Just wondering, are there others here besides me who listen primarily to 'classical music'? Like pretty much whole hog and such?

Not the whole hog, but definitely tasty pieces from the hind leg here and there.

Probably more jazz than any other genre, but at least as much classical as pop (and probably more). One of the things that I love about living here is that no one considers it strange that we have season tickets to both La Scala and Inter. In fact, our last perfomance of the spring happened to be the day after Inter clinched the scudetto, and we were very pleased to see one of the grande dames in the centre of the parterre with a perfectly tailored suit and a nerazzuro scarf (cashmere, of course).

Statto is another classical music enthusiast.

My mother is a big classical music fan and more specifically opera.
Which is ironic because one of the criticisms she often made of the music I listened to when I was growing up was "you can't understand the words."
She doesn't speak Italian.

I like a bit of it here and there. Love going to the Proms, was totally blown away watching Domingo do his stuff at the Classical Brits a couple of years ago. Couldn't listen to it all the time though. Sometimes I just need something altogether simpler.

Primarily to pop; secondarily to classical.

Not primarily, but I listen to a lot of classical music.

Primarily listen to pop, but love some classical, with a strong bias to early classical.

I practically worship Mozart's music, which almost seems (as I think I commented on a nil thread recently) to be less like the work of a falliable human and more like a discovery of the natural laws of perfect musical beauty.

Also like Beethoven, other pre-Beethoven stuff (esp Bach), and the more accessible works by Rachmaninoff and Tschaikovsky.

Can't stand most 20th or late 19th century classical.

Yeah and me. I find that the more depressing sort of chamber music is more appropriate than anything else I know, for me.

Wow, so I could be the only thoroughgoing nerd around (other than Statto whom I don't recall running into). Well, if anyone ever needs recommendations (such as for depressing chamber music) feel free to hit me up.

ursus arctos - jealous that you can go to La Scala regularly. I have a college friend who sang there last year (at least, I think he did, we're not in regular touch, I'll ask him about it).

It's definitely one of the things that we will miss the most whenever we leave; Lissner has revolutionised and revitalised the repetoire, which is exactly what we would have done in his place. Heavy productions of warhorses get incredibly tiresome, and their prevalence at the Met is the reason why we had a subscription to City Opera when we lived in New York.

As with Milan, let me know if you ever make it over here, and I'll get tickets sorted.

So by any chance were you there that time when Alagna really connected with his audience (last season I think it was)? And thanks for the offer, that would be a landmark occasion for me.

I listen to a lot, but don't pretend to be knowledgeable. I tend to have Radio 3 on more or less continuously unless I put something else on...

Beethoven and Messiaen (going to see Quartet for The End Of Time at the Proms) are definitely my favourites.

Bruno, we missed the whole Aida debacle, because it wasn't part of our subscription (it was December 2006, btw).

I did get to see (but not hear) his "protest concert" in the piazza across the street a few days later though, as it is only a few blocks from the office (there were too many people there to really hear anything).

Friend of mine calls Alagna's wife La Batshit. They're quite a couple.

Ms. ursus takes voice lessons from a (different) Romanian soprano, who I think would agree with your friend.

That said, it is a profession with a higher percentage of problematic personalities than most. We had a neighbour in New York who basically thought that most of the people he worked with were unhinged.

For those of us who are too lazy or don't have the right equipment to transcribe classical vinyl onto digital media, can anyone recommend some websites or blogs with good musical uploads?

I'm into some early baroque (rameau etc), Bach (esp harpsichord), Haendel, LvB, romantics (chopin, Liszt, Debussy,...), stravinsky and have been exploring some of the newer stuff like Berio. I like Wagner, but I'm not a big fan of Italian opera.

In my experience, classical blogs tend to be more discursive than happy hunting grounds for downloads, but you can get an excellent view of the overall landscape from this set of rankings.