Like most folks in my demographic, I can remember when Classical music went from a curiosity to an obsession. I can remember hanging around the classical section sheepishly wondering if any of these people I never heard of would be any good. I can remember the condescending suggestions from the music snob at Tower Records in Westwood, my favorite record store of the 80s. Hell I can even remember the speakers that they had hanging from the ceiling. They were DCM Time Windows. I can remember years later at the grand opening of the Virgin Superstore in Times Square when the guy in the classical section was just the opposite - younger than me and willing to bet I couldn't whistle a classical song that he couldn't identify from the first few notes.
He was right. And somehow that shamed me. But while I still had a dozen or so favorites, I really hadn't delved much deeper into the music until late 1999 when I happened to buy a stack of cheap CDs for the hell of it at Fry's in Santa Clara. They were the Millenium Collection and I finally started putting composers and styles and music together. Some of it was surprising and I fell in love with it instantly, others of were completely boring to me and odd at that, some of it grew on me and some of it impressed me tremendously but I never really listened to it again. A few, I'm trying to remember and will probably go back and find.
I had never heard the Death of Thibault before. It was Strauss that surprised me. My new favorite is Fruhlingsgruss. And it might surprise you, but that's all I have to say.
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