What was your first orchestra/symphony piece?

[Shosty's Girl]

Because, after Holst's Planets, mine was what's playing now! Sibelius' "Valse triste op. 44"

[Trumpetmaster]

Welcome to the BBB Shosty's Girl!

The very first Orchestra was a community orchestra in NYC
and the first symphonic work was Shubert's Unfinished Symphony....

[Shapley]

Hello, Shosty's girl.

Welcome to teh B.com BB!

V/R
Shapley

[jamiebk]

I was never in an orchestra, but I was in a mrching band (played the coronet)...my first piece was "The Star March". A really lame piece of music that I had to fake my way through due to lack of talent/ability on my part.

[welcid]

My very first orchestral piece which knocked by musical socks off was....ready for this.... BOLERO! I have no idea what orchestra first got my attention, but whatever it was, it was conducted by Stokowski.

[jamiebk]

Welcid...Selma would be VERY proud of you!

[dai bread]

LvB # 1 & 8. Ernest Ansermet & the Swiss Romande Orchestra. I've still got the disc & it still plays, though not very well any more.

[EricP]

I have absolutely no memory of my first true symphony, but I have a vague recollection of an elementary school field trip to see the Cleveland Orchestra doing something at Severence Hall.

[dai bread]

If we go back a bit, I recall a music appreciation class broadcast to schools courtesy of whatever Radio NZ was called in those days. The richness of the orchestral sound just hooked me, and I've never changed my opinion. It was in primary school, around what Americans would call 3rd grade, I think. Assuming I have my grades figured correctly at one a year starting with #1.

I've no idea what the piece was. All I know is it sounded terrific.

[Giant Communist Robot]

but I have a vague recollection of an elementary school field trip to see the Cleveland Orchestra

Wow! One of my favorites, especially when hooked up with Riccardo Muti.

[thebassplayer]

Let's see my 1st orchestra piece was Brahms' Symphony #2, then the next year it was 1812 overture, then Capriccio Italien and Fidelio Overture. This year it's the Grand Canyon Suite.

[1st_oboe]

I've played far too much orchestral repertiore to remember the first... My first major college orchestra piece was Beethoven #6. I played the string bass part on tuba as a high school junior due to lack of basses in the local college orchestra (Just imagine... The Storm on tuba! Pedal 16th notes all over the place.) Early the next season, I was featured as the elephant in Carnival of the Animals... again, on tuba due to lack of basses. (I think tubas are much more elephant-ish anyway.)

Now about 7 years and 5 or so different orchestras have came and gone for me, so there's a lot of great repertoire under my belt, on many different instruments. Hoping for many many more years too!

[shostakovich]

In days of yore, when I was a kid in the 78RPM era, the family had a few records: William Tell Overture, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Roumanian Rhapsody #1, Bolero, La Cumparsita, and The Peanut Vendor. The last 2 are marginally classical, but I didn't distinguish when I was 8.
Shos

[dai bread]

I've lately re-discovered my old 45s, and put them on CD. Despite my rude thoughts about Vista, it comes with a sound recorder that works well, and the computer has a good audio manager. (I'm not sure who put it there- Microsoft or the computer maker.)

Almost all were bought in 1961, and as they haven't been played for something like 30 years, they're still in good order. They contain some gems- Joan Sutherland in the "Mad Scene", Beniamino Gigli, Jussi Bjorling (in a couple of florid light-weight numbers), and Arturo Toscanini are just some of them. The disc I made plays in my DVD player attached to the TV, but it shows up the TV sound dreadfully. Now I have to get a Home Theatre.

Funnily enough, it won't play in my neighbour's different system. Mine's an off-the-shelf standard Panasonic, but his is some swept-up European thing I've never heard of. It's older than mine, which may be the trouble.

[Schmeelkie]

Can't remember, but my parents used to play a set of records, Bach's Greatest Hits - heavy on the Brandenberg - every Sunday morning. Handel's Messiah every Christmas and Easter. Know they had Beethoven's 5th and 9th, Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, Shastakovich, Berstein, Copland and probably more. Dad would play some on Sunday afternoons when we were home, and always had the local classical station on in his car and at work (car repair shop). Remember hearing a version of Beethoven's 5th called like a baseball game on the radio once - funny!

[barfle]

Remember hearing a version of Beethoven's 5th called like a baseball game on the radio once - funny!

That's P.D.Q. Bach - not sure the track name, though.

[Shapley]

It's called New Horizons in Music Appreciation.

[Schmeelkie]

Thanks guys! Will have to look that up! maybe a good b'day present for dad.