Back in 2014, we asked BBC Music Magazine readers to tell us about their own experiences of the pieces that first inspired them to listen to classical music. Here are some of the many responses we had.
The pieces that got you hooked on classical music
1. Rossini: William Tell
The overture from Rossini's William Tell is the ideal piece for introducing people to classical music. It is the ultimate programmatic music and if you explain to the listener what is going on, the whole thing can be visualised instantly - endless fun! Yiannis Katsaounis, Athens
2. Holst: The Planets
I remember sitting in the hall at school and the teacher put on 'Mars' from Holst's The Planets and I was immediately grabbed by the tension and building excitement. That began the exploration of a world of magic. Mike Jackson
3. Beethoven: Pastoral Symphony
As a young boy I was captivated by Beethoven's 'Egmont' Overture and the 'Pastoral' Symphony. The Egmont had a special meaning for me as a Flemish boy who learnt about the Spanish occupation during which the Duke of Alva had the counts of Egmont and Hoorn decapitated. The 'Pastoral' Symphony was something my Dad bought when we lived in Bujumbura, on the shores of the Tanganyika Lake in Africa. Luc Colpaert
4. Plainchant
The music that sticks in my memory is the beautiful and haunting plainchant we sang in my school choir some 65 years ago. Perhaps as church choirs diminish, there is a case for reviving plainchant as simple music to be sung in schools and churches. George Russel
5. Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
There were two compositions that inspired me to a love of classical music: Liszt’s Les Preludes and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, played by the great Van Cliburn. cdbloomerphd
6. Masses by Haydn, Gounod et al
When I went to study Economics at the University of Athens and joined the University Choir, my life changed. We sang classical music - often masses by Haydn, Gounod, Mozart and Fauré. A whole new world opened for me. Vassili Louziotis, Athens
7. Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
My youngest daughter asked me if I knew of a piece of music with a funny name by Rimsky-Korsakov. Her Turkish husband had heard it on his car radio and it reminded him of music from his home country. Guessing it to be Scheherazade, I played my BBC Music Magazine copy of it for her. Yes – that was it! I told her that this piece of music was responsible for fifty years of me being totally passionate about classical music. Terry Brace
8. Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
When I was six or seven years old, I discovered a portable record player at the back of a cupboard with two old 78s beside it. One completely captivated me and I played it endlessly – it was the original Paul Whiteman Orchestra playing Rhapsody in Blue with Gershwin himself on the piano. David Wilson, Isle of Lewis
9. Beethoven: Eroica Symphony
When I was around ten years old, the only classical music I heard was the Lone Ranger theme. Then one day my mum found three albums that she thought I might enjoy. I listened to Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and – my favourite – Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, the 'Eroica'. That is when I got hooked on classical music. Courtney Morrow, Connecticut
10. Dvořák: 'American' String Quartet
When I was eight, my parents took me to hear my violin teacher playing the 'American' String Quartet Op. 96, by Antonín Dvořák. It was hugely inspiring to me. Rod Fisher, Huntingdon
11. Brahms: Symphony No. 2
When my father bought me a tape recorder I recorded Brahms’s Second Symphony just to try it out. It was a thrill to hear – few finales are as exciting – and that encounter has led to my having practically all of his music on disc and digitally. Bernard Fields
12. Grieg: In the Hall of the Mountain King
I remember my mother opening our French windows so wide that, from our wind-up gramophone, the strains of Grieg's 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' could be heard in the garden where I was dancing on the lawn. I still love that piece – and I’m over seventy now! Norah Sinclair
13. Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture
When I was in primary school there used to be music playing each morning as we went into assembly. Two pieces were essential listening as far as I was concerned: the Trumpet Voluntary by Jeremiah Clarke and the Hebrides Overture by Felix Mendelssohn. Alan Green
14. Sibelius: Finlandia
I was moved and inspired to listen to classical music by two pieces. When I was nine I heard Sibelius’s Finlandia for the first time and, shortly afterwards, Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Coming, as I did, from a non-musical family it was by pure chance that I heard these two works and now, 70 years on, I am an avid listener and student of the keyboard. John Bird
15. Bizet: Carmen
When I was at junior school our headmaster played us Massenet’s ‘Meditation’ from Thaïs and Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals. When I became a teacher myself, I often played the 'Entry of the Toreadors' from Carmen. I always asked the children to tell me what they thought it was about and the most usual response was that it was circus music. Barbara Pickering
16. Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique
I grew up in a home where classical music was always playing. The were three pieces that made a big impression on me early on. First of all was the Fifth Symphony (the first movement in particular) by Vaughan Williams. Following that were Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (again, the first movement) and Berlioz’s epic Symphonie fantastique – I was thrilled by the depiction of a beheading in a piece of classical music! Ken Ogilvie, USA
17. Saint-Saëns: Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso
My father didn't have a large classical music collection, but it did include Saint-Saëns' Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso. This piece has so much energy that it is difficult not to be inspired by it. Felipe Mellado, Mexico