]

I believe, those were the two.  At the time I was in school abroad.  I was looking for a recording that embodied french spirit to its heart.  Regine Crespin, a fabulous diva, fulfilled my expectation a thousand times.
Rasumovsky string quartet is a nice story.  While in school, I had bought season tickets for classical music concert, and that year the Guarneri string quartet gave the full cycle of Beethoven string quartet.   This was the most intense musical experience of my life.  Looking for their recordings, I could not find any CD version (I just had bought my first player), so I settled for the Alban Berg version.  I still wish I could have found a recording of the Guarneri.

Fascinating choices and nice story about the "French spirit."

One of my earliest records on 33 1/3 was of Charles Munch conducting Chausson's Symphony and Franck's Le Chasseur Maudit !  Great works, no matter what country one hails from!  0:)

[Karl Henning]

And Munch with the BSO is a good fit for that lit.

[zamyrabyrd]

I believe, those were the two.  At the time I was in school abroad.  I was looking for a recording that embodied french spirit to its heart.  Regine Crespin, a fabulous diva, fulfilled my expectation a thousand times.

Heck, I don't remember but the Crespin recording sounds enticing as I am her most devoted fan.

[prémont]

I do not remember for sure the first CD I purchased, maybe it was Goebel's Brandenburgs. But I remember my first LP, which was Beethoven's 2. symphony with Philharmonia Orch. and Otto Klemperer. My father was a Klemperer fan and had already got Klemperer's recordings of symphonies 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9. But the emerging completist in me wanted all Klemperer's Beethoven symphonies. So I got no.2 and later no.s 1, 4 and 8.

[Cato]

I do not remember for sure the first CD I purchased, maybe it was Goebel's Brandenburgs. But I remember my first LP, which was Beethoven's 2. symphony with Philharmonia Orch. and Otto Klemperer. My father was a Klemperer fan and had already got Klemperer's recordings of symphonies 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9. But the emerging completist in me wanted all Klemperer's Beethoven symphonies. So I got no.2 and later no.s 1, 4 and 8.

I know that curse!   

And Munch with the BSO is a good fit for that lit.

An early stereo performance with incredible drive, and the sound was marvelous.  Not every BSO recording has sounded that good throughout the years.  I recall some sounding rather muffled.

[The new erato]

[asin]B000002ZO8[/asin]Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues, played by Nikolayeva - actually a 3-CD box.

One of my first as well (though not the first, I don't remember what that would have been). Certainly the first major and expensive set I owned (I remember it costing around 450 Norwegian Kroner, close to 50 USD at todays exchange rate). Certainly very expensive in 1991! Got it as a present(or rather, bought it for money I got as a present) for my 40th birthday at a time when money was very tight for music purchases.

[Jay F]

Two of my first three classical CDs were by Alfred Brendel, the Schubert 960 and Mozart PCs 23 & 27. I still have them, plus a number of other CDs by Brendel, but now this enormous box set is available for $287.68. I think I'll buy it. I remember when the box set containing just the Mozart Piano Concertos cost right around $200.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014VLVTW6/ref=s9_simh_gw_g15_i1_r?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=048BCJWJJPHF0QP6M5ZJ&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2079475242&pf_rd_i=desktop

[asin]B014VLVTW6[/asin]

[jochanaan]

Bruno Walter and the New York Philharmonic with, as I recall, the Westminster Choir and solo singers performing Bruckner's Te Deum and Mozart's Requiem, on Columbia/Sony.  The original recordings date from the 1950s.

[SonicMan46]

Well, I bought my first CD player at Christmas time 1984 when the price fell under $500 (was a Yamaha single-disc player) - the unit was bought at a local stereo shop that had few CDs on sale, so I bought the two below - Amanda McBroom (she wrote The Rose and is still living off the royalties, I suspect) - we also saw her in NYC years ago at the now closed Rainbows & Stars in Rockefeller Center - dinner & a show, a wonderful experience (bought an additional CD of one of her performances there).  Dave

[Que]

My first CD is actually a bit embarassing....

But since we are here amongst friends..... (well, most of us anyway) ....here it is...drumroll:



I was 14 when I got into Classical music, first by listening to the radio. Later I discoverd a large pile of LPs my mom bought when she was in her twenties, a project she abandoned after a few years.Those were mostly Romantic war horses. I bought a few LP's myself but then decided to jump on the bandwagon of the CD that was just making headway. Choices were still rather limited, but that didn't bother me as I was just starting to explore.

I decided on something different from Grieg or Schumann for my first CD, somethjng Baroque. And since I was pretty clueless, why not Vivaldi's Four Seasons? 
Despite the overexposure, still a good piece of music BTW. After I got my CD-player, a gift from my grandparents, I biked to the nearest town.
It was a tiny, tiny, store that sold audio equipment LPs....and CDs. Lo and behold, there were three or four recordings of the Four Seasons! 
I listened to them all and picked the one I liked best. Of course I know now to pick a better performance, but the truth is that I got a lot of mileage and pleasure out of that recording.

It was the last time I randomly picked a recording BTW. My next move to buy a Classic music magazine and follow on the leads I found in there.
(No, I did not have internet.... )

Q

[The new erato]

Talking about embarassing - my first CD was by Celine Dion - I know that for sure as it was a freebie with the first player I bought. I think I have played it once; the selection at the time was pretty meagre. I seem to remember I bought a Dire Straits album and a couple of other albums to go with the player. Here's the player BTW:

[SimonNZ]

The first classical lp i ever purchased was Karl Munchinger's recording of Haydn's Symphony no.100, after hearing it on the radio:



can't remember the first classical cd I owned, though the same recording in a Belart edition was one of the first.

But I know the first cd of any kind I had was the soundtrack to Georgio Moroder's presentation of Fritz Lang's Metropolis:

[vandermolen]

Talking about embarassing - my first CD was by Celine Dion - I know that for sure as it was a freebie with the first player I bought. I think I have played it once; the selection at the time was pretty meagre. I seem to remember I bought a Dire Straits album and a couple of other albums to go with the player. Here's the player BTW:

'..it was a freebie with the first player I bought...' Come on, admit it - you are clearly a fully paid up member of the Celine Dion fan club. 
Was CD No.2 The Spice Girls? Actually I do have one of their CDs   

[Cato]

My first CD is actually a bit embarrassing....

I decided on something different from Grieg or Schumann for my first CD, somethjng Baroque. And since I was pretty clueless, why not Vivaldi's Four Seasons? 
Despite the overexposure, still a good piece of music BTW.

No need to apologize for listening to Vivaldi!  Anyone whose works are still touching humanity's ears after 300 + years must have had talent and at least a touch of genius. 

I began the topic by mentioning the first CD I bought: Schoenberg's Verklaerte Nacht with Wagner's Siegfried Idyll.  At a large drug store near our house in Toledo I discovered that it sold CD's  .  This was again early in the 1980's "CD era" so there was something of a snowball going downhill in the market at that time.  But more amazingly, this drug store's CD department had a classical section with name brand recordings!

And the prices were cheap!  So Vivaldi's Four Seasons was another very early purchase: they also sold several of DGG's Bruckner symphonies with Jochum conducting, the Sibelius symphonies with Colin Davis conducting on Philips, etc.

In the 1990's the store was bought by an out-of-town chain from Detroit, which ran it into the ground and bankrupted it fairly quickly...in two years!

[EigenUser]

I can't remember now, but it may have been this one. It was certainly in the first five, and I can't remember which the others were at the moment



I'm not sure when this was, early 90s though. I loved it, lent it out, never got it back.

This is an incredible recording. The best Prometheus I've heard. Everything about it is perfect.

[The new erato]

'..it was a freebie with the first player I bought...' Come on, admit it - you are clearly a fully paid up member of the Celine Dion fan club. 

I cannot reply to this now, I'm busy planning my moves now that her husband finally is dead.

[The new erato]

No need to apologize for listening to Vivaldi!  Anyone whose works are still touching humanity's ears after 300 + years must have had talent and at least a touch of genius.

I think Que is more embarassed by the performance tradition of that version.....

[Cato]

I think Que is more embarrassed by the performance tradition of that version.....

Aha! 

I cannot reply to this now, I'm busy planning my moves now that her husband finally is dead.

She apparently goes for older guys!