Which was your first CLASSICAL recording ? - and why ?
Posted by: uem on 17 September 2006
Dear Colleagues,
My apologies, if a similar thread existed before….
While rummaging through my “discharged record collection”, I came across this LP of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony…and I recognised it as the very first record I ever bought.
It’s with Herbert Von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Let me share the little anecdote behind this purchase, which happened in the mid to late sixties:
I heard “The 5Th” by the Dutch pop group Exception on radio and I actually was out to buy this “early cross-over version” of Beethoven’s Symphony.
I went to the classical music department of this record store and asked the sales assistant for “The 5Th” by Exception.
She looked at me rather sternly and advised me: “Look young lad, you are in the wrong department here, we don’t have such music, we only have the classic original – and no, we don’t sell the “The 5Th” by any pop group at all.
With mixed feelings, I went home with the “Original” instead ---and I was hooked on classical music ever since!
Fast forward to today ( .., as I was rummaging round my “discharged record collection”…!!)
I also found the “The 5Th” by Exception, which eventually I bought some time afterwards…it is still in reasonably good condition, as I probably hardly ever listened to it ! (I did again today – well, interesting stuff, sort of.)
Quite contrary to the old “5Th Original”, which was (over-) used very intensively over the years: I could barely remove the inner sleeve as it was stuck to the LP (I used to play my LP’s “wet”) and the record really looked horrible (well, I guess there was a reason, why it was in the “discharged LP pile”).
I should add, that over the years I have obtained at least half a dozen other records and CD’s of “The 5Th - the Original”
After an intensive triple wash I put the record on my turn table and I was met with pure musical revelation: A quality of music & recording which was only possible during the “high-days” of analogue recordings in late fifties and sixties (….when LPs were produced by musicians and - technical - artists and not managers and technocrats…..)
Needless to say that this very record has re-established it’s true place in the top-favourite position!
Which was YOUR first classical recording ? …and what story is behind ?
Regards
Urs
PS: My story goes back nearly 40 years....
Posted on: 17 September 2006 by Tam
I'm not sure I can remember which exactly was first but I suspect it may well have been my disc of Bernstein and the VPO playing Mozart's 40th and 41st symphonies. Even if this isn't the case, it has the virtue of having a good story behind it.
I first encountered the music via a James Bond film - the 40th features heavily in the beginning of the Living Daylights (Dalton's first outing in the role). Anyway, I was more than a little taken with it and asked my parents what the music was - fortunately they were able to identify it and lent me their recording (Mackerras and Prague Chamber Orchestra - so I can also thank it for introducing me to him).
A little while thereafter (the timeline is a little sketchy since this was over a decade ago) I can remember struggling with a particularly tough peice GCSE maths coursework when I remembered having read an article about Mozart boosting intelligence so I borrowed Mackerras again to put on while I was working). By the end of the CD I had sloved the problem that had been taxing me and I went on to get full marks. I decided to get my own CD and since Bernstein and the VPO had a rosette in the penguin guide I bought them.
Since then, I've always put the disc on before I've had to go to an exam (fortunately that's been a few years now!), but I'm still none the less very much attached to it (and Mackerras, whose complete cycle I now also own).
regards,
Tam
Posted on: 17 September 2006 by u5227470736789439
HMV Cat No: ASD 2251
Price: £2/1/0
Category: Orchestral, Symphonic.
Okay it was the Great C Major Symphony of Schubert as recorded by the Halle Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli. That was the record I asked for (as my first record) for my tenth birthday in 1971.
I did not ask for any specific performance, but HMV records in those days were regarded as the best, and they certainly even by then had the finest roster of artists, so it was a safe bet! The reason I can spout the above catalogue and price data is that I have the record in my lap right now, one of four surviving LPs from nearly a thousand in the early nineties!
The Great C Major was my first experience of classical music...
I still love it thirty five years on.
ATB from Fredrik
Posted on: 17 September 2006 by u5227470736789439
Dear friends,
I have moved, but still things are being organised, and I fetched my filing cabinet today from a barn it has been in for weeks. The bottom drw contains every card and letter I have ever received, among the meorabilia of half a lifetime, like the first half crown I earned for feeding cattle in about 1967! Yes I first earned half crown a week as a five year old for feeding the cattle before going to school. I kept one of them, but otherwise I gave them away to friends years later.
Cutting to the chase! I found the birthday card, which came with the Schubert mentioned above! I was ten in 1971, and in bording school. Actually it was a much nicer day than I would have had at home!
ATB from Fredrik
The card reads: "All the best for your birthday. I hope the enjoy the long Playing record. From Daddy! XXXX"
The thing is that we never got on at all!
Posted on: 21 September 2006 by Michael_B.
My first record was Boult conducting Beethoven's 4th. I'd been humming the Alegretto for weeks (not that I can remember where I;d heard it) and couldn't get it out of my head (aged around 6), so my mother bought me the record to play on her HMV gramophone. I really treasured it and treated it as if it was made of dust which could disintegrate at any moment...
Posted on: 22 September 2006 by JoeH
My first classical LP was a double LP on DG of Ferenc Friscay conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in Beethoven's 3rd and 5th symphonies, with the Egmont overture as a 'bonus' track.
Posted on: 23 September 2006 by Wolf
We had exposure to classical music around 3-6 grade then it went into musical theater after that. Singing in a chior. But those early years, Hall of the Mountin King, Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite were fun, but I remember hearing a version of Beethoven's 5th and boy was that exciting. I don't play my Karajan version much, but remember every time I've heard it in concert I'm always amazed at teh strength of this piece. Then comes Rite of Spring. Yowzer, Knock your socks off excitment for a young rocker. I didn't really start listening to classical till I was in my late 30s but sure do like it now.
Posted on: 23 September 2006 by Alexander
The first LP I ever bought was Helmut Walcha playing organ works of Bach. The second was ABBA's greatest hits VOL2 I think. Or was it Supertramp "Paris"?
Posted on: 25 September 2006 by uem
In the meantime I found out, that I own this very same record (Beethoven 5.th symphony by Karayan / BSO) in 3 or even 4 versions - always with a different cover by DGG or a subsidiary (?) some as individual LPs, some in the complete cycle
Urs
...but the "real first LP" still remains special
Posted on: 25 September 2006 by Big Brother
First Lp ever, Deep Purple's Made in Japan, which I bought for the cover of a ladies denim covered behind. $11.00 in 1974, one good song over four sides, what a waste.
First Classical Lp: Khachaturian's(sp?) Gayne Ballet Suite, Stanley Black cond. LSO, London Phase 4(remember those?). Heard bits of it in a movie. Don't own it anymore and don't care to,..Regards,..BB
Posted on: 25 September 2006 by Huwge
I was going to say that it was Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture, as this is the first LP I remember requesting specifically. On reflection, however, I have to conclude that this was not my first classical recording.
I am not sure which was first but it is a trinity of Walt Disney LPs - Fantasia, The Arabian Nights (Rimsky Korsakov) and Peter and the Wolf (Prokofiev). So, apart from a little Bach, Beethoven, Dukas and Ponchielli, I was quite a fan of the Russians from an early age.
Posted on: 25 September 2006 by Bruce Woodhouse
Holst: The Planets which I owned as a young teenager.
I could identify with the characters and moods of each piece. For years I would imagine the planets of our solar system with an internal soundtrack.
We did also have 'Peter and The Wolf-The Young Persons Guide To The Orchestra' which I thought was brilliant until my brother learned the recorder (well, learned to make it squawk) and played along with it. If I had children I would make sure they heard a copy without a doubt (and never buy them a recorder).
Posted on: 01 October 2006 by Big Brother
Sorry, don't mean to hijack the thread with my past memories, but I made an error. After seeing it mentioned in other threads, I realize this was my first album purchase, not 'Made in Japan'., BB
Posted on: 01 October 2006 by Ian G.
My first classical buy was Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik/Kajaran/BPO. No quirky story with this one - aged 21, a friend of mine played it to me and I decided I wanted it. Sorry.
Ian
Posted on: 01 October 2006 by u5227470736789439
Dear Ian,
Following on from the performances of Clara Haskil playing Mozart [and Beethoven with Artur Grumieaux], may I steer you towards the Edwin Fischer Plays Mozart Thread, as his playing is something that is unique, great, and hardly comparable with any other. He was really the man who pioneered the modern style of Mozart playing. I think you would enjoy these performances, discussed there...
Kindest regards from Fredrik
Posted on: 01 October 2006 by Ian G.
hi Fredrik,
Yes I've been following that thread with interest. I'm still playing catch up with a load of new CDs, including the 3 enjoyable Grumiaux/Beethoven discs. I'm a slow digester, especially of sonatas which tend not to immediately have an individual identity (to my untrained ear anyhow).
Ian (right now enjoying a young Russian on BBC4 making a good fist (IMHO) of Rachmaninov's lovely 2nd piano concerto)
Posted on: 01 October 2006 by Tam
Dear Ian,
If you have a moment, may I suggest you pop into HMV and pick up the Fischer box I mention there - £5 for the four discs you can't really go wrong (and can't miss them either - big boxes like an A4 sheet folded along its length - with the on sale cds in the classical section upstairs).
regards, Tam
Posted on: 01 October 2006 by u5227470736789439
Dear Ian,
The best place to start with those Sonatas of Beethoven is Disc Two, Track One! The first two Sonatas are the Spring and the Kreutzer. Both are highly individually cut works and immediately engaging! Then work gradually outwards, if you don't mind me offering that little bit of advice!
ATB from Fredrik
Posted on: 02 October 2006 by pe-zulu
My first classical discs many years ago were LPs.
1)Beethoven piano sonatas with Kempff (DG mono) and Gieseking (EMI).
2)Beethoven violinsonatas with Grumiaux and Haskil.
3)Bach Brandenburgs with Münchinger (1949 recording).
4)Bach WTC with Walcha.
Why? Because my surroundings (family, school mates and not the least my piano teacher) were very engaged in this music, and wanted to share their experience with me.
And I lived in Copenhagen in these years and had easy access to attend concerts and recitals by many of these great names (e.g. Walcha, Kempff, Fricsay, Münchinger), these experiences engaging me still more.
Regards,
