First Classical music you ever bought?

[alanbeeb]

The first piece of classical music I bought - as a 17-yr old in the mid 1980s, after watching John Boorman's "Excalibur" and trying to find some of the music in it. In pre-internet days before google, tracking down music was a hit-or-miss affair.

Took me about another 4 years to buy any more, as a poor student I scrimped and saved and worked hard over the Xmas holidays in a shop to buy a CD player and I had enough money left over to buy 3 discs:

The Bruckner was a total shot in the dark.... I had never heard any of his music, I liked the cover and I'd read he was influenced by Wagner.... 28 years later I have 81 Gigabytes of Bruckner on my music server.

 

[Joe Hutch]

The first classical LP I bought (aged 21 or so) was a double album of Beethoven's Third and Fifth Symphonies, with Ferenc Fricsay and the Berlin Philharmonic:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XKWP4WS/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

After that, lots of albums on Classics for Pleasure.

 

[Tony L]

As a early teen I was given a copy of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto 1 (Richter/BPO/Karajan). The first I actually bought myself in the early ‘80s would have been some Schoenberg, Berg & Webern, though I can’t remember which exact record as I bought a fair bit at the time. I had a girlfriend at the time who was a classical music student and got me interested this type of thing. I followed up with a lot of minimalist stuff, Reich, Glass, Reilly, Nyman etc and it is only really in the past fifteen or twenty years I’ve been really getting into ‘proper’ classical music starting with Bach and gradually making my way from both ends back to the middle. I still relate far more to small scale stuff than symphonies, operas etc and find myself more centred on chamber music and solo piano.

 

[lennyw]

Care of the Penguin Guide recommendation I bought Byron Janis playing Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos 2&3 (digesting the idea that there existed different versions of pieces and how different they could be meant that I invested in the Guide before the CDs, which was in the end a mixes blessing, though in this case, it really is an exceptional CD).

 

[Barrymagrec]

I think...Stravinsky Rite of Spring:- https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00005HW2N/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21 though on LP of course.

I was still at school when I first became interested in music and I recorded mostly off the radio, Friday nights hundred best tunes and that sort of thing, also there was a fair number of classical recordings in the house anyway. A lot of my early records were presents, only later did the buying thing really take off.

 

[Bob McC]

Music for Pleasure pressing of The Planets Suite.

 

[Dozey]

Handel Water Music - probably a 1960's MFP pressing. And some Strauss waltzes. I was 9.

 

[mercalia]

a Swan lake LP from a shop on a railway station some where, maybe London so long long time ago - got my dad to give an advance on pocket money to get it.

 

[Stunsworth]

Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Silvistri. I’d have been 13 or 14. We’d been played the piece in music class (made a change from playing the recorder), a couple of weeks later I saw the above recording in the local WH Smith’s and persuaded my parents to buy it. Not the sort of thing I listen to these days.

 

[ciderglider]

A box set of Debussy's orchestral works conducted by Bernard Haitink.

 

[JTWzen]

I can't remember the exact order but my choice was heavily influenced by the "2001 a Space Odyssey" and "A Clockwork Orange" soundtracks. So definitely a couple of Strausses and Beethoven and Rossini were in the mix. Also bought about the same time Holst's planets on CFP as mentioned by Bob McC above. Pretty soon after came Pictures at an Exhibition also on CFP, prompted by my liking ELP's version.

 

[eisenach]

Music for Pleasure pressing of The Planets Suite.

Mine was the Planets but on the "Hallmark" label.

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=330774869677

 

[Nic Robinson]

I think the first I bought with my own money was this set of Beethoven symphonies around 1975, probably with a mixture of birthday and Christmas money. I think it was £14:
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=173148809364
Still got it and I really enjoy the performances.

 

[cjyosemite]

I have not the faintest idea it was so long ago & cannot even remember when it was within a period of 10 years but I think it was in the mid/late 80's so it was about 30 years ago. However I do remember someone saying to me I would develop a liking for baroque which I doubted very much from what little I had heard at that time. However I was totally wrong as I love it now but my oldest recollection of really enjoying a particular genre was Verdi operas when my local hi-fi store had started selling a few CD's & to this day it is still my "go-to" music. I cannot name a favourite as every time I settle on a particular piece I change my mind shortly afterwards when I have listened to something else but it is probably one out of Don Carlos, Aida, Macbeth, Il Trovatore & Otello.

 

[lordsummit]

I think the first I bought with my own money was this set of Beethoven symphonies around 1975, probably with a mixture of birthday and Christmas money. I think it was £14:
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=173148809364
Still got it and I really enjoy the performances.

Strangely enough I think mine was this:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/382388950494

I’m sure I spent my first salary as a teenage organist on it from the Britannia Music Club!!

 

[Barrymagrec]

Strangely enough I think mine was this:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/382388950494

I’m sure I spent my first salary as a teenage organist on it from the Britannia Music Club!!

That was my opening offer from Brittania on CD - it put me off Karajan for some years.

 

[droodzilla]

Strangely enough I think mine was this:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/382388950494

I’m sure I spent my first salary as a teenage organist on it from the Britannia Music Club!!

I too lost my classical music virginity to Britannia Music Club.

I encountered Steve Reich and Arvo Part in my twenties but I didn't get into classical music properly until I was in my mid-thirties. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and Handel's Messiah drew me in but the first thing I remember spending my own money on was this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LMDUG5S/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

Courtesy of Britannia.

 

[Stunsworth]

I got the Solti box of Meistersinger from Britannia. For some reason they never invoiced me. Thanks.

 

[Rob998]

The Planets, Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsch Grammophon. CD. It's horribly bronzed now, I must try and play it to see if it still lives.

Also bought Carmina Burana, Blomstedt, San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, Decca. CD.

Both from Britannia. One of my many 1p purchases from them via various Nom De Plumes...

 

[Barrymagrec]

The Planets, Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsch Grammophon. CD. It's horribly bronzed now, I must try and play it to see if it still lives.

No great loss if it doesn`t, in my opinion, one of my least favourite recordings of The Planets, his earlier VPO recording is far better.