Hello, another new person here!

[Joan]

Hello good people!

I'm 46, I live in Southern California, librarian by trade, and have been a life-long, albeit sporadic (due to my liking many other kinds of music), classical music listener. The first works I remembering really loving, around age 8, were Swan Lake and the Peer Gynt suite. I  studied piano for a few years but had to stop due to neurological problems. I tried the clarinet too, but I was hopeless at that. Suffice it to say, I have no musical talent. I am a very lazy listener and I tend to listen to the same CDs over and over, keeping myself stuck at newbie-ish level of knowledge, so by signing up here I'm hoping to motivate myself to branch out more. I'm pretty sure that there's a whole lot of basic repertoire of which I am entirely ignorant.

I hestitate to name favorite composers because I don't know any composer's oeuvre very well (in most cases only one or two works!) but based on what I've listened to most often,  I would say some top names for me are Monteverdi, Lully, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Ravel (for the piano works) Mahler (for the songs, I don't really know his symphonies at all) Stravinsky (for Rite of Spring, Apollo and the violin concerto). I wish I knew and/or liked more contemporary composers, but somehow that hasn't happened beyond a few bits and pieces (Philip Glass, Steve Reich); I guess I should work on that. I tend to prefer concerti, chamber music and some vocal music. I've also been a sporadic opera listener; from about 1989-1991 I attended performances of LA Opera, Long Beach Opera and Opera Pacific. I discovered I'm not really fond of some 19th century opera musically (I have some soprano issues, although I enjoy watching the theatrical aspects of it), but I love at least some baroque opera; favorite opera would have to be Marriage of Figaro. I really enjoyed Nixon in China when it was performed in LA way back when, but I haven't seen much else in the contemporary vein. I was out of touch with opera for a while but now that Netflix has lots of choices I'm trying to reawaken my interest in it by watching DVDs. I also used to be a big fan of ballet and modern dance, and I was introduced to a number of works through the dance medium.

Well, anyway, cheers! 

[Bogey]

Welcome Joan....this is a great place to discuss and learn about classical music.  I am new to the genre as well and learn new things each day here.

[mahlertitan]

welcome

[Joan]

Thank you and Thank you!

[Hollywood]

Greetings from Beethoven and Mozart's Vienna, Joan. Welcome to the forum. 

Whereabouts are you in SoCal? I am a native Angeleno and grew up in Eagle Rock. 

[Steve]

Welcome. Another Mahlerite, excellent! 

[Harry]

Joan before you know, you will be infected by the buying new music bug, and lazyness will be something of the past, believe me, I know.
Hope you enjoy yourself here, and we will try to give support as good we can.
You are very much welcome.

[sunnyside_up]

Hi Joan and welcome to the boards!

I've just discovered one great way of hearing all kinds of classical music: for a very reasonable annual cost you can subscribe to Naxos's service which allows you to log on and play any of the pieces in their extensive range. I like the idea of "try before you buy"!

Happy listening!

[bhodges]

Hi Joan, and welcome.  Quite the list of composers there!  And anyone who mentions Stravinsky is OK in my book.  There are lots of fine people here, so enjoy yourself. 

--Bruce

[SonicMan46]

Joan before you know, you will be infected by the buying new music bug, and lazyness will be something of the past, believe me, I know...............

Joan - WELCOME to the GMG Forum - your current & 'new' interests in classical music are well represented here - hope that you will enjoy & contribute to the postings. 

And BTW, Harry will likely be responsible for many of your 'new' CD purchases! 

[Harry]

And BTW, Harry will likely be responsible for many of your 'new' CD purchases! 

Me?............nah! 0:)

[karlhenning]

Welcome, Joan!

[George]

Hello good people!

I'm 46, I live in Southern California, librarian by trade, and have been a life-long, albeit sporadic (due to my liking many other kinds of music), classical music listener. The first works I remembering really loving, around age 8, were Swan Lake and the Peer Gynt suite. I  studied piano for a few years but had to stop due to neurological problems. I tried the clarinet too, but I was hopeless at that. Suffice it to say, I have no musical talent. I am a very lazy listener and I tend to listen to the same CDs over and over, keeping myself stuck at newbie-ish level of knowledge, so by signing up here I'm hoping to motivate myself to branch out more. I'm pretty sure that there's a whole lot of basic repertoire of which I am entirely ignorant.

I hestitate to name favorite composers because I don't know any composer's oeuvre very well (in most cases only one or two works!) but based on what I've listened to most often,  I would say some top names for me are Monteverdi, Lully, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Ravel (for the piano works) Mahler (for the songs, I don't really know his symphonies at all) Stravinsky (for Rite of Spring, Apollo and the violin concerto). I wish I knew and/or liked more contemporary composers, but somehow that hasn't happened beyond a few bits and pieces (Philip Glass, Steve Reich);

Welcome, nice avatar! Dali is one of my very favorite artists.   

[toledobass]

Howdy!!!!

Allan

[Shrunk]

Welcome, glad to have you aboard.  I'm a relative newb to this board, as well, and I find my knowledge has expanded exponentially in the few months I've been a member.  I think you'll like it here

[BachQ]

Peer Gynt suite.

......... That was one of my first (if not the first) classical hooks too!  ........

[Joan]

Thank you all for your very kind welcomes! I guess I've got quite a odd assortment of composers listed there, but I'm attracted to all sorts of things depending on my mood, the context, etc.

Whereabouts are you in SoCal? I am a native Angeleno and grew up in Eagle Rock. 

In the backwaters of suburban Orange County. Not a native Cali girl, but I've lived in OC most of the past 30 years.

Joan before you know, you will be infected by the buying new music bug...

yes, I'm afraid of that, I foresee trouble ahead....

Hi Joan and welcome to the boards!

I've just discovered one great way of hearing all kinds of classical music: for a very reasonable annual cost you can subscribe to Naxos's service which allows you to log on and play any of the pieces in their extensive range. I like the idea of "try before you buy"!

Happy listening!

Thanks for mentioning that, I will definitely check it out.

......... That was one of my first (if not the first) classical hooks too!  ........

I still love it! And if you're a kid with parents who aren't classical fans, I there's no better way of annoying them than by playing the Hall of the Mountain King over and over...

[bhodges]

Joan, have you been to the new Segerstrom Concert Hall?  I have made a number of trips to L.A. the last few years to hear music in Disney, but haven't been to Segerstrom yet.  If I recall it's gotten very good comments.

--Bruce

[karlhenning]

And if you're a kid with parents who aren't classical fans, I there's no better way of annoying them than by playing the Hall of the Mountain King over and over...

Oh, that can be a method to annoy even classical fans!!! 

[Joan]

Joan, have you been to the new Segerstrom Concert Hall?  I have made a number of trips to L.A. the last few years to hear music in Disney, but haven't been to Segerstrom yet.  If I recall it's gotten very good comments.

--Bruce

No, to my great shame, I haven't yet! I've heard that the sound has a very nice "bloom" to it. For concert purposes, it's certainly got to be a huge improvement over its older sibling, the OC Performing Arts Center, which had to double as theater and concert hall. Most of the seats at OCPAC get pretty good sound (at least for theater stuff, opera and dance, with the band in the pit) but you seriously do not want to get stuck in the wrong seats there!

Oh, that can be a method to annoy even classical fans!!! 

Yes, I can see how it would be even more painful for them!