What was your first classical LP or CD?

[George]

First LP: Kempff LvB 8/14/23 (mono version)

First CD: Tchaikovsky Ballet Suites, Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty - Karajan/VPO

I could only find the later one. 

[BachQ]

Nutcracker

[johnQpublic]

My first: an LP c. 1966

Bernstein - Tchiakovsky's Romeo & Juliet with the Firebird Suite

[hornteacher]

I was about three years old so I can't remember (but I do remember I used to stand in front of my stuffed animals and conduct them).

[George]

I was about three years old so I can't remember (but I do remember I used to stand in front of my stuffed animals and conduct them).

Yeah, I can picture you there, with your Hillary Hahn action figure as first violin. 

[Choo Choo]

Buxtehude organ recital by Nicholas Danby

[op.110]

Barenboim Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle (early EMI, assuming there's more than one EMI cycle of his).

[marvinbrown]

  Cassette: Mozart's Requiem in D Minor (I am sure D minor, our D minor,  would be proud)....but I lost it when I moved to London-I bought it when I was quite young (22 years old) after watching the movie Amadeus.  It was the only Classical music cassette  I had before I discovered Classical music all over again 10 years later with Bach's  St. Matthew Passion-by then the cd had taken over the market.
  CD: Bach St. Matthew Passion (Karajan)-this was my mother's actually......

  marvin
  PS (I have since replaced Mozart's Requiem with a cd version)

[loudav]

I'm pretty sure my first LPs (as a kid) were Pictures (orchestral on one side and Richter's famed live piano version on the other), Messiah selections on one LP, and 1812--but I couldn't say for sure what order.

That said, the LPs that really opened me up to classical music were two discs of Beethoven's late quartets (131 and 127/135) by Quartetto Italiano that my Dad gave me when I was in college. It was one of his best ever gift calls.

First CD was probably Henry's Variations for a Door and a Sigh.

[Gurn Blanston]

Can't remember the players, but it was Beethoven's "Eroica" on a cassette. Wore it out too! Also had Bach's Orchestral Suites, also on cassette. Same fate.

But 15 years later when I seriously got interested in classical music, it was Perlman's Mozart Violin Concertos & Pogorelich's Mozart sonatas disk. Great intro, IMO.

[hornteacher]

Yeah, I can picture you there, with your Hillary Hahn action figure as first violin. 

I think those would sell like crazy. 

[RebLem]

LP: The Cliburn Tchaikovsky PC 1 with Kondrashin.

CD: It was a Richard Goode CD or twofer of some Beethoven piano sonatas on the BOMC (Book of the Month Club) label.  Later, Elecktra/Nonesuch bought out the series, and issued the whole set, and I threw out my BOMC CDs in favor of the complete set.

[PSmith08]

Herbert von Karajan's 1963 performance of Beethoven's 9th, in the SACD hybrid version - which seems to have all but disappeared from the market (where I live). Still, though I've come to prefer other versions (including his 1977 recording), a solid recording and a good listen.

[Steve]

Never owned one, personally.

But my first experiene with classical music was probably an Van Cliburn's Tchaikovsky Piano Conerto on RCA Victor, as a baby. Great Record.   

[val]

I think it was an LP with Bach Cantatas BWV 4, 54 and 59 conducted by Kurt Thomas in Leipzig.

[rubio]

I remember my first classical LP was Beethove 5th (DG, but remember the conductor) in 1977-78 when I was 7-8 years. Then it took some years before I bought this one in 2002:

[Mark]

I remember my first classical LP was Beethove 5th (DG, but remember the conductor) in 1977-78 when I was 7-8 years. Then it took some years before I bought this one in 2002:

Just managed to get two new reissues of these performances for next to nothing on Amazon.

[Danny]

[George]

Just managed to get two new reissues of these performances for next to nothing on Amazon.

You are in for a treat, my friend! 

[Mark]

You are in for a treat, my friend! 

Also picked up Maasaki Suzuki's Harpsichord version on BIS. From the samples I heard over at eMusic, I think I'm gonna prefer this work on its intended instrument (which has a particularly fine tone on this recording, from the sound of it).

Ironically, I just got rid of Jeno Jando's Naxos version ... because of some weird noise in the background! Don't think it was humming, though; probably just mics too close to the piano. Or not ...