Aldona,

LOL! Sorry our childhood reminicences rattled the rapture of your cultural experience. If this will in any way make up for our misdeeds, I would like to bring up what is quite possibly the grandest, most moving piece of music ever heard: Mozart's Requeim. As performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields orchestra and choir under the direction of Sir Neville Marinier, the instruments themselves seemed to cry out, mourn, rage, and weep with a true human voice that came from the depths of a most tortured soul that connected with the collective soul of humanity and spoke for it in the most eloquent of speech.

OK I spent Saturday night at a fund raising sacred concert at one of the local churches. The acoustics were suss and the backing tapes all too loud but apart from that not a bad night - and if 3 of the items were Sammy's son Victor on the cello, Victor's son Daniel singing a song and wound up with his wife singing 'Where noone stands alone' for the final item, that is OK.

I think that is somewhere between Sesame St and your opera Aldona

I love all kinds of music, from Byzantine Chant to the very latest electronic stuff, but I grew up in a home where classical music was taken seriously and played constantly, so I learned very early that

CLASSICAL MUSIC ROCKS!!! (in a manner of speaking...)

And I was very disappointed when I discovered (at school) that most kids knew nothing about it and thought it was for geeks and snobs! I thought it was just normal.

aldona

Do you know the way to San Jose. Ive been away so long, I can go wrong and lose my way......

Well, blow me down (as Popeye would always say...)

AMELIA!! Thats one of those songs that gets stuck in my head, and now it is stuck in my head.

Aldona--I was raised in a house in which my mom wouldn't allow us to listen to classical music! She hates it. Can't stand violins or any string instruments (I have to admit, I can not stand anything short of perfection with stringed instruments--it is sheer torture to listen to a beginner--worse than fingernails on a chalkboard!!!!!).

My dad loves classical and has a lovely selection of LPs which I was never allowed to listen to, even Julian Bream! (I mean, that's a bit too far--yeah, a guitar is stringed, but my goodness, it's not a violin!)

So I "discovered" classical music in high school when I started playing French horn. Wow! I remember the first time I heard Beethovan's Fifth symphony all the way through--I was blown away! Of course, being a brass player, I'm partial to brass music. My all time favorite symphony is Dvorak's 9th. I've heard it live several times and have at least 3 recordings (my DH has made me stop buying copies of it, as well as Mozart's Horn Concerti, of which I have about 5 copies--since I'm not a professional, I can't justify more than that--my horn teacher had more than that, but he justifies it to himself and his wife by saying it's research! ).

We took my parents to hear Canadian Brass when they were visiting us in the spring. They really enjoyed it (as did my boys, and of course my DH and I). Mom likes instruments other than strings!

I joke and say that my kids are going to grow up to love Country music because they "aren't allowed" to listen to it here.

M

You weren't ALLOWED to listen to classical music? That boggles the mind. Come to my place!!!



aldona

So far I've lost two complete toenails; and have had two new ones grow in their stead.

The human body is weird.

So, I'm downloading some Opeth, a Swedish death metal band... no matter how weird y'all are, I still think on this one I'm probably off the continuum...