Classical music

I love all music - it is my whole life! I have been privileged to sing some of the world's most wonderful music with some of the world's best conductors/choir trainers - lucky, lucky me.

I have a special love of 20th century English music and proffer this little gem; There is a Willow grows aslant a Brook by Frank Bridge:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A4IdQSEv08

My father was very musical - got a scholarship to the Royal College, but could not take it up as an income was needed from him. But he pursued his music as best he could, in the face of my mother's opposition - that is another story - and rather a sad one.

But his love of music transferred to me - I do not know what my life might have been without it; and one of my missions in life has been to try and pass this on by running community choirs and singing workshops for all-comers, especially those who were told the could not sing - they can!!

Unlike some of you, I was brought up (in the 1940s and 50s) almost entirely on classical music. It was mostly piano and records (78s!) of singers like Kathleen Ferrier and Isobel Baillie. I never took to pop/rock music. In fact I probably never heard any until I was about 12 - did it exist in 1952? In my later teens some girls at school liked Elvis, but I just found him unintentionally funny. My friends were the same. It was the norm to like classical, or ‘music’ as we called it. It’s so sad that it no longer is.

I have a lot of favourites, though not keen on modern classical.
I think my No.1 is Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto, especially the romantic theme near the end:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT_ZhhQeudY
For choral, Bach's my favourite, since singing in a choir in my teens.

Goodness, I wouldn’t know where to start! There’s just so MUCH classical music. I’ve sung all my life so I like good choral music, like Bach, Handel, Mozart or Benjamin Britten. For orchestral music I like Tchaikovsky and Mahler. Piano solo, Schubert and Chopin. I dislike corny composers like John Rutter or (especially) Karl Jenkins. I avoid Classic FM, and listen to Breakfast on Radio 3 which usually has a good selection of pieces.

I’m so pleased you liked the orchestral concerts you went to as a child. I actually found orchestral concerts rather boring at that age, but loved anything that was sung, and I loved ballet music. Still do.

I had a similar introduction to classical music as you did grannyactivist. I lived in a tough inner city area of Birmingham....think of bomb sites and back to back houses.
I came back to school for afternoon lessons after lunch at home and discovered that all the folding partitions, dividing the 4 classrooms of the junior school, had been pushed back to make one large room.
At the far end was a large group of musicians from the CBSO. Our school was about a 10 minute walk from Birmingham town hall the then home of the orchestra.
There followed an hour of music which just blew me away. I can still remember some of the pieces they played, it made such an impression on the little 8 year old me.?
Offenbach's Can Can being the the grand finale!
Coincidentally, the CBSO's current home, the Symphony Hall, now stands where my old school used to be.

In answer to your post, my favourites are a bit of a mixture. I like anything by Mozart or Beethoven. I love Spem in Alium by Tallis. I enjoy Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and Bruch's violin concerto number 1 brings a tear to the eye.
I could go on.....but won't! ??

I love a lot of classical music unfortunately I lack the knowledge to identify the pieces I really like, my mother took to listening to Classic FM in her latter years for that very purpose. I know I particularly love Pachelbel's Canon, Debussy's Clair de Lune and Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni. Other than that most of Puccini's arias. Loads by Bach, Tchaikovsky, Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart to name but a few.