What was your first classical LP or CD?

[The new erato]

She apparently goes for older guys!   

I should be just what the doctor ordered then.

[vandermolen]

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

[Dancing Divertimentian]

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

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

What's wrong with that? Zukerman did some fine work in St. Paul.

[Jay F]

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

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

It was one of my first dozen classical CDs. I was familiar with Vivaldi because of Woody Allen, and the Four Seasons because I'd heard it, sort of, on the New York Rock & Roll Exchange's first album, so I bought this version. Not much later, I learned that most movie Vivaldi was played by Pinnock or Hogwood, so I started listening to them. I liked that brisk, astringent sound, at least until I bought B&W Matrix speakers, but that's another story.

[Que]

What's wrong with that? Zukerman did some fine work in St. Paul.

[Zukerman / Vivaldi]

Well, I have moved on since then....
The recording, if memory serves me right, was in a transitional style - smaller ensemble, faster tempi, which is all good but it was still rather heavy handed and more Classical than Baroque in style....
"More emotion" is what Zukerman seems to have had in mind....a kind of "Sturm und Drang" performance. But I guess even then my taste wasn't too bad. 

Q

[Xenophanes]

I think it was an EMI classical sampler, dreadful thing for sound quality. I got rid of it.

My first CDP was a second generation one, the Yamaha CDX-2 I was using Kef 104 speakers at that time, which could sound great with careful placement.

[amw]

My family had lots of CDs, LPs and cassettes, and added new ones occasionally. I don't remember which ones were specifically for me and which ones were for the family in general, so I can't say with specificity which was  my "first" CD.

The first one that was definitely bought specifically for me—my parents disliked Bartók—that I remember at least, was this one:
[asin]B0000042GU[/asin]
accompanied by a hardcover score of the six. I would have been 10 years old + a few months.

[Cato]

The first one that was definitely bought specifically for me—my parents disliked Bartók—that I remember at least, was this one:

accompanied by a hardcover score of the six. I would have been 10 years old + a few months.

Wow!  What a gift for a 10-year old!  And a Bartok fan at age 10!   

I had to be content with records from the library, and a mono record player for many years.  My parents - especially my father - did not think much of buying records.  The radio was good enough: I had a little one-speaker radio which did pick up a classical station with some difficulty. 

[jochanaan]

...The first one that was definitely bought specifically for me—my parents disliked Bartók—that I remember at least, was this one:
[asin]B0000042GU[/asin]
accompanied by a hardcover score of the six. I would have been 10 years old + a few months.

Well, if the Takacs couldn't convert them, what's to say?

[Spineur]

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

This CD was reissued and coupled with another CD and you can still get it for almost nothing
[asin]B0000A1BGD[/asin]
I heard Régine Crespin as Madame de Croissy, prieure du Carmel in the "Dialogues des Carmélites" at the MET.  A performance I will always remember.  This was one of my best night at the opera.  The MET stagging was stripped, almost bare, exactly as it should be.  And of course the music ...  This is sending me shivers down my spine.
Régine Crespin had also done "Madame Lidoine" la nouvelle prieure earlier in her carrier.
I have also a recording of her in "Les nuits d'été" de Berlioz.  The best recording of this piece IMHO.

[Cato]

I heard Régine Crespin as Madame de Croissy, prieure du Carmel in the "Dialogues des Carmélites" at the MET.  A performance I will always remember.  This was one of my best night at the opera.  The MET stagging was stripped, almost bare, exactly as it should be.  And of course the music ...  This is sending me shivers down my spine.

Poulenc's work should be better known, but that is true of so many things!

The first opera I ever saw in a live performance was Lohengrin.  The first opera I ever bought on LP was Das Rheingold.  (My parents were appalled, especially my mother, who thought this confirmed the presence of a very eccentric gene in the DNA, and probably from my father's side! )

The first opera on CD I ever purchased was Moses und Aron by Schoenberg.  (Georg Solti conducting on London.)

[Sergeant Rock]

The first opera I ever saw in a live performance was Lohengrin.

That was my first live opera too: Lohengrin, performed by the Met during their annual week in Cleveland. 1967. Two high school friends and I made the pilgrimage from Wayne County. It inspired my first piano composition. My friend, when he heard it, said, That sounds like the Lohengrin Prelude Act 1. I was offended...but of course I had totally ripped off Wagner 

Sarge

[Cato]

It inspired my first piano composition. My friend, when he heard it, said, That sounds like the Lohengrin Prelude Act 1. I was offended...but of course I had totally ripped off Wagner 

Sarge

Why rip off a B-lister?!  Rip off the A-list!   

I once composed a huge march for organ which was not quite Wagner, in the same way that Richard Strauss is not quite Wagner, but the air reeked of Bayreuth nonetheless!  0:)

The score did not survive the purges of 1983 and 1995.  Possibly the organist who premiered it at the Greek Orthodox church in Cincinnati still has a copy.

[Sergeant Rock]

The score did not survive the purges of 1983 and 1995.

I don't know if I still have my Wagnerian piece buried somewhere in my life's material hoard. I do know I still have the Rachmaninovian Prelude I composed for my HS love. It will never see the light of day, though  (Note to self: time to build a bonfire.)

Sarge

[USMC1960s]

I remember mine quite clearly.

LP, around Sept 1970, Mozart's Horn Concertos.

Every time I listen to any of them I recall walking to college from my neighborhood, like it was yesterday. I associate that LP or any recording of the Horn Concertos with that time period.

[Mirror Image]

The first classical recording I bought was the Fritz Reiner Living Stereo recording of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra (also including Hungarian Sketches, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta) seven years ago. One hell of an introduction to classical music if I must say so myself. I didn't really know what to think of the music when I first heard it. Over time I began to appreciate the music more and more.

[USMC1960s]

Thanks, I like threads/topics like this because I know these kinds of things bring back memories. Hopefully, good ones.

[Mirror Image]

Thanks, I like threads/topics like this because I know these kinds of things bring back memories. Hopefully, good ones.

Yeah, I'm always curious about these kinds of things as well. I actually came to classical music by way of jazz. There were two occasions where classical music became burned into my subconscious: 1. the Bill Frisell album titled Have A Little Faith where he performed works from Copland and Ives and 2. when I was flipping through a jazz magazine and one of my favorite players (named Ben Monder) was being interviewed and mentioned Bartok's name as composer he wished he could play on the guitar (he was talking about playing something unrealistic like Bluebeard's Castle). That really stayed with me for years before I actually got the courage to buy my first recording. Good, and happy, memories. There's just nothing like that thrill of discovery.

[Jo498]

I think we had this several times already...
My first LPs were not mine but technically my fathers/my parents. As a little child before I got into classical music I remember being fond of an LP with opera choruses (especially "Steuermann, lass die Wacht" from Flying Dutchman). And I also knew had a few of the typical "children's music" LPs: Peter and the Wolf, Carnaval des animaux, Nutcracker Suite etc. (When I was about ten I was very fond of an incredibly kitschy arrangement of "Für Elise" with a vocalising or humming choir on a James Last LP)
Later on my father became a little more serious about classical (but still mostly focused on lighter stuff, he had been a fan of operetta as well...  ) and I got drawn into it. The first pieces I remember were Tchaikovsky's 1812, Marche slave, Capriccio italienne, b flat minor piano concerto, 5th + 6th symphony, also Dvorak's 9th, Grieg's Peer Gynt Suites, Bach's most famous organ pieces and similar discs with "classical hits". But we also had some symphonies by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. I remember redecorating (paniting or hanging wallpapers) with my father in our house and we listened to Haydn's #94 on his old portable LP player.

By then (ca. 1987) it was fairly obvious that CDs were the new thing but they were still expensive and it took also a while until my brother and I had convinced my father to get a CD player for the family. So I did not buy any LPs, but a few cassette tapes (cheapish, convenient). I do not remember which one was the first, but among them were Klemperer with Mozart's symphonies 40+41, the Brahms double/Beethoven triple with Fricsay/Starker etc. and C. Kleiber's recording of Beethoven's 5th.

The first CD I bought in late fall 1988, a few days or weeks before we even got the player: Beethoven's piano concertos 3+4 with Ashkenazy/Solti on Decca Ovation.

[The new erato]

Yes, I have written in other threads on this.......