my journey into western classical music started when i picked up a slightly scratched LP of Brahms (i forget the work) from a pawn shop in mirza ghalib street (erstwhile free school street).
then it went through the usual johan strauss jr's waltzes (my favorite is not 'blue danube' but 'tales from the vienna wood'), and vivaldi's 'fours seasons', both of which I liked.
i loved (and still do) brahms's 'die ungerishe tanze' - the hungarian dances. i love his short pieces. havent heard enough of his symphonies though.
and of course johan sebastian bach. who can forget the prolific master?!! i have two cassettes of bach - the second one is the deservedly famous brandenburg concertos. the first one, which made me fall in love with him is the "Violin Concertos Nos. 1-2, BWV 1041-1042; Concerto for Two Violins, BWV 1043". Unfortunately, with the impending arrival of the new system that was delivered yesterday, I had parted with my Sony cassettes player.
before joining XLRI, when i was being given farewell from my job in Siemens, i had my friend jayanta banerjee as a company, as he was also leaving for IIM-B. we were asked what would we want as our farewell gift. jayanta, very practically, asked for a mid-sized VIP hard top suitcase and some stationery. i just asked for a six casette western music collection of EMI/ HMV :-) Predictably, Jayanta has done well for himself in later life :)
the first day after my release from Siemens, a job I had started to hate, i woke up very early in the morning, exhillerated by the release from bondage, and went to the terrace of our suburban home. it was early summer, and there was a storm in the air. and in my ear was a Sony Walkman, playing Haydn's cello concerto. I can still smell that air in my nostrils. I should have understood that day that the journey I was to start was not mine to take. But I did not. Haydn stayed with me. A couple of years back, one of my juniors gave me another EMI collection, this time in CD, which had one of Haydn. and it is this CD I was taking to try out all the systems.
I havent yet mentione the 2 stalwarts yet!! Well Mozart is impossible to ignore and I love his concertos. I had his Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra, probably conducted by the superb Karajan, and it was awesome. His talent and ouvre is unmatchable. Mozart's, that is. So is Karazan's.
I have listened to all of Beethoven's 9 symphonies. But then I am not a symphnoy person. I like lots of movements within. But neither am i trained nor do i have the patience to pay such prolonged attention and understand the 'motivic development' or such other things. i need to discover him.
i love chopin as well, and some stuff i have heard by dvorak, berliotz, mendelsson.
i like strings, but not so much paganini, whose 'caprices' i have in cassette. i love the bass of cello.
and i like piano. need to get some good reco on jazz piano as well.
my god!! seems like i have just had a "cathertic outpouring in D minor" early on a friday morning.
