Works that got you into classical?
 

Just curious what works got everyone into classical since, unless you've been raised around it, it's not the easiest of genres to get into.

For me, it's Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. That's probably still my favorite Symphony work. I also really like Tchaikovsky, and Copland. The familiarity of the latter's themes to be before listening played a big part in my recognizing and being able to appreciate his music from the getgo.

I've actually always been in to the intensity and raw emotion of orchestrated movie and video game scores so it wasn't a huge deal to jump into Classical. It helps that I had taken music all through high school and gained an appreciation for the traditional instruments (and played about 20 different arrangements of Canon).

The final push came from a course on Music History I took in university (Classical period to Modern day). We had to memorize about 30 pieces of music and then had listening tests. Getting to know the music so well that you can pick out the piece and movement at any point in the music will really do a number on anyone, provided they stick with it.

But in all honesty, and as cliche as it may be, Beethoven's Fifth. Mahler has some great numbers, Mozart and Papa Haydn as well. Holst, Wagner, Puccini, Liszt and many others.

I had to take 4 of those courses - Medieval/Renaissance, Baroque, Classical/Romantic, and 20th Century. So I know what having to recognize those pieces inside and out is all about :) Were you a music major? I see you're from Toronto, very cool, so maybe at U of T or York? RCM? Just curious.

I first got into classical music with Vivaldi. My dad has a recording of the Four Seasons on vinyl and he would play it occasionally. Taking music class throughout school introduced me to the most famous works of composers like Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Debussy, Wagner... all those guys. When I started music in university my knowledge of classical music and composers went so far beyond any of the more famous composers and pieces - as far as getting really into 20th century stuff, like Schoenberg, serialism, Cage, Crumb, Stockhausen, minimalists like Riley and Young, and now more post-minimalist stuff.

Nah, music is just my passion. I prefaced the course with a course on "Music from TV and Film." Now that was an interesting course. Started at Wagner and finished at today's film composers. I actually graduated with an Engineering degree. I've only been in T.O for two years now, as I went to school at McMaster.

It was a few pieces to start out with, mainly Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on Theme by Paganini and Holst's The Planets. I also took a music appreciation class in college which really turned out to be a rudimentary music theory class combined with a solid history of western music. I had long since been listening to "classical" music by that point, but that class really honed my critical listening skills, as well as added a lot of depth to my listening experience as a whole.

I go to Mac! Small, small world.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons, I suppose, Spring particularly

it was always played at receptions and functions that I could barely get it out of my head

so i got the other three seasons and fell in love with them

The Nutcracker was the first ballet I saw when I was a child, and since that I fell in love with it.

Beethoven.... his quartets and symphony's are amazing. He is my favorite musician.

Scarlatti. Definitely Scarlatti.

My art teacher used to play classical music all day long in our painting classes; a lot of Bach as I recall, but one day, he played something that really got to me and I am not sure of the name of it. Is there something called Antarctica or the Antarctic suite? Forgive my ignorance...

okay...

Ahan ! .....
 

Right !

been listening to a few of Bernstein's and Gershwin's orchestral suites lately

not bad, though i wish they inserted more jazzy flourishes, instead of the odd bit here and there

His tunes are awesome ! .....

OK, the Lone Ranger :) .... I guess that gives away my age.

It took me a while to start appreciating classical music - partly because I was dragged kicking and screaming (well almost!) to music lessons. But there was always music of some kind on television and also at school, so I suppose I just gradually fell in love with some classical music without realising it. thank goodness :)

Margaret

'Tabula Rasa' by Arvö Part was the work that got me into classical, and it's still one of my favourite works.

Nutcracker, 9th Symphony, Clockwork Orange soundtrack introduced me to the raw power of classical music, but sitting down and listening I was first taken by the works of Stockhausen, namely Kontakte and Hymnen

One of the first classical works that made an impression on me was a symphony by Shostakovich but I didn't take note of which symphony it was or who recorded it and frankly all those I have heard since have left me rather unmoved.

I've always listened to classical music here and there for as long as I can remember but what got me truly fascinated was a CD with a few of Chopin's piano works (most notably Scherzo No. 2 and 'Raindrops' Prelude) along with a playlist with almost all of his nocturnes that I would put on shuffle and listen to for hours in bed.

For me, it was either Holst's The Planets suite or Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Overall, Stravinsky's had a lot bigger of an influence on my classical tastes and predilections. I've definitely leaned more toward heavily dissonant 20th century works, and generally, those are also the works that influence my compositional style.

listening to a hell lot of Copland, lately

Personally, I got into classical music via first ELO, when they rearranged "In the hall of the Mountain King" by Greig on one of their albums, then through Holst's "The planets suite", which you couldn't avoid hearing really, with "Mars" being used for just about every dramatic show or scene possible.

Later I just sort of drifted towards other composers, mostly though compilations --- "The Great Composers", "Guide to Classical Music" and so on --- and so learned to love Liszt, Chopin, Debussy, the three Bs, Mozart, Thcaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and others, but my all time favourite would be Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 --- just love that piece, end to end.

wil be getting some Messiaen, Mussorgsky and Sibelius

this Saturday

I've listened to a lot of Beethoven which I adore. Currently I am looking to expand my tastes to both modern and older works.

Mostly Beethoven's music.

I'm gonna have to go with Howard Shore's soundtrack to Lord of the Rings. I still find it incredibly enchanting.
Also, I've taken a liking to Ravel and Debussy. I guess that's defined as impressionism?

Generally yes.

I just love classical music because it's calming your mind, and how the music could manipulate your feeling, it's just magical. The music is a supplement for the ear.:D

I was raised around classical music, and although I never got into classical music in general (I rarely listen to whole symphonies and I don't spend much of my music time listening to classical music), I loved playing some classical songs as a child. Playing the music gave me positive feelings about the genre.

Three of the songs that got me into classical are these:

Johannes Brahms - Waltz
I played a simpler version of this very pretty song on my violin when I was a child. I still enjoy listening to this more complicated version:


Johannes Brahms- Waltz - YouTube

* * *

Antonio Vivaldi - Violin Concerto in A Minor
(Itzhak Perlman - violin)


Itzhak Perlman-Violin Concerto in A minor,RV 356 Op 3 No 6 - YouTube

* * *

Brahms - Sonata no. 2 for Clarinet and Piano (1st movt.)


Brahms - Clarinet Sonata No. 2, Op. 120 (1/3) - YouTube

I kind of liked Arvo Pärt, but I'm still not really into classical all that much. I just remember liking some of his work.

No words can describe the greatness of this masterpiece. It was one of my first favorite classical works, and up to this day I still think that this is the best piece of music that was ever written.

Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu, Beethoven's Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata, definitely Niccolo Paganini's caprices and violin concerto's, Mozart's Requiem, and various works of Brahms...I like a lot of the romantics. Anyways, this is coincidentally my first post on this site...sooo....Hi everyone =)

Your post reminds me that Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" was one of the first pieces that drew my attention to classical music in a positive way.

I remember hearing my dad playing this piece on the piano when I was a child. I didn't like the sound of much of the classical music he listened to or played (so listening to classical music as a child doesn't automatically mean one will like it), but the somber emotion of the first movement of "Moonlight Sonata" appealed to me. Its mood was very different than the popular and folk songs I heard as a child.

"Moonlight Sonata" seems to be a popular intro to classical piece! Hi and welcome. :)

I never really understood why the Moonlight Sonata was so popular. The first two movements are rather boring in my opinion. The third, though, is joyously angsty.

My mother is a qualified piano teacher, so I've been raised with classical, though I only got interested after watching Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, especially the firebird suite in the second one.

When I was little, we used to have a large collection of classical compilations, each comprising works from one artist, which would be put on every now and again. Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Beethoven, Grieg, Handel (and a collection of various other baroque works), etc. It wasn’t until I got older and gave personal attention to those composers as well as discovering the works of Saëns, Sibelius, Wagner, Vivaldi, Prokofiev, and Brahms, that I developed a love of classical music.

But I suppose that’s what got me into classical; the classics.