What was your first classical LP or CD?

[Monsieur Croche]

LP's -- a gift along with a small portable record player, somewhere around late age four, early five.

Rimsky Korsakov ~ Scheherazade

"Smiling Bach (The?)" ~ Wanda Landowska, harpsichord
(from which I specifically remember only Italian Concerto).

Prokofiev ~ Lieutenant Kijé Suite /  Kodály ~ Háry János Suite

[I'm sure I had that total lack of any sense of discernment common to most tykes that age, and recall loving all of it -- while most favoring the Prokofiev / Janacek disc.]

[North Star]

LP's a gift along with a small portable record player, somewhere around late age four, early five years.

Rimskey-Korsakov ~ Scheherazade

"The Smiling Bach" ~ Wanda Landowska, harpsichord. (The only piece I specifically remember on this was Italian Concerto).

Prokofiev ~ Lieutenant Kije suite / Janacek ~ Harry Janos suite.

[I'm sure I had that total lack of any sense of discernment common to most tykes that age, and recall loving all of it, while most favoring the Prokofiev / Janacek disc.]

The Háry János Suite is surely by Kodály.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Wanda Landowska

You are so old!

[Parsifal]

I think I was ten.



My first purchase might have been this:



Wasn't mine, but I got to play it on my little record player.

[Heck148]

Stravinsky - Rite of Spring - Bernstein/NYPO, 1/1958

[Cato]

How often do you listen to the work today?   

The first classical record I ever bought was Smetana's Moldau, which was paired with the overture and excerpts from The Bartered Bride.  Exactly which recording it was has faded, but I suspect it was Bernstein/N.Y. Philharmonic.  The record is long gone, but the works are heard several times per year, at least in the car!

The second was Bruckner's Seventh Symphony with Eugen Jochum on DGG.  I visited it regularly at a department store in Dayton, and hoped that no other acolyte of Bruckner's had bought it.  It was expensive: a 2-record set, paired with the Psalm 150 and 3 motets.  I believe it was $7.00 or so!  Imported from U.S. occupied West Germany!   

When I invested $40.00 in all the Bruckner symphonies on DGG, it galled me that I had spent $7.00 a few years earlier on the one work, which would be duplicated when the box arrived.  But, knowing records, I calmed my inner Lincoln squeezer by telling myself that the extra copy could remain pristine, as a back-up, in case the older copy became scratched or ruined.   0:)

My first CD (c. 1985) was Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht on London, with Wagner's Siegfried Idyll.  I won it in a listening contest on local classical radio, and did not yet own a CD player!  They were still too new and expensive!

I now have a CD set of my beloved Bruckner/Jochum cycle, and the Seventh Symphony and Verklärte Nacht are also heard several times per year!

I was amazed to see this topic is c. 9 years old!

[king ubu]

first I knew by heart:

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first one I bought myself:

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[vandermolen]

I just thought that 'this looks like a very interesting thread' and then noticed that I had started it myself in 2007. 

[vandermolen]

I think I was ten.



My first purchase might have been this:



Wasn't mine, but I got to play it on my little record player.

That Sean Connery/Dorati recording is rated very highly.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

The first LP i bought was Vivaldi's 4 seasons. Simon Standage on the violin with the English Concert.

[Monsieur Croche]

You are so old!

But you've known this for quite a while!. Yes -- age, somewhere between the age of the hills and dust....

[Parsifal]

That Sean Connery/Dorati recording is rated very highly.

I recall rating it very highly at the time. I've got to find it on CD somewhere.

[Parsifal]

The first LP i bought was Vivaldi's 4 seasons. Simon Standage on the violin with the English Concert.

Wait, I'm getting a recovered memory. The first LP purchased might have been this one:



It is very good, in it's way. Schwalbe was superb in everything he did.

[Cato]

I just thought that 'this looks like a very interesting thread' and then noticed that I had started it myself in 2007. 

Tempus sure does Fugit! 

[Jo498]

Wait, I'm getting a recovered memory. The first LP purchased might have been this one:



It is very good, in it's way. Schwalbe was superb in everything he did.

The cover is very cool, far above the typical DG cover most of which are stuffy and boring.

[vandermolen]

I recall rating it very highly at the time. I've got to find it on CD somewhere.

[asin]B00GKI4QU6[/asin]

[The new erato]

The cover is very cool, far above the typical DG cover most of which are stuffy and boring.

Is this the only Karajan album without himself on the cover?

I'm pretty sure it isn't but ut sure can seem like that!

[PerfectWagnerite]

Do cassettes count? If yes then this one:



Never bought any vinyl but first cds are likely these:



Still a reference recording if there ever was one.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

The first vinyl LP I brought was Debussy's La Mer, but that was quite a bit after I got my first classical CDs

Which recording?

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

The orchestra is "L'Orchestre De La Suisse Romande", I picked it up cheap but enjoyed it nethertheless! 

Obviously by now I have it on CD too!  (off the deutsche grammophon label)

Ah...was the conductor Ansermet? I haven't heard it but I believe it is a recording loved by many.

I have La Mer on LP too...but with Boulez!