Your first classical 'hero'?

[Mark]

For me, Jacqueline Du Pre.



Hers was the first 'name' I ever knew in classical music, aside from those of major composers. I remember reading an article about her and her sister, Hilary, around the time of the release of this:



I'd never heard her music at that point, but her life fascinated me. When eventually I did hear her famous recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto, it left me breathless: she became a heroine for me from that day forward.


If I had to pick another, I'd go with cellist, Maria Kliegel:



I was captivated by her playing immediately, and I have almost every one of her many discs on Naxos. I've also seen her play live at St. John's Smith Square in London on the occasion of the inaugural Naxos Live! annual concerts. I sat just feet from her, and know that she could tell how much I was adoring her performances because we later corresponded by email and she remembered the smile on my face.

Aaah, hero worship. Ultimately pointless, but childishly delicious.

[greg]

Paganini 

[Mark]

Paganini 

Nothing wrong with that. Unless, like him, you're planning to sell your soul to get virtuoso talent.

[AnthonyAthletic]

Penn'orth, Nobody does it better

[Peregrine]

Sir Thomas Beecham, obviously for his conducting, but also his wit.

[Que]

               Nathan Milstein

Q

[longears]

Mahler.  Big, brassy, audacious, a bit of a rebellious outsider, and not yet inducted into the canon when I was a teen.

[BachQ]

Mozart ....... well past the point of healthy worship .........

[Mark]

My memory truly is bad: the actual first 'name' I knew in classical music (though only from his Last Night of the Proms appearances) was conductor, Sir Andrew Davis:



His work on those occasions used to delight me, and I loved his rhymed speeches based on the season's performances. But I chose Du Pre because I didn't connect Davis with anything other than the BBC Proms, and certainly didn't know he'd made any recordings.

[carlos]

The great Jascha 

[Brian]

Il'ya Murometz, actually... 

Or if you wanted a real person, look to the left.

[Norbeone]

Tchaikovsky, and his 5th Symphony was a particular work of his that had me lulled into doing nothing else than listen to it, EVERY DAY FOR ABOUT 2 YEARS.   

I've grown out of that now, kind of.   

[George]

Couldn't find a photo that I really liked (she was too old in all of them), but this video, I like!

[sonic1]

I'll probably get shit for this, but this is the man who drew me into the classical realm. I have told this story before, but when I was a kid I grew up in NY and was in receptive distance from the Vassar College radio station, which played EVERYTHING. One night I heard this music that was absolutely engaging. I couldn't stop listening to it. I found out after the piece that it was Schoenberg and the piece, if memory serves me correctly was Verklärte Nacht. Before that I only had a few classical records which I had no passion for. Suddenly I gained an interest in them too (a Beethoven and a Bach).

[longears]

My memory truly is bad: the actual first 'name' I knew in classical music (though only from his Last Night of the Proms appearances) was conductor, Sir Andrew Davis

Heard him conduct the Pittsburgh in a terrific performance of Sibelius's 5th recently.  Raised him a couple of notches in my estimation.

[Peregrine]

Couldn't find a photo that I really liked (she was too old in all of them), but this video, I like!

Wow, she look's really hot in that photo, very sultry...

[George]

Wow, she look's really hot in that photo, very sultry...

Yeah, check out the video. 

[Peregrine]

Yeah, check out the video. 

What a babe!

[George]

What a babe!

[Renfield]

And he still is. In fact, Karajan is one of the very few people that I have come to accept as alternative "father figures" to me, perhaps because as I've said before, the reason I'm not pursuing one of my "dream" careers, in music (conducting), is that I would have at best done the same as the man above. And so I would rather listen to the work of that man, him being as imperfect as anyone, but also as alike to me (or me to him) as few. I understand Karajan.


Concerning Argerich, didn't she marry a series of co-workers, anyway?