[FullRangeMan]

I personally think metal causes and/or aggravates brain damage (just KIDDING), but I grew up listening to rock, and, although it took years, I now enjoy some classical (I also was introduced to jazz fairly young, which I think helped.) In my early twenties, I decided I 'should' listen to classical because it was Important, but I was forcing it down my own throat and wasn't really ready for it. So I gave it up for a long long time. I came back to it in the last few years when I was finally ready to 'take it in'. Even now though, I gravitate towards the more modern stuff than the 'powdered wig era'. Frank Zappa once said he disliked the music of that era because it "reminds me of painting by numbers". I don't feel that strongly about it, but I do understand what he's saying- it's a little 'neat and tidy' for someone who grew up listening to blues guitar stranglers bending notes thru overdriven tube amps. So maybe that's what your friend was saying. Unlike HsvHeelFan, I do like some Bach though. Different strokes I guess.

I started listen music w/Ravel and CPE Bach that was the only kind of music avaliable at the local rather small public library, so after years I discover rock and roll and country, when I discover prog rock was a relief to listen Moody Blues and Tangerine Dream.

[steve in jersey]

I once heard someone say that if Beethoven were alive today, he'd be listening to the likes of Led Zep. The great composure's of classical music didn't have access to modern tech and electric instruments, but if they did, one has to wonder what they might have done.

I don't know if I'd agree with that ! That sounds like the perspective of someone who isn't that particularly "moved" by the artistic uniqueness of the musical genre .

I for one am absolutely,positively glad that Beethoven was artistically creative enough to explore music on a much deeper level than worrying about what music he felt he wasn't able to Orchestrate with the "limitations" of the acoustical instruments . I very rarely think of electrical instruments & Orchestrations in the same sentence.

For myself I think of Electronic Instrumentation as a step back in terms of available Musicality. I don't care for single voiced "Music"(That is a "Slave to Modern Technology, & as a result becomes nothing more than noisy wallpaper that I would never use)

[S Clark]

No doubt that composers from different times would take advantage of more musical sound options.  However, it's not like classic acoustic instruments lack in sound sophistication or variation.  Personally, I find electrically altered/amplified instruments to not be a nuanced as their non amplified/altered versions.
I suspect that Steve would agree that Jascha Heifetz never needed amplifications to fill an auditorium with sound. 

[Photon46]

If Beethoven were alive today, he wouldn't be the Beethoven we know from history. First of all, he likely wouldn't be lonely and angry because of deafness - modern medicine and technology would have probably helped him Seriously though, all artists are products of their times. No mater what discipline, an artist's creative talents are a blend of those that came before and those they live among.

[S Clark]

Obviously, every musician/composer is a child of their time and place.

However, the purpose of this little exercise was to get a sense of the number of classical listeners here at AC.  And although I know there are several that didn't respond, it looks like we can measure our number in dozens- perhaps scores.   

[Photon46]

Yes, classical listeners are not a growing subset of music lovers. So many things contribute to the situation. The world's accelerating pace of living is not conducive to the mental state one needs to appreciate the art form. Schools have generally given up on the arts and children who receive meaningful exposure to arts of any kind are the exception rather than the rule. STEM (science, technology, engineering, medicine) disciplines are the obsession of the education world and the legislators that fund schools. Teachers of the arts are fighting a losing battle for recognition as relevant disciplines. Wealthy individuals who value and endow museums, ballets, orchestras, theaters, etc. are growing fewer in number as the old signifiers of social status have changed. I often wonder how many orchestras will be left in the world in fifty years time. Far fewer I imagine. Our own local orchestra has radically changed its programming in the last few years as it attempts to woo younger audiences. Constant crossover shows; orchestral interpretations of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, shows with rock artists sharing the billing, etc. Time will tell if that's a winning strategy or not.

[AJinFLA]

I'm one. Lucky enough to live where I can see live almost any weekend. Also have local classical radio station, including in HD format

[THROWBACK]

Me too, AJ. Two classical radio stations, a first-class symphony orchestra (Colorado Springs Philharmonic), a near first-class chamber orchestra (Chamber Orchestra of the Springs), opera, and a wonderful Colorado College Summer Music Festival. The arts - - especially classical music -- are really flourishing here. We're very lucky. And, oh yes, I have a couple thousand classical LPs as well.

[ConfuciusSay]

Loved classical since I listened to Alexander Nevsky when I was a little kid with my brother who was a bass trombonist at Juilliard at the time - didn't get into opera until I studied music in Vienna for about 6 months (was a French horn player at Indiana university at the time). My tastes in recordings vary from the usual audiophile types like Living Stereo etc because I like more modern brass sections  my favorite composers are probably bruckner Mahler and Strauss   

[MTVhike]

I check it out occasionally but it's very quiet here, so I spend more time on classical music fora with greater activity. Probably 2/3 of my approximately 3.5TB of music is classical.

I didn't know there were any classical music fora (except for this one); can yo enlighten me?
My classical music life began when I got a 2-lp set of Beethoven's ninth, in 1948. I was living in Chicago at the time and fell in love with radio station WFMT. Still listen to them on line, now that I'm retired and in the boonies...

[jcsperson]

I likely heard it in the womb. My parents were classical listeners. I remember my dad buying a Grundig stereo and listening to the Firebird. My mom liked Brahms and Liszt. My dad liked Copland and Tchaikovsky, but also Gershwin and Ellington.

[Craig B]

I love classical music. I started exploring it on my own as a teenager in the late '60s only to find I was already familiar with many pieces and themes from childhood exposure in Warner cartoons, TV commercials, young-peoples' concerts, and 5 years in grade school band (back then I'd had no idea "Hymn of All Nations" was from Finlandia).

Throughout my 45 years of adulthood, I'd say it has made up about 60-70% of my everyday listening. I feel fortunate that where I've lived for the last 30 years (Indianapolis), we have a full-time professional symphony orchestra that ranks among the top of the country's second-tier ensembles.

[sounddog]

I had the great good fortune to fall in love with (and marry) a classical pianist when we were both in graduate school. So I have learned to also love classical music and it’s probably 90% of the music I listen to.

[DrJ-10]

Yes, I love "classical" music, though I tend more to the romantics.

Recently I have been listening to the Liszt piano transcriptions of Beethoven's symphonies. As a whole they are amazingly well done, and I've learned subtleties about the symphonies that I had not heard before.

I think the Eroica (number 3) works the best, but then it is my favorite Beethoven symphony so perhaps that's not a surprise.

Here we joke that MrsJ and I have a mixed marriage.  She grew up hearing the Grand Ole Opry, and I grew up listening to Italian opera.

[Mike-48]

I grew up with Classical music (in the broad sense) and enjoy it still. I try to widen my knowledge of it a little with each passing month and year, but I'll never have heard everything, not in 10 lifetimes! I realized last week I'd never heard the Brahms Requiem, so I spent some time with that, via Qobuz.

Currently, my library includes 2650 CDs worth of releases (ripped from disc or downloaded) in the classical area, plus the Qobuz subscription.

@DrJ-10: Musically, it seems I'd get along with both you and Mrs J. Besides classical music and jazz, I'm also fond of acoustic country music -- more the traditional Doc Watson etc. type than the commercial Nashville type, but I do enjoy a lot of both. I suppose Mrs J knows about the young phenom, Billy Strings?

I would recommend Anthony Tommasini's book The Indispensable Composers to anyone who shares our interest.

[simoon]

I am a huge fan of classical, but almost exclusively of classical from after about 1920 to the present era. And even more exclusively, music composed after about 1950.

It seems as if I lost all interest in tonal music, beginning about a year ago. I am not exactly happy about this situation, since a large part of my music collection does not interest me any longer.

But on the upside, there seems no end to great composers and pieces for me to discover.

Elliott Carter, Magnus Lindberg, Thomas Ades, Joan Tower, Joseph Schwantner, Eduard Gerhard, Ernst Krenek, Harrison Birtwistle, Agusta Read Thomas... the list of great living and contemporary composers is almost endless.  And of course, Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern.

My listening habits are something like this: about 35% classical, about 35% progressive music, and about 30% jazz.

All of the above genres (and various subgenres of each), all have similar attributes. They are all: complex, have a very high level of musicianship, have broad range of emotional content, (usually) long form pieces.

[Jeff_From_Michigan]

Another huge classical fan here. I love listening to public radio classical programming while driving, and Qobuz both in the car and at home. A good on-air DJ is and always has been my favorite way of discovering new music, but I gotta say that the convenience of Qobuz is challenging that a bit.

I stumbled onto 2L’s Test Bench a few years ago, which got me real interested in hi-res recordings.  It was the first time that I was able to experience the difference for free, and I’ve been working my way through their catalog ever since.

[S Clark]

It's so encouraging to see the recent renewal of interest in this thread.  Romantic, Atonal, Baroque, etc. all have their fans and their ability to take us to places of enjoyment.   

[Randy]

I am a huge fan of classical, but almost exclusively of classical from after about 1920 to the present era. And even more exclusively, music composed after about 1950.

It seems as if I lost all interest in tonal music, beginning about a year ago. I am not exactly happy about this situation, since a large part of my music collection does not interest me any longer.

But on the upside, there seems no end to great composers and pieces for me to discover.

Elliott Carter, Magnus Lindberg, Thomas Ades, Joan Tower, Joseph Schwantner, Eduard Gerhard, Ernst Krenek, Harrison Birtwistle, Agusta Read Thomas... the list of great living and contemporary composers is almost endless.  And of course, Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern.

My listening habits are something like this: about 35% classical, about 35% progressive music, and about 30% jazz.

All of the above genres (and various subgenres of each), all have similar attributes. They are all: complex, have a very high level of musicianship, have broad range of emotional content, (usually) long form pieces.

Me too. Are you familiar with the releases on this label?  https://www.bmop.org/  Great recordings of modern music, released as SACDs no less.