The performance that popped your Classical cherry.

Posted by: Whizzkid on 10 April 2011

I mean the one that left you amazed, mesmerized, blown away etc... and started you on an interest in the Classics.



Mine was this....









I'd tried a few pieces previously to this but nothing really hit me, so as I like to persevere with things before I give up I bought a few more CD's which this performance was among. I played it one night not really thinking much about it and not reading the liner notes to understand the importance of the performance at the time, within the first movement I had stopped what I was doing and started listened to it properly, by the end I was absolutely blown away and that told me that Classical music would be part of my musical future and now have a small enjoyable collection that is expanding all be it slowly at present.



So what was yours and do you still appreciate it now?









Dean..
Posted on: 10 April 2011 by EJS

 

Dean, 

 

Pop the cherry?

 

One of the defining moments for me - Beethoven's three Op.31 sonatas played by Stephen Kovacevich. I knew Beethoven's sonatas from recordings by Kempff and others, and they never quite stirred me - until I heard this performance. It was the key to Beethoven for me, and it still is one of my favourite discs. 

 

Cheers,

 

EJ

 

 

Posted on: 11 April 2011 by Michael_B.

Adrian Boult's performance of the Allegretto in Beethoven's 7th Symphony. I heard it age of around 7 and it totally obsessed me...

Posted on: 11 April 2011 by Michael_B.
Originally Posted by Michael_B.:

Adrian Boult's performance of the Allegretto in Beethoven's 7th Symphony. I heard it age of around 7 and it totally obsessed me...

 

And I still love it, including the slow pace Boult takes, though I also appreciate other performances...

Posted on: 11 April 2011 by onip

I grew up listening to classical music as it was always on in the house, but what really turned me on to classical was the trumpet playing of Maurice Andre.  The album where he plays Hummel, Leopold Mozart, Telemann, and Vivaldi with Van Karajan and the Berlin Phil is amazing.  I had the original LP but it got messed up but they do have it available on remastered CD.  A lot of his material is still available and in used record shops you can find LPs on the Erato label or all of the recordings he did for the Musical Heritage Society. 

Posted on: 11 April 2011 by Sniper

Jussi Bjorling and Robert Merrill performing the famous duet for tenor and baritine from The Pearlfishers opera when I was 9 or thereabouts - profoundly beautiful and moving.

Posted on: 15 April 2011 by mikeeschman

Eugene Jochum and the Concertgebouw doing Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony.

Posted on: 19 April 2011 by mudwolf

Rite of Spring  should be at the top

Posted on: 20 April 2011 by JeremyB

My sister SusanB playing unaccompanied Bach at my Mum's funeral.

Posted on: 27 April 2011 by ken c
Originally Posted by onip:

I grew up listening to classical music as it was always on in the house, but what really turned me on to classical was the trumpet playing of Maurice Andre.  The album where he plays Hummel, Leopold Mozart, Telemann, and Vivaldi with Van Karajan and the Berlin Phil is amazing.  I had the original LP but it got messed up but they do have it available on remastered CD.  A lot of his material is still available and in used record shops you can find LPs on the Erato label or all of the recordings he did for the Musical Heritage Society. 

Another Maurice Andre fan? around 2000, i started learning to play trumpet and Maurice Andre is one trumpet player i listened to and tried to mimic a lot -- especially the Haydn trumpet Concerto in Eb and of course the Hummel Trumpet concerto in Eb as well. don't play much these days -- blame old age...

 

enjoy

ken

Posted on: 27 April 2011 by Skip

I was in college and it was the Bach Brandenburg Concerto piece in Slaughterhouse Five.  After that it was Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique, Hayden's Surprise and Beethoven's Eroica.  Then it was Gershwin's American in Paris.  Then it was Brecht's Threepenny Opera.  Then Zarathustra and Rite of Spring.  Then A Chorus Line and Ain't Misbehavin'.

 

My classical taste has never evolved from these.

Posted on: 28 April 2011 by JWM

My late Uncle Ronnie played me this when I was 3 or 4; the first record I ever heard:

 

When he died in 1998 I inherited his record collection of 1,000+ LPs.  Some simply too worn out with pleasure to be playable now, some having suffered an accident or two after an evening drink, and some simply not to my taste but passed on to charity shops.  I have retained about 700, added to my own collection of classical and other genres.  SWMBO wishes I would have a prune...

 

PS I like Maurice Andre as well!  Especially Purcell Trumpet Tune and Air with organ