Mine was the Minuet of Boccherini, back in the 60s. At that time, B was pretty much a one-hit wonder because nothing else by him was ever played. I could not believe that such a fine tune was a mere accident, and was sure that B must have written other things worth listening. I was right, of course: Boccherini is now regarded as one of the 9 Bs, alongside JS Bach, Bartok, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Britten, Bruckner and Byrd.
shareFor me it's gotta be the 10 B's, because I love me some Borodin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
People, people! Let’s go back thayuh—the snare drummah covered up the tra-la-las!
Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. I used to have it on cassette and there was a stage when I was about 9 when I listened to it every night. It was the same with Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Beethoven's 5th Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture too. I have loved classical music ever since.
"Life after death is as improbable as sex after marriage"- Madeline Kahn(CLUE, 1985)
probably one of the classical music tunes they used in "Looney Tunes", like Rossini's "Barber of Seville" or Offenbach's "Can Can"
The Star Wars "prequels": the story of Assakin ****kicker and Badme Imahorriblemother.
My mother had vinyl recordings of Holst's "The Planets" suite and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" which I listened to quite a lot from the age of about 9 or 10 back in the 80s and loved. One of the reasons I loved these 2 was that I was into space, Star Wars and Sinbad movies when I was a kid!
In 1991, I was bought a VHS copy of "Fantasia" as a Christmas present and it made a big impression on me.
Then in the the early 90s, I started collecting fortnightly CDs in the "Classical Collection" and through this started getting into Beethoven's symphonies etc. Since then I have never looked back!
Blasphemy: It's a victimless crime
Fantasia really was my introduction, watching it on a 1980 re-release (and re-re-rewatching). Shortly after, my parents bought the record soundtrack, which came on 3 (!) vinyl records and a gorgeous 12" booklet with a full-color painting for each piece as well as an explanation. That sparked my interest in animation and especially music as an art form.
The other classical piece I listened to most: Dvorak's New World Symphony.
Forgot to mention in my earlier post about Borodin: one of his pieces--"Polovetsian Dances"--was one of my earliest introductions to classical music. I was probably around three years old.
Another, when I was about four, was Stravinsky's Petrouchka (just the suite--I didn't hear the entire ballet until I was a teenager). When I listened to Petrouchka, I used to imagine scenes somewhat like those in The Rite of Spring, so I must have seen Fantasia before then. (Although maybe I envisioned dinosaurs simply because I was crazy about the critters! ) Further evidence of early Fantasia exposure: I remember listening to "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and imagining Mickey in his "borrowed" sorcerer's chapeau.
Getting back to Petrouchka: I was so hooked on that piece that I would wander around the house da-da-da-ing the main theme from the final section of the suite--which got some attention because apparently people didn't expect a quotation from Stravinsky to come out of the mouth of a four-year-old. I actually got some requests for my distinctive da-da-da-ing.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Remember, kids—be like Billy: Behave yourself!