My first exposure was probably via my father who enjoyed listening to orchestral music, particularly Russian music I think although he enjoyed Brahms as well. One of his favourites was Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. A few years ago, I had the good fortune to see the ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, and had tears in my eyes remembering him. In grade school, I had the same teacher in Grades 6 and 8 who, once a week, had a Music Appreciation class. We would listen to a few selections from mostly what he called "light classical music", note them down and illustrate our thoughts in a notebook. At the end of the year there would be a contest as to who could identify a piece of music the quickest. (Ahem) I won both years and the prize was a classical recording of your choice. The first year I chose Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, but by grade 8, completely besotted by the Beatles, I picked Ravi Shankar (remember, it had to be claasical). I sort of ignored classical music for the next few decades, save for stuff like the movie Amadeus, but when then CDs appeared, I started collecting and listening to classical music again, as the noise-free backgrounds really enhanced the wide dynamic range. I should also mention my younger brother who really pursued musical studies and played a lot of classical music in the house as another influence. So now I listen and am familiar with a lot of classical music. I recently bought a new piano and am playing music again (it is a thrill to play Beethoven's Fur Elise). I still listen to all sorts of music including rock'n'roll and jazz, but classical is something special to me.
He also is or was Yuja Wang's make up artist. julesd68's post about Yuja's stylist made me think of him.
In high school in the 70s, I mainly listed to 60s and 70s light rock, British Invasion and what I've seen dubbed Yacht Rock on the forum. That and top 40 was pretty much all I was exposed to. When I went away to college in the late 70s, my exposure to music became much wider and I started exploring. I basically got into classical shortly after getting into prog rock. At first, it was mostly the orchestral blockbusters and low priced labels. When I dropped out of college, I had pretty much out grown the soft rock. The only interesting radio station I could pick up where I lived was a classical station so I started listening to it a lot. What really expanded my tastes beyond orchestral music was buying Paul Jacob's Debussy: Image et Estampes on a whim, I liked the cover. I'm not even sure if I knew who Debussy was at the time. The album blew me away and really what got me heavily into classical music. Half of my purchases and listening ever since has been classical music.
Now listening to CD 4 from "Martha Argerich Collection - Concertos" performed by Martha Argerich on DG. Liszt - Piano Concerto 1 with the London Symphony Orchestra led by Claudio Abbado Prokofiev - Piano Concerto 3 with the Berliner Philharmoniker led by Claudio Abbado Ravel - Concerto in G Major with the Berliner Philharmoniker led by Claudio Abbado
Recorded in Kingsway Hall, Jan. & Mar. 1952. Producer: John Culshaw. Engineer: Kenneth Wilkinson. The 2-LP set was issued on London in July 1952, the month after I was born. This highlights LP wasn't issued until 1957.
I have this original London LP edition from 1972, although it includes the "Poem of Fire" instead of the "Poem of Ecstasy." Very fine performance (and music)!
Yours was released 5/61. Recorded in the Concertgebouw, 2/22-23/61. Producer: Ray Minshull. Engineer: Kenneth Wilkinson. In this case they seem only to have recorded excerpts, not the whole ballet.
I have the vinyl and very fine it is too ... Personally I wouldn't want to go for the 50cd set - I really like to pick and choose individual performances of certain works. For me, Ashkenazy is sublime with Rach and Scriabin but wouldn't be an automatic first choice elsewhere as has been suggested.
I have found my two Penguin Guides absolutely indispensable for sourcing vinyl recommendations - they are just so reliable ... I'm not interested in paying silly money for the earliest releases and am also not interested much in digital recordings so I always find recordings from the 60's and 70's that suit me.
Now listening to "The Second Circle - Love Songs of Francesco Landini" by Anonymous 4 on Harmonia Mundi.
I'm *really* looking forward to March 12. Taking my son to see Janine Jansen tackle the Brahms at London's Barbican Centre. I managed to get a couple of the very last tickets available! He's a talented violinist (and pianist) so am hoping that he enjoys it and learns something about the art of performance and musicality - difficult for an 11 year old to learn. I think he should really enjoy 'Also sprach zarathustra' which is the evening's other entertainment - best served loud!
Going to the NSO Friday morning. Looking forward to it: National Symphony Orchestra: Brahms's Second Symphony / Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto
Working my way through the Furtwangler box. Never heard any of it before. First listen to CD 11 from Box 1 from "Furtwangler - The Legacy" on Membran. Von Weber - Der Freischutz (The Marksman) performed by the Chor der Wiener Staatsoper and the Wiener Philharmoniker. CAST (from Amazon): Max - Hans Hopf (tenor) Kaspar - Kurt Boehme (bass) Agathe - Elisabeth Gruemmer (soprano) Aennchen - Rita Streich (soprano) Samiel - Claus Clausen (speaker) Ottokar - Alfred Poel (baritone) Kuno - Oskar Czerwenka (bass) Hermit - Otto Edelmann (bass) Kilian - Karl Doench (baritone)
