Do you like classical music?

[slow horse]

I never actively disliked it, but didn't seek it out nor have a high tolerance for much of it in one sitting. For whatever reason, early this year I put the car radio on Classic FM, and haven't moved the dial except to escape from commercials. I'm still part Philistine though, as I'm not yet at the stage where I'm remembering the names of much of what I'm hearing...

 

[ianrauk]

I'm quite happy to listen to some of the bombastic sounds of Tchaikovsky and the doom of Sibelius and Holst. But that's about it.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

For me, there's no type of music which can affect me in the way classical does. From uplifting warmth to gut wrenching pathos.

 

[vickster]

Yes very much. Classic FM is playing as we speak while I work
Indeed, I went to 3 classical concerts last week (unusual but I go to a few nowadays, cheaper and I find more enjoyable than pop/rock gigs these days!)
Last week;
Mozart Clarinet Concerto & mass at Cadogan Hall (a wonderful venue in London)
Classic FM Live at Royal Albert Hall
Mahler's 5th conducted by the peerless Marin Alsop at the Royal Festival Hall
Next up is Holst Planets/Gershwin at Cadogan in January unless something else takes my fancy in the meantime

I have always enjoyed it but I think I have started listening much more as it reminds me of my dad who passed away last year and was a lover of classical music

 

[Sharky]

I'm the same, not a fan of classical, but is my goto station on the car radio. I find it best for background music when I'm driving and has minimum of chatter between the tunes.

 

[presta]

Not really. When I've tried listening I've found that the only tuneful bit is the brief passage that's been used for a TV theme or an advert. I once bought Snowflakes Are Dancing by Isao Tomita, which is Debussy played on synthesisers, but I never listened to it much.

 

[a.twiddler]

Yes. Especially baroque but quite a variety of music, really. The question could just as easily have been, do you like popular music, as similarly, some I like, some passes me by, but the older I get, the more I appreciate some stuff that didn't do anything for me in former years.

I used to work with a chap who said he was "tone deaf". Nothing wrong with his hearing, but he said all music sounded the same to him. I often wonder how life would be without the capacity to enjoy music. There is music in everything. Would birdsong just be a noise? The wind in the trees? The sound of waves on a beach? Even the sound of machinery can be musical. Or maybe it's just me.

 

[Dirk]

I listen to classical music all the time.
I find it particularly soothing when in my man cave ( workshop).
I particularly like English and German composers.
Finzi and Wagner being my favourites.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I went through a phase in the early 2000s where I'd listen to classic FM on my way to work (45 minutes). I found that I liked Monteveri and most Baroque. There are some fantstic scores put to film which IMHO wouldn't come across anywhere near as good if they were pop records

 

[Chris S]

I never actively disliked it, but didn't seek it out nor have a high tolerance for much of it in one sitting. For whatever reason, early this year I put the car radio on Classic FM, and haven't moved the dial except to escape from commercials. I'm still part Philistine though, as I'm not yet at the stage where I'm remembering the names of much of what I'm hearing...

Classical music snobs won't listen to Classic FM because it's 'too dumbed down'!

 

[Drago]

Some, yes.

 

[Donger]

I'd describe myself as "classical curious". But not that curious. I like and recognise quite a lot when I hear it, but never get any right on University Challenge.

I can recommend those Raymond Gubbay "Classical Music Spectaculars" that do the rounds near Christmas. My wife and I have been to the one in Birmingham Symphony Hall several times and totally recommend it. It is like a mixture of Last Night of the Proms and a non-stop stream of the most popular passages of all the most famous, widely heard pieces. Classical music presented like those old K-Tel and Ronco compilation pop albums that came out before Christmas every year. I might only recognise them as "Cadbury's Fruit & Nut" or "Carling Black Label" but it is a really good format. Hit after hit, as it were. Any time you even feel the twinges of boredom there is also a laser display going on at the same time to keep you entertained. It always features a dramatic performance of the 1812 Overture .... the first couple of years featuring the muskets and cannons of the Moscow Militia and a load of indoor fireworks. As to dress code for the audience, anything goes. Some turn up in full evening wear, others in jeans. There is absolutely no feeling out of place.

 

[All uphill]

Classical music snobs won't listen to Classic FM because it's 'too dumbed down'!

That's me. I can't take the (to me) boring programme mixed into a top of the pops format.

I like a lot of 20th century serious music, and I've learnt not to expect anyone other than Ms AU to share the enjoyment.

 

[tyred]

For the past few years, I often listen to a classic music station and I do enjoy it.

However I have little idea as far as identifying what I'm listening to most of the time. I am definitely not a classical expert.

 

[geocycle]

Anything by Mozart, Pergolesi, Purcell. Some more recent music such as Elgar. Have occasionally been to the opera but aside from some stunning arias have never quite got it.