So, you want to explore classical music? The first question must be: where to start? The most obvious fact about classical music is that it’s absolutely huge. It stretches back at least 500 years, and over the past century has roamed away from its ancestral homeland in Europe to embrace the whole world.

A medieval song about courtly love; a Beethoven symphony; a brand-new piece for a children’s choir; and electronics all come under the heading of ‘classical music’.

Try to swallow all that whole and you’ll end up feeling disorientated and more than a little sick. You need to find the parts that speak to you personally. It may be that Russian music fires you up, or the calm beauty of Renaissance music, or the adventurous, strange sounds of living composers. When you make the discovery it will feel like fate, as if the music was just waiting for you to come along. Full story.

Ivan Hewett (The Telegraph) / 9 June, 2016

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