What Started You in Classical Music/What Piece Did you First Listen to?

[TheGSMoeller]

By the way for this topic the term ought to be art music not classical music...

I don't agree.

I have never heard any program host use the term "Art Music" with regard to his or her radio station.

True. And good luck finding any Bach in the Art Music section of your local used CD store.

[Lisztianwagner]

My family is not extremely fond of classical music, but has always watched the Neujahrskonzert of the Wiener Philharmoniker. Two pieces, in particular, deeply impressed me the first time I listened to them and so introduced me to classical music, An der schönen blauen Donau and the Radetzky-Marsch.

On second thoughts, the piece I first listened to should be Stravinsky's The Rite of Springs when I was 7 years old; it was the version conducted by Stokowski in Fantasia, but at that time I didn't know it was classical music, I thought it was only a soundtrack for a cartoon.

[dave b]

Lisztianwagner--a few people have cited that Stravinsky work so far---interesting...

[12tone.]

I remember Shostakovich's VC #1 being one of my first peices I started with (it was on my first disc), but Beethoven was the first composer I got into.  I remember getting

THIS:



And enjoying it.  I got the Rattle cycle and remembering not liking it as much.  I also remember getting a few boxes of sonatas based on Todd's reviews.  Is he still here?  I still remember your reviews!

[Sean]

Dave B

Art Music (like me) might take it to mean that which Rembrandt listened to while he was painting.

Never thought of that.

Additionally--virtually all "Art Music" radio stations announce their station with the words "classical music, 24 hours a day" or some such reference. I have never heard any program host use the term "Art Music" with regard to his or her radio station.

Commercial radio? Sounds ghastly.

[dave b]

If commercial radio is in fact ghastly, I'm missing out on that aspect of it, because what I'm hearing on the station I listen to (WFCC, Cape Cod, 107.5 FM) are works by Tchaikovsky, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Handel, Haydn, and all the other grand masters.

[Sean]

Sure thing. What you have beats anything in Britain anyway- there are two stations playing art music yet neither have any remote connection with art music and instead totally misrepresent it for commercial reasons.

[dave b]

I didn't know there were stations like that...the ones here are legit. The other one I listen to is a PBS station, 99.5 FM Boston. Same thing, good classical (Art ) music....Naturally, there are commercial interruptions, but very very few. I thought all classical stations were like that---high quality---but apparently not.

[dave b]

Very interesting--as I've mentioned before, although I've been listening since 1970, I am far from being well versed in classical music..and your post just now reminded me that I need to "break away" from listening ONLY to very well known composers. I've never heard of those composers you just mentioned, and it's time I explored their music as well as that of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, et al.

Thanks for that post.

[Sean]

Hi Dave B, for several decades BBC Radio 3 was the outstanding counterbalance to everything else on television and radio and provided the spearhead of high culture in Britain.

However the corruption set in soon after a commercial station playing mutilated bits of art music developed about twenty years ago- instead of ignoring it the economic drivers seemed to rise to the surface and within a few years the remarkable unflinching thing that Radio 3 had been disappeared into just one more station pumping utterly mindless filth for idiots. If that sounds an excessive comment I can only assure you it isn't.

Britain has always had trouble with the arts on a cultural level- it's empirical and very down to earth and aesthetics and metaphysics have little purchase- the horde couldn't give a banana about great British artists who've tried to put forward their culture in artistic terms. Best, Sean

[dave b]

Did not know that, Sean, thanks---and you STILL cannot get away from the use of "Art music". I thought for sure you would at least say "Art/Classical" as a nod to the common usage of the term "classical music"---but that could be (and might turn out to be) a whole other thread.

[dave b]

I would appreciate it if the veterans could take a look at a thread I just started in the Beginners section---it is just too basic to ask anywhere else, and I hesitated to even post it, so utterly basic is it. But I'd like to delve into it a bit if you folks get the chance. It's entitled Tchaikovsky. One of those questions that's been in the back of my mind for a couple of weeks now.

(it was moved to Composer section at my request)

[Jay F]

I started buying music I heard in movies sometime in the 1970s: the Brandenburgs by Collegium Aureum; Handel's Sarabande and Schubert's Piano Trio op. 100 from Barry Lyndon; Vivaldi in Woody Allen movies and, especially, Kramer vs. Kramer. But these weren't enough to seduce me away from my main musical interest, the pop and rock I'd been buying since 1963.

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After, when I got my first CD player (December, 1986), I was in Olsson's in Georgetown and I heard the most wonderful music I'd ever heard in my life. It was someone playing piano. I had to have this for the rest of my life. It turned out to be Alfred Brendel's Sonata D960 of Schubert's. The label sale that day was "3 for $25" for midprice Polygram. I picked up HvK's Beethoven 9 and Mozart's 23rd and 27th PCs, also by Brendel. And I've been a classical compulsive ever since.

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[Sean]

Jay F

Can you remind me what Handel's Sarabande is?

[Jay F]

Jay F

Can you remind me what Handel's Sarabande is?

Here you go, Sean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erKsIJyfB_Q

[Sergeant Rock]

Jay F

Can you remind me what Handel's Sarabande is?

The original piece (that was orchestrated for the Barry Lyndon soundtrack) is the Sarabande from the Keyboard (Harpsichord) Suite in D minor HWV 437.


Sarge

[jut1972]

Hi Dave B, for several decades BBC Radio 3 was the outstanding counterbalance to everything else on television and radio and provided the spearhead of high culture in Britain.

However the corruption set in soon after a commercial station playing mutilated bits of art music developed about twenty years ago- instead of ignoring it the economic drivers seemed to rise to the surface and within a few years the remarkable unflinching thing that Radio 3 had been disappeared into just one more station pumping utterly mindless filth for idiots. If that sounds an excessive comment I can only assure you it isn't.

Britain has always had trouble with the arts on a cultural level- it's empirical and very down to earth and aesthetics and metaphysics have little purchase- the horde couldn't give a banana about great British artists who've tried to put forward their culture in artistic terms. Best, Sean

Classic fm (I assume that is what you are referring to) has probably done more to bring classical into the mainstream than any other UK station,  certainly radio 3 which is still elitist compared to the rest of the BBCs output.

Not sure Britain is any worse than other nations in promoting the arts, we are certainly more inclusive of other cultural influences than some others...

Back on topic.. watched the bugs bunny / wagner episode again the other day.. sheer genius!

[jochanaan]

The original piece (that was orchestrated for the Barry Lyndon soundtrack) is the Sarabande from the Keyboard (Harpsichord) Suite in D minor HWV 437.


Sarge

But isn't that an arrangement of an earlier piece?  I think several Baroque composers including Corelli have done variations on that theme.

[Sean]

I'm familiar with suites 5-7 and another in G minor, but I can't bring the Sarabande nor the Harmonious blacksmith to mind...

[Sergeant Rock]

I'm familiar with suites 5-7 and another in G minor, but I can't bring the Sarabande nor the Harmonious blacksmith to mind...

Here's the D minor Suite (minus the Prelude). The Sarabande starts at 4:25

http://www.youtube.com/v/NdYW0oenhzg


Sarge