V/A, Beethoven (?)
This giant box-set of Beethoven on vinyl has been with me for about 20 years now…I started listening to classical music at the end of my high-school years, I was convinced it might help me with study. It didn’t. But I did get hooked onto all those key composers: the big names – just via very crude, but helpful compilations. On tape. “Beethoven’s Greatest Hits”. And Mozart and Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi. That was the starting point for me. I mean I knew plenty of themes from their use on TV ads and in movies but I had never studied it at all and it wasn’t big on the home stereo. Mum and dad played blues and jazz and rock. So I taught myself some appreciation of classical, at university I read a few books, collected up a few more compilations and one or two (again: obvious) works – Brandenburg Concertos, for example. Then when I got my first record store job I bought a boxset of Beethoven CDs; all the symphonies. I still have it. Still play it – often. And this vinyl boxset is kinda the LP equivalent. There’s really no information though, no idea when it was made (my guess would be the 70s…) There are so many of these types of boxsets, you don’t quite know what you’re getting. I still play this – chuck on one of the LPs when I’m reading, or cooking. That sort of thing…

Sample Track: [Mass in D Major, Op. 123: ‘Missa Solemnis’]