Background - Why am I doing this?

I love Rock and Roll.  Put another dime in the jukebox, ba...

Ahem. 

Where was I?  Oh yes, an explanation.  I grew up in the 80's listening to and loving Huey Lewis, the Bangles, B-52s, Michael Jackson, etc.  Still have a ton of that on my iPod.  In fact, I remember the first song that turned me on to Rock and Roll: Make me Lose Control by Eric Carmen.  What a great song. 

OK, perhaps an exaggeration.  A very good song, nonetheless. 

I also remember transitioning to Pearl Jam the first time I heard "Jeremy", and being more reticent, but eventually falling in love with Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden in the 90's.  

But as you can probably tell, this is a blog about Classical Music. 

Why am I doing this?  I am learning to love classical music.  Slowly.  But surely.  I watched the movie Shine with Geoffrey Rush a couple of months ago and was incredibly moved by the music.  It was breathtaking.  I was truly taken aback. 

My father played trombone in high school and has always enjoyed classical music.  After I watched the movie, I called and ask for a Christmas/birthday present: a Classical Music CD collection.  I knew he would have fun putting it together, doing the research to find the best recordings and such.  He enjoys little else more than listening to his record player with headphones on to Beethoven, Mozart, etc.  I figured this could be a nice bonding experience for us both, and broaden my horizons. 

I was right.  It took me half a day to digitize everything to my laptop and move it to my iPad and iPod, but it was well worth it.  I can now sprinkle in some incredible music while at work and doing other things throughout the day. 

So that tells you why I am beginning to listen to more Classical Music.  Why this blog? 

Lotsa different reasons.  But in conversations with some people, I heard over and over, "Oh, I wish I knew more about Classical Music, which composers are best, what to listen to, etc".  A cursory google search reveals there are MANY sites devoted to aficionados, but maybe not as many to us noobs.  So why not enjoy the journey with me as I listen to, appreciate, and digest over 25 Classical Music CDs? 

As we go on, I have a feeling I will be purchasing better stereo equipment and headphones to truly appreciate this.  I also welcome suggestions and recommendations from anyone who happens upon this blog.  If you have something you think I should listen to, by all means, recommend away!

Those of you like me who are not well versed in this kind of music, maybe this will encourage you to branch out.  And those of you who are CMS (Classical Music Snobs), well, I'd love to hear from you too, just try not to laugh at me too much.  I really don't know what I'm talking about, this will be about what I enjoy and why. 

So there.

My goal is to post 3-4 times a week, sometimes reviewing an entire CD, other times just one symphony or movement.  I will try to link to amazon.com as a reference so you can get a better idea of what I am listening to. 

Enjoy!