The idea behind this thread is not to share your 'Top 10' favorite works, but to list works that helped in the development for your love of this music. These can be works that you may not even care for much these days. So let's see those lists!
That's an interesting but difficult question. Es ist zu lange her! (Bilbao-Song), more than 30 years. I am skipping the odd piece I encountered as a child before I really got into classical at ca. 15 years old because I was rather indifferent to most music before that time, i.e. I never really cared for pop music or anything before classical (I came to appreciate a bit of nonclassical later after I had become addicted to classical). So chronologically, I start with
1. Tchaikovsky: Piano concerto in b flat minor
and
2. Dvorak: Symphony No. 9
lame, but these were among the first larger pieces that made me fall in love with classical (skipping again a few minor ones like Grieg's Peer Gynt or the 1812 and Capriccio italien because this was roughly all at the same time). A few years later, I could hardly stand the concerto anymore and I rarely listen to it nowadays but when I put it on, I love at least the beginning and the finale!
3. and 4. Beethoven Pastoral Symphony and 5th piano concerto. The first Beethoven symphonies I heard were 3, 6 and 9. I liked all of them but the latter was overwhelming and the 3rd had long stretches between the "great parts". The 6th was easier fare but the 5th piano concerto totally blew me away; this grabbed me from start to finish (a cheapo LP with the old Brendel/Mehta recording). Again being a little unfair to a bunch of Mozart and Haydn symphonies I also heard and liked around that time, probably also Schubert 5+8.
5. Beethoven's 5th symphony. I got this on pre-recorded cassette for my 16th birthday (I think, could have been one year earlier, but I am quite certain), Carlos Kleiber/VPO. I don't think I was ever before or after as obsessed with another piece of music. I must have listened to it almost every day at least once for a month or two. Hoffmann's description was apt: "Glowing rays of light shoot through the dark night of this realm, and we see gigantic shadows swaying back and forth, encircling us closer and closer, destroying us, but not the pain of infinite longing in which every delight, rising up in joyful voices, sinks and drowns, and only in this pain, consuming love, hope, joy, but not destroying it and aiming at bursting our chests with its unison of all passions, do we live on and are we rapturous seers of the realm of spirits!"
I make a break here because I have to think some more about later experiences that were also important.
Specifically it has been mostly symphonies that have caught me into classical music, and likely forever. In addition, I couldn't list 10 specific works, but sets of them. Beethoven was the entry to me in this genre. His symphonies, piano sonatas and string quartets were the pieces that hooked me in this vast realm, hence I still consider him one of my favorites nowadays. Apart from these works, Tchaikovsky and Brahms were the next steps on my discovery of classical music. Once again their symphonies were so fascinating for me that I couldn't believe how engaging, imposing and elegant this music was and how different sounded to other genres, it was a benchmark that is indelible.
In roughly chronological order:
What's Opera, Doc? - Chuck Jones/Carl Stalling. Bugs Bunny takes on Wagner
Fantasia. I still love Stokowski.
Film soundtracks, specifically John Williams (Star Wars, ESB, Superman), and John Barry (The Black Hole, various Bond films, The Lion In Winter)
Wagner Overtures, George Szell
Amadeus film soundtrack, 2 cds, my intro to Mozart. The Requiem blew my mind.
Beethoven symphony 5, Karajan 70s set
Holst The Planets. Not sure of the recording, maybe Lenny
Beethoven Moonlight sonata, Emil Gilels
That gets me from early childhood to most of the way through high school :)
In chronological order
1. Grieg - Piano Concerto
2. Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto 1
3. Chopin - Polonaise op. 53
4. Mozart - Symphony 40
5. Bizet - Carmen (the Zefirelli movie)
These are the first five classical music works that I've ever heard. After 30+ years my love for them is still intact.
Quote from: Jo498 on October 18, 2019, 12:55:22 PM
I really got into classical at ca. 15 years old because I was rather indifferent to most music before that time, i.e. I never really cared for pop music or anything before classical (I came to appreciate a bit of nonclassical later after I had become addicted to classical).
My experience exactly.
Tchaikovsky
1. 1812 Overture - The first classical work I consciously listened to. Maybe some music was played when I was younger, but this got the ball rolling.
2. Capriccio Italien - Probably the second, as it was on the other side of the same record.
3. Symphony No. 5 - The first full-length, multi-movement work I heard. It was on a CD which also contained a recording of Capriccio Italien. We only had the disc at the time, with no case. All the disc said on it was "Tchaikovsky". Once I learned that tracks 2-5 were one large piece of music, the floodgates were truly opened. Not only that, but the fact the symphony has a theme that returns in all four movements, was mindblowing at the time.
4. Manfred - I realised after a while that a lot of my favourite bits of music were in the key of B minor, so this, a nearly-hour-long symphony in that key, proved quite the experience. I remember hearing it, and hearing instruments I hadn't heard in the other Tchaikovsky symphonies. The bells in the slow movement, the harps, and the final coup-de-théatre of the organ's appearance in the finale.
Beethoven
5. Symphony No. 5 - The first major classical purchase I made was a Beethoven Complete Symphonies box. I'd obviously heard the first movement with it's famous four-note opening before, but to hear the entire 32-minute work, how it transitions straight from scherzo to finale, and the joy and triumph of said finale, again was incredible.
6. Symphony No. 7 - The 2nd movement in particular stood out here.
Holst
7. The Planets - I bought this on holiday in Torquay, Devon. It introduced me to the large modern symphony orchestra, with all sorts of unusual instruments, particularly the celesta. A passage I always remember standing out was during Neptune, where the organ pedal holds a note and the celesta plays four rising patterns.
Mahler
8. Symphony No. 2 - Wow! This remains my favourite symphony of all time.
Stravinsky
9. The Rite of Spring - This genuinely scared me on first hearing, and it was only the first 10 minutes or so.
Dvorak
10. Symphony No. 9 - Another motto-symphony, of which I heard the finale first.
Again, this is about a personal, accidental history, the music that happened to make an early impression. In my case, at the age of 13, 14; in roughly chronological order :
Beethoven, 'Pastoral'
Schubert, Symphony No. 3
Grieg, Norwegian Dances Op. 35 (heard one of them by the Oslo Phil under Petrenko in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, last week, and one by Leif Ove Andsnes, both as an encore)
Dvořák, Polednice (The Noon Witch)
Bizet, L'Arlésienne Suites
Tchaikovksy, Romeo and Juliette
Wolf-Ferrari, Suite from Il gioielli della Madonna
Saint-Saëns, Danse macabre
Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue
Falla, El sombrero de tres picos
All still favourites, except that I lost interest in Schubert (& almost all 'German' Romantic-era composers). :-X
(And to finish this off: at the age of 15, I was a huge admirer of Dvořák and Tchaikovsky, my two staunch favourites for a year or two. At the age of 16 I was finally allowed to hire LPs in the public library, so I hired one with the Tallis Fantasia. The rest is history. ;D)
Same here, I was 13 I think.
The work that more than any other made me an addict to classical music was Chopin's E minor concerto (Rubinstein).
Then there were Franck's symphony (Monteux), Tchaikovsky's Pathétique (Munch) and a bunch of shorter works from a double LP album under Toscanini: L'apprenti sorcier, The Blue Danube waltz, William Tell overture, Carmen suite, The Stars and Stripes Forever, The Moldau, Dance macabre, Dance of the Hours etc.
Also Les Préludes (Liszt), Beethoven sonatas 8, 14, 26 (Rubinstein), etc.
I still love all these works and the interpretations I heard them in are engraved in my memory.
Interesting thread!
OK, here goes:
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade - my mother played this a lot in my youth. I remember humming it to myself one day at school (aged about 14) and one of my classmates said that he recognised what it was - funny how I remember this. RK was my first favourite composer and I still enjoy his music.
Bruckner: Symphony 8. My older brother was a big influence on my musical tastes in my youth and he loved and still loves the music of Bruckner. He had the Jochum DGG boxed set on LP and bought me the marvellous Horenstein Vox/Turnabout recording (on two LPs) one Christmas. I actually saw Horenstein conduct the work when I was about 15 or 16.
Copland: Symphony 3 (Everest recording on LP). Again, my brother had this LP and I would often play it when visiting.
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.6 LPO, Boult. I noticed this in the record department of WH Smith on my way back from school one day. I asked my brother about VW and he said that he was a bit like an 'English Copland'. I bought the LP and never looked back. Probably had more influence on me than any other work.
Other influential recordings at an early stage.
Ravel: Bolero (I still like it)
Holst: The Planets
Mussorgsky (orch. Rimsky-Korsakov) 'Pictures at an Exhibition'
Martinu: Symphony No.4 (Turnovsky) - heard on the radio one day
Miaskovsky: Cello Concerto - Sargent/Rostropovich - also heard on the radio one day.
Finzi: Dies Natalis (Wilfred Brown version) heard on the radio early one morning whilst on holiday in the Yorkshire Dales - one of those experiences where music and landscape tended to merge into one if that doesn't sound too pretentious.
First and foremost: Wagner The Ride of the Valkyries (heard at age 13 on the radio)
Rachmaninoff Prelude in C sharp minor op.3 no.2 (played by my mother in our home)
Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture (Ormandy, I think, a record bought from a Quaker Oats box offer--Quaker Oats, shot from guns 8) )
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto 2, Richter
Vaughan Williams Symphony 4, Bernstein, heard on a Televised Young People's Concert
Elgar Enigma Variations, Barbirolli
Schubert Symphony 5 (the Andante con moto played in a band arrangement in high school)
Dvorak Symphony 9 (again, played in high school band, subsequently heard Szell conducting the Cleveland, an LP my girlfriend had)
Berg 3 Pieces op.6, Schoenberg 5 Pieces op.16, Webern 5 Pieces op.10 Dorati conducting the LSO (a friend had the LP)
Sarge
Quote from: Maestro267 on October 24, 2019, 07:46:44 AM
Mahler
8. Symphony No. 2 - Wow! This remains my favourite symphony of all time.
That almost made my cut but I heard it a little later than the others I listed...but hearing it definitely cemented my interest in, and love of, Mahler (heard Klemp's version).
Sarge
Just one. Tchaikovsky, the opening of Swan Lake. Like an epiphany, a religious conversion.
This question to me is a bit like asking for the first 10 experiences that convinced me I was straight. It only took one!
Quote from: Ken B on October 24, 2019, 01:07:52 PM
Just one. Tchaikovsky, the opening of Swan Lake. Like an epiphany, a religious conversion....
And this made me smile, as I have altogether more Satanic associations with it. I am a Philistine, I know, but I can't hear Sawn Lake (especially with Halloween coming up) without conjuring up when I first heard it, used very effectively as the background music for this...
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51sWwsIR05L.jpg)
Quote from: vandermolen on October 24, 2019, 11:51:30 AM
Interesting thread!
OK, here goes:
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade - my mother played this a lot in my youth. I remember humming it to myself one day at school (aged about 14) and one of my classmates said that he recognised what it was - funny how I remember this. RK was my first favourite composer and I still enjoy his music.
Bruckner: Symphony 8. My older brother was a big influence on my musical tastes in my youth and he loved and still loves the music of Bruckner. He had the Jochum DGG boxed set on LP and bought me the marvellous Horenstein Vox/Turnabout recording (on two LPs) one Christmas. I actually saw Horenstein conduct the work when I was about 15 or 16.
Copland: Symphony 3 (Everest recording on LP). Again, my brother had this LP and I would often play it when visiting.
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.6 LPO, Boult. I noticed this in the record department of WH Smith on my way back from school one day. I asked my brother about VW and he said that he was a bit like an 'English Copland'. I bought the LP and never looked back. Probably had more influence on me than any other work.
Other influential recordings at an early stage.
Ravel: Bolero (I still like it)
Holst: The Planets
Mussorgsky (orch. Rimsky-Korsakov) 'Pictures at an Exhibition'
Martinu: Symphony No.4 (Turnovsky) - heard on the radio one day
Miaskovsky: Cello Concerto - Sargent/Rostropovich - also heard on the radio one day.
Finzi: Dies Natalis (Wilfred Brown version) heard on the radio early one morning whilst on holiday in the Yorkshire Dales - one of those experiences where music and landscape tended to merge into one if that doesn't sound too pretentious.
Nice anecdotes, Jeffrey. Martinu and Myaskovsky came much later on my own experience, though.
Smetana: Die Moldau The opening minutes were used on a children's show to accompany a series of filmed images starting with gathering clouds and single drops of rain on a leaf, and ending with a broad river entering the sea. It would be shown several times a year, and I learned to look forward to it. One day the host mentioned the title, and I rushed to the public library, found it, along with a host of other intriguing records.
Wagner: Bugs Bunny cartoons used all kinds of Wagner snippets: Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman, Ride of the Valkyries etc. ( already mentioned by Sarge)
Mendelssohn: Fingal's Cave was used by Carl Stalling in Warner Brothers' Cartoons. This was heard in "Inky" cartoons, an Aboriginal/African native who was flummoxed by a mysterious black bird, whose appearance was always accompanied by the Fingal's Cave main theme.
Franz Von Suppe': Poet and the Peasant and Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna Overtures: Cartoons again! Walter Lantz of Universal Studios produced two cartoons with the same plot: an unusual orchestra of animals plays both works. Mayhem and mirth ensue! They were also used in Warner Brothers' cartoons.
Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody #2 CARTOONS AGAIN! Bugs Bunny in Rhapsody Rabbit tries to play the work, and Rhapsody in Rivets, a wild cartoon showing a skyscraper being built to the music.
Franz Schubert: Symphony #8 The opening was used in several of Universal's early horror movies.
Bruckner: Symphony #7 I saw the score at the library and read through it and was hooked!
Theodore Dubois: The Seven Last Words of Christ This was played throughout my grade school years during Lent. It remains a favorite.
Alexandre Guilmant and Pietro Yon: Organ works and Masses Again their works I heard at my parish church while growing up. Marvelous melodies and harmonies.
I suppose I'll contribute... ;)
I'm not sure if I can think of ten examples, but here are thoughts on some works that inspired me early on (in no particular order):
Bartók: The Wooden Prince - This work wasn't the first I heard from Bartók (that would be Concerto for Orchestra), but this is the first work I heard where I finally got my teeth into the music. The version that I heard first was Boulez's on Deutsche Grammophon (coupled with the equally wonderful Cantata Profana).
Stravinsky: Le sacre du printemps - This was probably the first piece of 20th Century music I heard and this was probably around the mid-90s or so. I remember my dad had a recording of it (or perhaps I"m mistaken and it was my grandfather who had the copy). Anyway, this ballet had me on the edge of my seat.
Ives: Central Park in the Dark - Bernstein was my gateway into Ives. I heard his recording of Symphony No. 2 (w/ other orchestral works) on Deutsche Grammophon and was hooked.
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé - The first recording I heard of this ballet was from Dutoit conducting the Montreal SO on Decca. My mind was blown! I never looked back. Nowadays, I seldom listen to any of Ravel's orchestral music aside from the piano concerti. Strange how we mature as listeners.
Vaughan Williams: Five Variants On 'Dives and Lazarus' - This was quite possibly the first RVW work I heard (the Marriner recording on Argo/Decca). I still actually adore this work. Such sublime string writing.
Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola & Harp - I had heard all of Debussy's orchestral music before I heard this chamber piece. This work actually opened up more doors for me in Debussy than anything he had written for orchestra. Debussy is my favorite composer and I've really come to love all genres he's composed for.
Janáček: Sinfonietta - This was another work I heard very early on (I might have been around 10 or something). My dad played this for me one day after I got home from school and I couldn't believe that opening fanfare with all of those trumpets and I still get this particular movement stuck in my head from time to time.
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 - The first work I heard from Shostakovich and still a symphony that never ceases to impress me even if I prefer others he's written to this one.
Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 - I recall hearing this over my grandfather's house and not really 'getting it' at that time. But that absolutely gorgeous Adagio really made a huge impression.
Sibelius: Pohjola's Daughter - One of those 'a ha!' moments came from this tone poem from Sibelius. It really was my gateway into this composer's sound-world and the first work I heard of his music that resonated deeply with me.
Quote from: SymphonicAddict on October 24, 2019, 03:03:59 PM
Nice anecdotes, Jeffrey. Martinu and Myaskovsky came much later on my own experience, though.
Thanks Cesar. I must have come across Martinu and Miaskovsky in my late teens or early twenties. Another earlier influence I should have mentioned was Tchaikovsky's 'Pathetique' Symphony. My brother had a fine DGG Heliodor LP conducted by Ferenc Fricsay. It's a terrific performance.
Quote from: Ken B on October 24, 2019, 01:07:52 PM
This question to me is a bit like asking for the first 10 experiences that convinced me I was straight. It only took one!
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Here goes, perhaps the most influential LPs I bought in the 70ies:
Jochums Bruckner 4
The Busch Quartets Beethoven Recordings
Munrows Se la Face ay Pale (Dufay)
Ansermets Debussy Pelleas et Melisande
The Bartok Quartets by the Hungarian Quartet
Bach's cantata 21 by Leonhardt
Bernsteins Nielsen no 3
Various Early Music stuff on EMIs Reflexe series
Oistrakh's Shostakovich Violin Concerto no 1
Quote from: Ken B on October 24, 2019, 01:07:52 PM
[...]
This question to me is a bit like asking for the first 10 experiences that convinced me I was straight. It only took one!
Tell us more...
Topic duty (i.c. classical music ;)): as an early teen, the passions of Bach.
As an early twen, Mozart's Da Ponte opera's.
Let's gjve this a try:
1) Telemann: Selections from Der getreue Musikmeister. A 45 rpm Archiv Produktion of excerpts from the Josef Ulsamer set was given to me by my babysitter (an aspiring flutist and mezzo) when I was around 5 and living in Vienna. Now I have this on CD, and still love it.
2) Mozart: Die Zauberflöte. The first opera I attended, aged 6 and still in Vienna. I fell asleep mid-performance, of course, but loved what I heard and got from my parents the excerpts LP of the Klemperer recording, and soon knew most of the sung text by heart.
3) Gershwin: An American in Paris. A teacher at the American School in Vienna would play and "explain" this to us 1st or 2nd graders. Great fun at the time.
4) Wagner: Das Rheingold. As a teenager, I asked—on impulse—my dad to buy the Karajan recording, not knowing anything about Wagner, but being intrigued by the title. I was bowled over, and a lifelong infatuation with the work of RW hasn't faded a bit since then. This is by far the most important work for me on this list. .
5) Falla: El amor brujo. This, the "flashiest" of Falla's works is no longer my favourite by him, but when I first listened to it, I had the pleasant feeling of hearing something great and also from my own cultural background. Still have a penchant for much (but certainly, not all) Spanish music to this day.
6) Bellini: Norma. I grabbed a cheap copy of the second Callas recording (a lavish Angel 3LP set which probably had been dormant for years in a store in my then hometown Caracas) just to see what it was all about. Wow, was that beautiful, and Mme, Callas mesmerising. I then learned that my mother had seen Callas live in the role at the Met in 1956.
7) Stravinsky: Petrouchka. Boulez the conductor led me from Parsifal to Stravinsky and further to Debussy, Ravel and so on. It was Petrouchka, though, of all of IS's works that really got me hooked, and I found it simply miraculous.
8 ) Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin. Same process as above, and with this work I realised that in Ravel there was a composer whose music really meant something to me, beyond the ubiquitous Boléro. TBH, the process with Debussy was much slower and tortuous, but by now he's displaced Ravel (whom I still love, of course) and probably even Stravinsky in my own personal podium of top composers.
9) Boulez: Pli selon pli. I had been exposed to Boulez''s music (Le marteau sans maître) earlier, but it was this work that convinced me of the intense beauty and expressive power of the avantgarde. Still probably my favourite of all of PB's works. I was around 18 or 19 at the time.
10) still to come??? ;) ;D
Quote from: Ken B on October 24, 2019, 01:07:52 PM
Just one. Tchaikovsky, the opening of Swan Lake. Like an epiphany, a religious conversion.
This question to me is a bit like asking for the first 10 experiences that convinced me I was straight. It only took one!
I actually didn't need any gay experience to convince me I was straight.
Quote from: Ken B on October 24, 2019, 01:07:52 PM
Just one. Tchaikovsky, the opening of Swan Lake. Like an epiphany, a religious conversion.
This question to me is a bit like asking for the first 10 experiences that convinced me I was straight. It only took one!
I knew I liked Classical Music rather than the late Big-Band, pre-Rock-'n'-Roll stuff my mother had on the radio, i.e. I preferred a symphony orchestra like the one heard in
Smetana's Moldau, although at the time I did not know who had composed that music and did not know its name. And the cartoons with a symphony orchestra using classical snippets were always my favorites, even though I did not know the classical snippets were classical snippets:
Tom and Jerry cartoons, for example, were just okay, because their soundtracks used more of a Big-Band sound.
My father was profoundly unmusical: the only song I know that he liked was
Put Another Nickel In, In the Nickelodeon sung by
Teresa Brewer. And I think he liked her more than her song, but...
Digging deeper into the memory, I recall watching (and being thrilled and fascinated by)
King Kong on our (16-inch?) television in the early 1950's and very much liking the soundtrack by
Max Steiner. Perhaps that should be added to my list!
Digging deeper
Cato
QuoteMy father was profoundly unmusical
So your liking for Ives was inherited then.
;)
Quote from: Ken B on October 25, 2019, 01:46:54 PM
Cato: So your liking for Ives was inherited then.
;)
And some (like
Mrs. Cato) would add quarter-tone music to that! :D
Well, I'm new to classical music so perhaps some of these choices may seem a little strange, but I'll try and participate with a list of my own.
- J.S. Bach: The Goldberg Variations. As played, obviously, by Glenn Gould. This is what started it all for me, right around this time last year.
- Frédéric Chopin: 24 Préludes op.28. As played by Martha Argerich. This was big for me.
- Maurice Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit. This was my introduction to the whole world of "modern" music, which is now my favorite.
- Johannes Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, op.117. Still a favorite. (Hmm, all piano music so far... let's change that up a bit...)
- Franz Schubert: "Unfinished" Symphony in B minor. I've actually loved this symphony for a long time, well before getting into classical music at large. I could have also placed the String Quintet in C here, but the symphony slightly wins out.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No.23 in A major, K488. My list wouldn't have felt right without any Mozart, and this was one of the first concertante works that really blew me away (now I love the genre). The second movement is one of the greatest he ever wrote.
- Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring. No introduction necessary.
- Robert Schumann: Dichterliebe, op.48. The start of my love for the music of Robert Schumann, who is now one of my very favorites. This is also the beginning of my growing love for Lieder.
- Anton Webern: 6 Pieces for Orchestra, op.6. Absolutely blew me away on first listen. This is one of the first pieces I heard that I felt really spoke to my life. Webern says he wrote this in response to his mother's death, and as someone who lost my mother at a young age I feel like the composer captures in music the experience of the death of a loved one with miraculous fidelity. It was the Karajan recording I heard first and I still love that recording. This was my gateway drug to Webern who is now one of my very favorite composers.
- Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.4 in G major. Another piece that blew me away on first listen. I wasn't very familiar with Mahler when I heard this for the first time, but I was under the impression that his music just wasn't for me. Too pompous, too overblown, his symphonies were way too long and meandering, etc. Hearing the fourth symphony blew that right out of my head, completely destroying whatever preconceived notions I had. This was the start of an ongoing obsession for me, I went and heard the first symphony, then the second, and by then I was hooked. Got the Bernstein/NYPO cycle and never looked back. Anyone who reads my posts in the composer specific forums knows of my obsession. Another composer whose music I feel speaks directly to me.
That's all for now, in roughly chronological order. Great thread!
It was an odd feeling not including some of my favorite composers: Beethoven, Scriabin, Debussy, etc... but I couldn't pick a single work from either that would stand up to those I've chosen in terms of their individual impact on my life.
It's hard to pin down specific works in some cases, as a lot of the most "formative" classical music experiences I had were LP box sets, but I guess:
- Beethoven Appassionata, age 7ish. I spent a lot of my childhood listening to very little except the big Vox/Murray Hill box of the complete Beethoven solo piano works and concertos, but this was my favourite and the first sonata I actually tried to teach myself to play, while I was supposed to be learning Clementi sonatinas. It didn't go well.
- Schubert D960 (from the Artur Schnabel EMI References CD release), age 8-9ish. Someone actually gifted us a CD player, a fancy one (for 1999) with a five disc turntable etc, and that's roughly when I fell in love with Schubert.
- Bartók 3rd String Quartet, live in Rome, 2001 (age 10). After hearing this I requested and was gifted the miniature score for all six quartets, as well as the Takacs Quartet CD release. This was the start of another obsession (twentieth century music).
- Schumann Frauenliebe und leben, age... 13-ish? A music theory assignment which actually made me cry, which I'm now quite ashamed of given the text, but lol. I've never been without Schumann since.
- Bach Well-Tempered Clavier, age 17. Went to university, took a counterpoint class, & this was the primary text. I ended up analysing and playing thru most of the P&Fs that year.
- Berio Laborintus II, age...18? Composition teacher advised me to attend a concert ending with this piece. I left with an abrupt new appreciation of the midcentury avantgarde. (Appreciation of Schoenberg, Berg, Webern etc would come later, after I'd gotten fully into Stockhausen, Xenakis, etc)
- Feldman Neither, live in New York, age... 20? I hated it and couldn't get it out of my head. That's when I learned that could happen sometimes. (I like it more now.)
- Cage 103, live in New York, age... 21 or 22? With an audience only about the size of the orchestra itself. Transformative and almost spiritual.
- Mayumi Miyata playing gagaku (and Toshio Hosokawa) on a Wergo CD, age 21ish. I somewhat credit this for me developing an interest in non-western classical musics, and still have great fondness for the shō.
- Luc Ferrari Danses organiques, age 24. There was a fairly long period when I didn't want to listen to instrumental or pitched music at all, and Ferrari, Roland Kayn, Francisco Lopez and a few others opened wide a door into a different kind of music that I'd never thought I would appreciate.
I'm not sure if that's 10. I'm also pretty sure my love for classical music was cemented before any of these experiences happened, but oh well.
Quote from: Mirror Image on October 24, 2019, 08:05:43 PM
I suppose I'll contribute... ;)
I'm not sure if I can think of ten examples, but here are thoughts on some works that inspired me early on (in no particular order):
Bartók: The Wooden Prince - This work wasn't the first I heard from Bartók (that would be Concerto for Orchestra), but this is the first work I heard where I finally got my teeth into the music. The version that I heard first was Boulez's on Deutsche Grammophon (coupled with the equally wonderful Cantata Profana).
Stravinsky: Le sacre du printemps - This was probably the first piece of 20th Century music I heard and this was probably around the mid-90s or so. I remember my dad had a recording of it (or perhaps I"m mistaken and it was my grandfather who had the copy). Anyway, this ballet had me on the edge of my seat.
Ives: Central Park in the Dark - Bernstein was my gateway into Ives. I heard his recording of Symphony No. 2 (w/ other orchestral works) on Deutsche Grammophon and was hooked.
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé - The first recording I heard of this ballet was from Dutoit conducting the Montreal SO on Decca. My mind was blown! I never looked back. Nowadays, I seldom listen to any of Ravel's orchestral music aside from the piano concerti. Strange how we mature as listeners.
Vaughan Williams: Five Variants On 'Dives and Lazarus' - This was quite possibly the first RVW work I heard (the Marriner recording on Argo/Decca). I still actually adore this work. Such sublime string writing.
Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola & Harp - I had heard all of Debussy's orchestral music before I heard this chamber piece. This work actually opened up more doors for me in Debussy than anything he had written for orchestra. Debussy is my favorite composer and I've really come to love all genres he's composed for.
Janáček: Sinfonietta - This was another work I heard very early on (I might have been around 10 or something). My dad played this for me one day after I got home from school and I couldn't believe that opening fanfare with all of those trumpets and I still get this particular movement stuck in my head from time to time.
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 - The first work I heard from Shostakovich and still a symphony that never ceases to impress me even if I prefer others he's written to this one.
Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 - I recall hearing this over my grandfather's house and not really 'getting it' at that time. But that absolutely gorgeous Adagio really made a huge impression.
Sibelius: Pohjola's Daughter - One of those 'a ha!' moments came from this tone poem from Sibelius. It really was my gateway into this composer's sound-world and the first work I heard of his music that resonated deeply with me.
I agree with you John about the VW 'Five Variants on Dives and Lazurus' - a comparatively early VW discovery for me. I took a marvellous LP out of my local music library when I lived at home in London. It featured the Five Variants plus the Oboe Concerto and Rubbra's 5th Symphony (my first encounter with his music). Sir John Barbirolli was the conductor and those performances remain unrivalled IMO. I asked my parents to get the VW work for me for Christmas. They bought me another excellent LP featuring the Five Variants plus 'An Oxford Elegy' and 'Flos Campi':
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Quote from: vandermolen on October 27, 2019, 05:01:32 AM
I agree with you John about the VW 'Five Variants on Dives and Lazurus' - a comparatively early VW discovery for me. I took a marvellous LP out of my local music library when I lived at home in London. It featured the Five Variants plus the Oboe Concerto and Rubbra's 5th Symphony (my first encounter with his music). Sir John Barbirolli was the conductor and those performances remain unrivalled IMO. I asked my parents to get the VW work for me for Christmas. They bought me another excellent LP featuring the Five Variants plus 'An Oxford Elegy' and 'Flos Campi':
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Very nice, Jeffrey. 8)
Flos campi is another favorite of mine from RVW. That Willcocks recording is sublime.
My parents never listened to music, but when I was about seven or eight my older brother started listening to Tristan almost every night while doing his homework, as I was falling asleep upstairs. It imprinted deeply on me and remained a kind of bedrock. Later on I heard a sister's friend playing the last movement of the Pathetique Sonata and was truly enchanted. I then acquired an old LP of Eileen Joyce and the Royal Danish Orchestra playing the Grieg Concerto which I pretty much played into the ground.
(Most of my early listening was Rock though .. when I was about 10/11 hearing In the Court of the Crimson King blew my mind e.g - and in a funny/sad kind of way signalled the end of my childhood I think - then Bowie who became a lifelong addiction, and many others. )
Then one day my mother plonked a copy of Ashkenazy's Chopin Etudes in front of me (bought in Boots the chemist!) saying 'I thought you might like this' - odd because she'd never done anything like that before and never did again :laugh: - and it really changed my life! I was already playing the piano a bit, but the etudes and Vlad's playing were a revelation, and kicked my figurative arse into a much higher gear.
The following then arrived, all with great impact, all of which I listened to obsessively, and nearly all of which I've hardly listened to again since my teens/early twenties as they became too engraved in my memory.
Rachmaninov PC 2 (Ashkenazy/Previn)
Prokofiev Piano Sonata 7 (Horowitz)
Rite of Spring (Markevitch)
Beethoven PC 4 (Gulda/Horst Stein)
Brahms 1 (Walter)
Mozart PC 20 (Brendel/Marriner)
Beethoven 7 (Karajan)
I should also perhaps mention Kontakte by Stockhausen heard in London at a live concert, I kept thinking this is *so* different and *so* new, and it probably helped lay the foundations for much of my interest in the wide-ranging expressive possibilities of contemporary music.
That's about ten I think, but of course it's not really the end of the list.
Quote from: Iota on October 27, 2019, 08:29:53 AM
the Pathetique Sonata
It's the first Beethoven piano sonata I've ever heard and still my favorite of them all. Strong, indelible extramusical associations with my first --- and last --- unrequited love.
Quote from: Iota on October 27, 2019, 08:29:53 AM
My parents never listened to music, but when I was about seven or eight my older brother started listening to Tristan almost every night while doing his homework, as I was falling asleep upstairs. It imprinted deeply on me and remained a kind of bedrock. Later on I heard a sister's friend playing the last movement of the Pathetique Sonata and was truly enchanted. I then acquired an old LP of Eileen Joyce and the Royal Danish Orchestra playing the Grieg Concerto which I pretty much played into the ground.
(Most of my early listening was Rock though .. when I was about 10/11 hearing In the Court of the Crimson King blew my mind e.g - and in a funny/sad kind of way signalled the end of my childhood I think - then Bowie who became a lifelong addiction, and many others. )
Then one day my mother plonked a copy of Ashkenazy's Chopin Etudes in front of me (bought in Boots the chemist!) saying 'I thought you might like this' - odd because she'd never done anything like that before and never did again :laugh: - and it really changed my life! I was already playing the piano a bit, but the etudes and Vlad's playing were a revelation, and kicked my figurative arse into a much higher gear.
The following then arrived, all with great impact, all of which I listened to obsessively, and nearly all of which I've hardly listened to again since my teens/early twenties as they became too engraved in my memory.
Rachmaninov PC 2 (Ashkenazy/Previn)
Prokofiev Piano Sonata 7 (Horowitz)
Rite of Spring (Markevitch)
Beethoven PC 4 (Gulda/Horst Stein)
Brahms 1 (Walter)
Mozart PC 20 (Brendel/Marriner)
Beethoven 7 (Karajan)
I should also perhaps mention Kontakte by Stockhausen heard in London at a live concert, I kept thinking this is *so* different and *so* new, and it probably helped lay the foundations for much of my interest in the wide-ranging expressive possibilities of contemporary music.
That's about ten I think, but of course it's not really the end of the list.
Very astute of your mother. Markevitch's 'Rite of Spring' on Classics for Pleasure was an early influence on me too.
Quote from: Florestan on October 27, 2019, 10:29:04 AM
It's the first Beethoven piano sonata I've ever heard and still my favorite of them all. Strong, indelible extramusical associations with my first --- and last --- unrequited love.
Oh yes indeed, the power of music to get tangled up in our emotional lives and memories! Like a carbon atom bonding with anything and everything that takes its fancy! I ask you!
Quote from: vandermolen on October 27, 2019, 11:21:28 AM
Very astute of your mother.
She had her moments. :)
Quote from: vandermolen on October 27, 2019, 11:21:28 AM
Markevitch's 'Rite of Spring' on Classics for Pleasure was an early influence on me too.
I was enthralled by it! But haven't heard it for over forty years, and am slightly wary of doing so now for fear of being disappointed. Perhaps wiser to hang onto my memories of it ..
Thanks to all for your contributions. Your lists have been most illuminating.
Quote from: Iota on October 28, 2019, 05:16:54 AM
Oh yes indeed, the power of music to get tangled up in our emotional lives and memories! Like a carbon atom bonding with anything and everything that takes its fancy! I ask you!
She had her moments. :)
I was enthralled by it! But haven't heard it for over forty years, and am slightly wary of doing so now for fear of being disappointed. Perhaps wiser to hang onto my memories of it ..
Well, I purchased this and was not disappointed:
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Quote from: vandermolen on October 28, 2019, 01:48:23 PM
Well, I purchased this and was not disappointed:
(//)
Thanks, that's reassuring to hear.
To be honest I barely ever listen to RoS, I just listened to it too much early on and it never quite recovered. The problem of course lies a 100% with me, the score's an extraordinary one. Once every few years or so I try again, so with above post in mind, I'll know where to head when I next dip in. :)
Before learning the piano
Dvorak "Songs My Mother Taught Me" sung around the household on frequent occasions by my mother.
Rach Op3 No 2 - inspired me at the age of 6 to learn the piano
While learning the piano
LvB Moonlight decided to learn this by myself against express wishes of my piano teacher. When I eventually played it back to her after six months of work she was shocked but helped me iron out some messy passage work in the presto agitato. I played it at the end of year concert.
Chopin Op28/15 - taught to me by my piano teacher. I still love playing this beautiful and expressive Prelude. It also helped me develop my deep love of everything Chopin
Schubert Impromptus D899 I loved playing these very dramatic works.
Listening experiences
LvB 9 Cluytens BPO - opened up my ears to possibility of choral music
Verdi Requiem followed on automatically from the above
Bach WTC Richter RCA. A sanity saver as I discovered this recording while suffering from clinical depression. It, and a lot of other Bach works helped me get through it both by playing and listening.
Mahler 4 Klemperer - welcome to the 20th century 1901 to be precise but the likes of Shosty and others soon followed.
Quote from: Holden on October 29, 2019, 06:29:37 PM
Bach WTC Richter RCA. A sanity saver as I discovered this recording while suffering from clinical depression. It, and a lot of other Bach works helped me get through it both by playing and listening.
Terrific to hear. I was talking this week with a lady in her eighties, who is having issues with her memory, but finds playing the piano makes a marked difference in her ability to recall words/events, particularly Bach, which she plays a lot (and very well!)
Most of these I would hear when I was quite young.
My mother liked:
Franck Symphony in d
Brahms Symphony no. 3
We had recordings of:
Rachmaninoff Symphony no. 2
Tchaikowsky Theme and Variations
Suppe, Poet and Peasant Overture
Gigli singing arias from Traviata with Caniglia
Caruso singing Pagliacci and others
Ravel's Bolero, shortened to fit on a 78. My brother and I wore this one out as preschoolers
Deems Taylor's Through the Looking Glass
Firestone Hour with Richard Crooks and others
The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts on Saturday afternoon with Milton Cross
My mother also practiced her piano scales most days and she was a good accompanist