My Music Listening Drastically Switches to Classical

Although the late Polish classical music composer Henryk Górecki usually doesn't make anyone's list for the greatest composers of all time, it comes down to the fact that it was he who sparked an epic change in my musical preferences over the past few weeks.  Although I liked to listen casually to classical music on my drives to and from work, when my local classical radio station on 102.7 played the second movement of Górecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs I realized that I had been letting musical treasures slip by me unnoticed.  Coupled with the doleful shape of things in the alternative rock genre of late, I drastically switched my listening to classical music.  A few weeks ago I listed my top thirty favorite classical music pieces...since then the list would need a bit of revision as I keep hearing more and more incredible music.  But although I can listen to this music easily on the radio, I've found myself wanting to hear the most highly regarded pieces from the most beloved and respected composers.  To this end I found a website that lists forty of these giants of musical history, along with ten of each one's greatest works.  Here is a link to that site: [link]...

So now I'm intentionally setting out to explore some of the greatest music of all time instead of just passively taking in whatever the radio programmers decide to play.  Yesterday I listened to Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, a stunning orchestral work intended as a ballet.  Yes, I can see how some may have gotten a little riled up at its premier performance in 1913...it was like nothing ever done before...or since, for that matter.  And right now I'm listening to Béla Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra...who knows where this will all lead...