My mom introduced me to classical music at an early age. Her tastes ran toward the romantic—lots of Tchaikovsky and Chopin. That music is deep in my cells, even if it’s not entirely to my taste these days.
One vein of classical music that I enjoyed early and still love today is classical guitar . My mother’s father was an accomplished classical guitarist, and since he and my grandmother lived nearby, I heard him play Bach and many of the Spanish masters a lot. Andres Segovia was my grandfather’s idol, so we also listened to Segovia’s records over and over.
In my early teens I discovered Beethoven, who I still love. I was also exploring Norse mythology at the time, so I was drawn to Wagner’s Ring Cycle. These days I find his music ponderous and turgid, but at the time I was enamored of sheer scope of his romantic vision.
And then I discovered Bela Bartok’s Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet and Piano. It changed my world. Music that was both cerebral and emotional, without falling into sentiment. I loved the way the instruments interacted with each other, like a conversation between people with different voices and different ideas.
I next discovered his foreboding Concerto for Orchestra, still one of my favorite pieces of orchestral music.
P.
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