Sometimes I need to go back to the beginning of my classical music roots. I had heard a lot of classical music as a kid, thanks to my parents’ music-listening habits and my sister’s piano lessons, and then later my horn, trumpet, and piano lessons; my initial love of movie music also primed the classical pump for me. But when did I really start to turn the corner toward classical music? I’m not entirely sure when I’d date that, but 1984’s Amadeus has to be a big signpost on that early stretch of road. I didn’t get parts of the movie, but much of it was utterly spellbinding to me, and of course…there was the music.
Here is the overture to The Magic Flute, which would a few years later become the first opera I ever saw, and has remained a favorite of mine ever since. Mozart sets the stage in just six minutes here. Amazing!
