I originally wrote this 11/26/18 but as I mentioned, blogging wasn’t in my wheelhouse then.

Author’s Note – Finding the exact playlist for the very first classical cassette I owned (we’re talking early 80’s here) required an epic slog through the Internet tall weeds, but I found it, once again proving, with enough time on your hands you can find just about anything online

As a musician, I love all types of music, but my favorite is classical and my first love among composers was Mozart. I started playing piano when I was 6, and shortly thereafter, my mother gave me my first classical music tape. It was “The Best of Mozart” and was recorded in 1971 by the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London, led by Erich Leinsdorf (of course you need an Austrian composer to pay proper homage to Wolfie). The playlist was as follows:

1. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
2. Symphony #40 in G Minor – 1st Movement
3. Sonata in A Minor – 1st Movement
4. Serenade #4 in D Major – Andante
5. Symphony #41 in C Major – 1st Movement (the “Jupiter”)
6. Concerto #21 in C Major For Piano and Orchestra – 2nd Movement
7. Piano Concerto #9 in E-Flat Major – 3rd Movement (my favorite piece!)

The performer of the  E-Flat concerto was a Chinese virtuoso named Fu T’Song and as a child, I marveled at how his fingers flew over the keys as he played.  Years later, I tried to play a few bars of the piece, just to see if I could. I couldn’t. I still have that tape, though it stopped working long ago, and I keep it as a reminder of the gift my mother gave me when she introduced me to music and the piano.