Do you listen to classical music?

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I don’t and never have!

I got a taxi today and the driver switched off the local radio station and put on classical music instead. I found it really relaxing and I thought, why does it never occur to me to do that?

I do play music at home every day through Alexa but never classical!

Yes I like classic music when I am driving as it calms me. Our old headteacher used to play classic music each assembly too. It xan be so serene for busy minds.
I went to my first prom this year. Titans of British music. Was a lovely night.

I regularly listen to classical while working as I find it less distracting and it helps me focus. I also enjoy plainsong and choral. I love watching church choirs too, combined with the smell of the church and the history it’s so relaxing.

But metal will always be my favourite music. Death, grind, black metal - so many genres.

Classical music is great - but there are wide range of genres within it - some I prefer more than others.

You can really lose yourself in a long piece that really pulls on your emotions.

I know this is a probably like asking someone to recommend "food" to someone you know nothing about, but are there composers you'd recommend for me? So far I just tend to put Debussy on which I enjoy, I like the calm but emotional tone to it, something to distract me from my tinnitus whilst working but not too overpowering, but perhaps motivating!

Love this piece.

Thomas Tallis

This is the Classic FM Hall of Fame

Classic FM Hall of Fame 2024

I thought only gangsters listened to classical music these days....

Yes, every day. Classic FM, but also Radio 3, especially when I’m finding the ads on Classic particularly irritating!

Yes, every day. Classic FM, but also Radio 3, especially when I’m finding the ads on Classic particularly irritating!

Likwise! His faux bonhomie drives me up the wall. Petroc Trelawney of a morning on R3 gets me off to a good start though 😄

My Dad always had Radio 3 on and I do too. Classical is a massive part of my life, along with a wide range of other music. I switch to Classic FM as a last resort when R3 goes atonal or has the talking heads programmes. Sundays are for Radio 6.

It's my go-to style of music. However, I don't necessarily like all of it. Some things bore me rigid (I'm not a fan of most choral music, though of course there are exceptions). Plus there are so many different kinds, styles, and periods of "classical" music it's difficult to make a generalisation about it. A lot of film, TV, and video game music is in a "classical" style even though it is thoroughly contemporary.

@Atissues Can we be best friends please?? 😃🤟🏼 I went to take part in a William Byrd choral workshop at Durham Cathedral last year, and listened to Slayer on the way there and Machine Head on the way home 😂

Listen to all kinds but right now while my boys are playing with their cars on the rug we have classic FM on. They haven't complained and I'm happy to watch them and take the music in. Bliss. Classical is great at bedtime after a busy day. DH as a child wasn't allowed to listen to anything but classical. My parents never listened to it.

@cakeorwine oh yes that's a lovely piece. I'm quite into lots conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, especially in his earlier days.

Classic fm is always on quietly in the kitchen. It's just calming background noise

Sometimes for background music when I need to focus, mostly because I get distracted by lyrics and if I put on instrumental versions of songs I know, I just sing the lyrics in my head and distract myself anyway

Classic FM at the movies with Jonathan Ross is always good. Loads of film music most people would immediately recognise and a good introduction to classical music for people unused to it.

I have the radio alarm set to classical music as I find it a much more gentle and pleasant way to wake up, despite not listening to classical music the rest of the time.
Very occasionally I've shot upright in bed as the music has been something like the 1812 overture thundering out, which is a horrific way to wake, but mostly they seem to put something 'genteel' on at 6.30am.

It's certainly better than waking up to either an alarm going off, or something like 'Wake me up before you GoGo'...

I grew up around Classical music (and jazz, glam rock, opera. Operetta, folk, pop...). I played piano, flute and clarinet at school and sang in the school choir. Although my school was an inner city comp, we were a specialist music centre. As a teenager, I used to go and queue up for £1 standing tickets to the proms, and went to the Royal Festival Hall a lot.

As an adult I usually have music on, often Magic Classical. Both teen DC are musicians - classical guitar, piano/percussion . I'm taking them to see The Magic Flute after Christmas.

Yes. It plays through Alexa on the kitchen bench all day and night ( very low volume) unless someone wants to change it to look to something else.

Most definitely!

Not all the time but every so often the mood takes me.

Only yesterday afternoon I spent
an hour watching the Galicia Symphony Orchestra playing the whole of "Scheherezade" by Rimski Korsakov on YouTube. Just gorgeous ♥️! If you have never heard this then please do try it. One of the most stunning pieces ever written.

That's one of the things (among several) that pisses me off about Classic FM actually - their insistence that all classical music is "relaxing". I often don't want to "relax"! I want to be stimulated or challenged or energised..

One of the other things is Stephen Mangan and his total ignorance of the music he's presenting

Have you tried Apple Music Classical? It's a separate app dedicated to classical music with curated playlists, audio guides, composer biographies etc. It's included in an Apple Music subscription if you have one.

Play a lot of 6music, but put classic FM whilst teens are doing homework and in December for Christmas music.

So yes classical is mixed in with everything else we listen to.

My dad used to play a lot of classical music when I was younger, so I feel comfortable listening to it, although I haven't really chosen to listen to much until recently. I now put it on driving home after working in a tough (physically and mentally) job.

I actually think classical music should be played in a lot of public places - just quietly and the more gentle pieces. It might help reduce antisocial behaviour a little...

Stephen Mangan is the most astonishingly boring person I have ever listened to. Why on earth they thought he’d be a good choice for a radio presenter when the only thing he has to recommend him is that he’s quite good looking is beyond me.

I listen to classical music all the time. I find pop and rock too intrusive- it forces you to listen to the lyrics and they’re almost never in tune with how I feel at the time.