Classical music is an acquired taste. I have not quite recovered from the extraordinary experience of hearing a live performance of a 100-year-old concerto at the Royal Festival Hall last week, but I know that the notion that classical music can be as exhilarating in its own way as a Rolling Stones revival sounds off-beam to most of the population.
Here’s a great TED Talk by Benjamin Zander on “The transformative power of classical music”.
I, too, only really started taking an active interest in classical music in the past few years. I was lucky enough to be invited by a friend to catch some lunchtime concerts at my old Uni, and got hooked.
Notwithstanding my lack of musical training, I tentatively started putting together some “rough guides” to classical composers on one of my other blogs: