Hello from New Jersey

[North Star]

Hi North Star, I guess there are too many to mention.  I have complete symphony sets of both (Ashkenazy and Gergiev, respectively), as well as recordings of Rachmaninoff piano music and the Prokofiev ballets Romeo and Juliet, and Cinderella. I especially enjoy the recording of Cinderella (Pletnev/Russian National Orchestra).

Excellent! Pletnev's arrangement for piano duo of a suite from Cinderella is superb, do you know it? (commissioned by Argerich, Argerich & Pletnev recorded it for DG).
All-night Vigil is perhaps my favourite piece from Rakhmaninov, it's just stunning.

[NJ Joe]

Excellent! Pletnev's arrangement for piano duo of a suite from Cinderella is superb, do you know it? (commissioned by Argerich, Argerich & Pletnev recorded it for DG).
All-night Vigil is perhaps my favourite piece from Rakhmaninov, it's just stunning.

I do not know it, nor am I familiar with All-night Vigil.  But I do have a wish list!

One disc that I really enjoy is this:



Rach 2, Prokofiev 5.

I bought it many years ago and never listened to it.  Then one day last year I read something about it, remembered I had it, and gave it a listen.  It knocked my socks off!

[North Star]

I do not know it, nor am I familiar with All-night Vigil.  But I do have a wish list!

One disc that I really enjoy is this:



Rach 2, Prokofiev 5.

I bought it many years ago and never listened to it.  Then one day last year I read something about it, remembered I had it, and gave it a listen.  It knocked my socks off!

The Cinderella recording is included here, the whole box is brilliant.
[asin]B003W16TBS[/asin]



Re: All-night Vigil: Sveshnikov's account is legendary (and OOP), but Hillier's more recent account is top-notch with idiomatic singers (like Sveshnikov) and superb sound quality.

[asin]B001716ISY[/asin]
Available here with two other great discs (Gatti's Tchaikovsky 5th and Engerer's Mussorgsky on piano), for only very little more:
[asin]B00699QOWO[/asin]

[NJ Joe]

The Cinderella recording is included here, the whole box is brilliant.
[asin]B003W16TBS[/asin]



Re: All-night Vigil: Sveshnikov's account is legendary (and OOP), but Hillier's more recent account is top-notch with idiomatic singers (like Sveshnikov) and superb sound quality.

[asin]B001716ISY[/asin]
Available here with two other great discs (Gatti's Tchaikovsky 5th and Engerer's Mussorgsky on piano), for only very little more:
[asin]B00699QOWO[/asin]

Thanks for the recommendations!

[Mirror Image]

Welcome aboard, Jersey Joe! Hope you enjoy your time here.

[NJ Joe]

Welcome aboard, Jersey Joe! Hope you enjoy your time here.

Thank you Mirror Image, love your Rachmaninov quote.

[Mirror Image]

Thank you Mirror Image, love your Rachmaninov quote.

Thank you, Jersey Joe. How did you get involved with this music?

[NJ Joe]

Thank you, Jersey Joe. How did you get involved with this music?

When I about 4 years old, my father bought an album of Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops.  It was called "Pops Goes To The Symphony" or something like that.
On it was Finlandia, The William Tell Overture, Die Fledermaus Overture, and music from Carmen.  I'm told that I constantly asked to hear it, and I can remember listening to it through elementary school.

Jump to 1977, my sophomore year in college.  While digging through my parents basement, I came across a Reader's Digest collection of classical music.  Mostly little known conductors conducting little known orchestras. I brought it back to school with me and started listening.  There were two works that grabbed hold of me:  Beethoven's Eroica, and The Rite of Spring.  The Eroica clicked immediately and knocked my socks off.  I remember the landlord, who lived downstairs, coming upstairs and telling me to turn it down!  I also remember buying the individual vinyls of HvK's 70's Beethoven Cycle. That was my first "set".

The Rite completely blew me away. I had never heard anything like that before, and suddenly so much of what I'd been listening to in progressive rock and jazz made so much more sense. I'll never forget that.

So then I started taking music appreciation classes as electives. They were the only classes in which I ever got an "A", ha ha.  I also started attending any classical music concerts that were held at the college (Rutgers).  I saw some good ones:  Ozawa conducting the BSO in Beethoven's 5th, Dorati and Detroit conducting Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin conducting Brahms' Third, etc.  These concerts imprinted the music on me, and it's been with me ever since.

Geez, I'm really rambling...sorry! 

[Mirror Image]

Excellent story, Jersey Joe. I, too, came from a progressive rock and jazz background. I've only been seriously listening to classical for four years now. Not long at all, but I've heard classical music being played in the house as long as I remember. My Dad was either playing Mahler or Janacek. In fact, I think the first classical work I heard was Janacek's Sinfonietta. That made a rather strong impression on me to say the least. All of those trumpets! Anyway, I hope you stick around and don't hesitate to take part in the ongoing discussions. The "What are you currently listening to?" thread is always a good one to 'break the ice' so to speak.

[NJ Joe]

Excellent story, Jersey Joe. I, too, came from a progressive rock and jazz background. I've only been seriously listening to classical for four years now. Not long at all, but I've heard classical music being played in the house as long as I remember. My Dad was either playing Mahler or Janacek. In fact, I think the first classical work I heard was Janacek's Sinfonietta. That made a rather strong impression on me to say the least. All of those trumpets! Anyway, I hope you stick around and don't hesitate to take part in the ongoing discussions. The "What are you currently listening to?" thread is always a good one to 'break the ice' so to speak.

Thanks Mirror Image.

[NJ Joe]

Hello,

One more thing I'd like to mention:

My classical music journey, starting in earnest after hearing the Eroica and The Rite while in college in the mid-70's, has for the most part been taken alone.  With only a few isolated exceptions, not a single one of my friends, either then, now, or anytime in between, had anything more than minimal interest in exploring this amazing world. Most of the concerts I attended, I attended alone (my sister's boyfriend back in the 70's was a good concert buddy, but after they broke up, well...that was that). Girlfriends and later my wife attended concerts mostly just to be nice.

When I tell people at work I like classical music I mostly get a smile and/or a blank stare. It's like they can't process what I'm saying.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

[Brahmsian]

Hello,

One more thing I'd like to mention:

My classical music journey, starting in earnest after hearing the Eroica and The Rite while in college in the mid-70's, has for the most part been taken alone.  With only a few isolated exceptions, not a single one of my friends, either then, now, or anytime in between, had anything more than minimal interest in exploring this amazing world. Most of the concerts I attended, I attended alone (my sister's boyfriend back in the 70's was a good concert buddy, but after they broke up, well...that was that). Girlfriends and later my wife attended concerts mostly just to be nice.

When I tell people at work I like classical music I mostly get a smile and/or a blank stare. It's like they can't process what I'm saying.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Exactly my own experience, Joe.  It is, unfortunately, a very common experience.  I explored classical music on my own, more by chance, about 7 or 8 years ago.  Never looked back. 

[Mirror Image]

When I tell people at work I like classical music I mostly get a smile and/or a blank stare. It's like they can't process what I'm saying.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Sure, nobody outside of my family understands my obsession with this music. Somebody actually asked me one time "Why would you listen to such boring crap?" I certainly knew when getting into classical music that there aren't going to many close to me that enjoy it, so I've simply had to go about the whole discovery thing independently without much input from anyone.

[Hollywood]

Howdy there Joe. Greetings from Beethoven's Heiligenstadt. Welcome to the forum.

[NJ Joe]

Sure, nobody outside of my family understands my obsession with this music. Somebody actually asked me one time "Why would you listen to such boring crap?" I certainly knew when getting into classical music that there aren't going to many close to me that enjoy it, so I've simply had to go about the whole discovery thing independently without much input from anyone.

While listening to a Haydn String Qt. yesterday at work, one of my staff stood in my office doorway with a disgusted look and said, "It sounds like I'm in the doctor's office."

[NJ Joe]

Howdy there Joe. Greetings from Beethoven's Heiligenstadt. Welcome to the forum.

Thanks Hollywood, great to be here.  Are you really in Vienna?

[Sergeant Rock]

Girlfriends and later my wife attended concerts mostly just to be nice.

That answers a question...whether you and Joan (Lisanti) are married    You're both from Jersey, you both joined the forum within a couple of hours of each other on Feb 10. I wondered if there was a relationship there. Apparently not.

When I tell people at work I like classical music I mostly get a smile and/or a blank stare. It's like they can't process what I'm saying.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Probably 100% of us. I'm one of the lucky ones: I grew up with classical music (my mother was a great pianist). My best friend in high school (and still my best, and now my oldest friend) and both steady girlfriends liked classical music too. In college I dated a french horn major. In Korea (1970) my girlfriend was a fan. I recall her swooning over the Mozart in the film Elvira Madigan and she got us tickets for George Szell's penultimate concert (in Seoul during the Cleveland's Asian tour). Mrs. Rock is as fanatical about classical music as I am (our first date was a Mahler 2 concert in Mannheim). But I can still empathize with you. The vast majority of people I've known have had no interest or understanding. This forum is a godsend.

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Thanks Hollywood, great to be here.  Are you really in Vienna?

In Austria.

Separately: The first day I was assistant-teaching in Charlottesville, three of my students over the course of the day must have referred to Vienna before I realized that there must be a Vienna in NoVa . . . .

[Fafner]

My classical music journey, starting in earnest after hearing the Eroica and The Rite while in college in the mid-70's, has for the most part been taken alone.  With only a few isolated exceptions, not a single one of my friends, either then, now, or anytime in between, had anything more than minimal interest in exploring this amazing world. Most of the concerts I attended, I attended alone (my sister's boyfriend back in the 70's was a good concert buddy, but after they broke up, well...that was that). Girlfriends and later my wife attended concerts mostly just to be nice.

When I tell people at work I like classical music I mostly get a smile and/or a blank stare. It's like they can't process what I'm saying.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Yes, the same experience here. I usually get a sign of approval when I tell people I listen to classical music, but it ends there. It is obvious they cannot relate and they don't have anything to add to the conversation.
Even in the rare case I find some friends who like classical music and will attend a concert or an opera performance with me, it is just another pleasant evening for them. "Yes, the music was nice. Now let's talk about something else."

Colleagues at work have gotten used to the fact that I am receiving packages of CDs all the time, but they were shocked to learn I own more than 80 discs of Shostakovich alone. The fact that I own more than one recording of any particular piece was clearly beyond their comprehension.

[Hollywood]

Thanks Hollywood, great to be here.  Are you really in Vienna?

Yes, I am really here in Vienna. I am originally from Los Angeles and I have been living in Austria now going on 20 years.