How did you get into classical?

[m10]

What a great thread... on the shrieking sopranos thing: most sopranos (certainly most who get to make records don't actually shriek) but I think it can be an acquired taste - rather like whisky. First go may seem unpleasant, but keep going and you educate your palette. When you listen to a Joan Sutherland, say, and hear the support, the technique, the agility and the sheer beauty of the sound it's quite breathtaking IMHO. Similar, but different is the likes of Birgit Nilsson (steely heroism), Jessye Norman (regal dignity), Kiri Te Kanawa (alluring beauty), Leontyne Price (smoky sensuality) and so on.

My intro to classical was more basic - I remember being played The Planets at school and thinking it was fun, and being engaged by the titles of the pieces and how that related to the character of the music. At 18, owning my first CD player I went and bought The Planets on CD. I remember the local WH Smith had the Levine and Karajan (both on DG). The Levine would probably have had better sound, but for some reason "Berliner Philhrmoniker - Herbert Von Karajan" grabbed my attention. To be fair, apart from a little ferocity in the strings it is an incredible recording. Peer Gynt came next, I think with my first Mozart and Beethoven soon after.

I really don't know what turned me on to opera, but a compulsion had bitten. Tosca with Kiri Te kanawa and La Traviata with Joan Sutherland were my gateways into that world (after dabbling with CDs by Kiri, Jessye Norman and Joan).

My local record store of the time used to get the printed Decca, Philips, EMI and DG catalogues and they kind of opened the door in a big way for me too - allowing me in pre-WWW days to get a feel for the repertoire and artists. September 1991 was my first Gramophone magazine which I read solid for fifteen years!

[MartinT]

I remember being played The Planets at school and thinking it was fun

Snap - I have my (I guess long departed) primary school teacher to thank for that.

[Gromit]

There was a certain inevitability to my getting 'into' classical music. I was brought up with music from a few days after I was born with my father being heavily involved with the music at our church. By the age of 5 I could read musical notation and it was at this point that I would learn to play my first instrument. My dad was a fairly competent brass player (he taught me to read music anyway) so I picked up a Cornet and began making dreadful noises through it.

Dad always had orchestral music playing through his hifi, and it fascinated me - even at bedtime I would go to sleep to the sound of classical music from downstairs which is probably why I still have such an emotional, even spiritual attachment to it which runs incredibly deep. At age 6 we had a placement teacher at our primary school who played the Clarinet and she would bring it into lessons and use it as a teaching aid. I was transfixed by it and pleaded my parents to let me learn to play it. 2 years later I took up the Piano but never had much talent for keyboard playing, sadly.

As years went by I progressed into school orchestras/county youth orchestra then playing with such groups as the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra and then onto playing professionally. To not only listen to, but take part in the performance of classical music could therefore be said permeate into almost every aspect of my life. Bottom line though is that I feel extremely privileged.

[MartinT]

You were lucky, Richard. My parents were very non-musical and I ended up listening to a lot of classical on the Dansette via headphones, lost in my own world. However, my Dad bought a lot of Readers Digest classical collections - goodness knows why, as he never listened to any of it.

[Jimbo]

My father was a jazz and classical clarinet player who practised daily at home so it was in my audible background probably even before I was born. I cannot remember a time therefore when I actually got into classical music, it was always there and I just accepted thats how it was. For me it is more of a question about when I got into other music rather than classical

[Gromit]

You were lucky, Richard.

Absolutely, Martin and rarely a day goes by when I don't consider myself very blessed (if that's the right word?) to have been brought up in such an environment. To see my kids grow with strong leanings/interest in music is a joy too - our eldest has tried a few instruments (Clarinet, Violin, Piano) but settled on Flute and just oozes natural ability, she really has found 'her' instrument. She took it up in mid-October and has her Grade II ABRSM exam in 2 weeks and she'll walk it - I'm accompanying her for the exam on Piano and I will be so proud. Our youngest (now 3) can sing back simple pitch-perfect phrases I play to her on the Piano. Makes want to cry I'm so proud.

[MartinT]

My son took to electric guitar and plays it very well (he spent two years on the road); it substitutes for my lack of musical prowess.