Classical-Music Jones

“There it is,” I say. “That’s one of them.”
WXXI-FM, the public-radio classical-music radio-station out of Rochester I support and listen to......
.....occasionally plays one of two classical music pieces that began my appreciation of classical music long ago.
One is Finlandia by Jean Sibelius, the other is Dvořák’s New World Symphony.
Back in 1955, when I was 11, my sister and I were taking piano lessons from Mrs. Dager (“day-grr”), the organist from my parents’ church.
Although all that church could afford was a Hammond C-3.
Mrs. Dager was a blowzy old matron. She’d blow her nose into her soggy handkerchief, then stuff that hanky into the front of her dress.
(Is it any wonder my sister and I came to naming “sonatas” “snottas?”)
Mrs. Dager’s greatest thrill was to get my sister and I crying, which wasn’t hard. She dumped the Thompson piano books. instituted by an earlier piano teacher, and had us trying Clementi piano exercises: 32nd-note arpeggios up-and-down the keyboard. CURVE YOUR FINGERS! (Smack!)
Mrs. Dager was part of hoity-toity Haddonfield culture. She belonged to “Haddon Fortnightly.” In fact, she lived in an old mansion across the street.
Haddonfield is an old Revolutionary-War town in south Jersey adjacent to where we lived.
Mrs. Dager wanted me to become a Billy Graham pianist: up-and-down the keyboard with sweeping flourish. I’d be a star for whom she could take credit.
Regrettably — awful temerity, unmitigated gall and horrific audacity — I was hornswoggled by “The Killer,” boogie-woogie rock-’n’-roll pianist Jerry Lee Lewis. (Gasp!)
I had to give up. Jerry Lee played glissandos, which hurt.
Mrs. Dager arranged for my sister and I to attend a youth concert in Philadelphia by the Philadelphia Orchestra. We sat in the second row.
“Finlandia” and “New World Symphony” were played, and perhaps another I forget. All were implanted in my head. I’d bicycle through nearby woods to “Finlandia” and “New World Symphony.”
I’ve never considered liking classical music a superiority gig. I just like it.
I like other stuff too, especially ‘60s acid-rock: Cream and Hendrix.
In high-school it was Tšaikovski’s “1812 Overture;” my band-leader had a Mercury recording. Over-and-over: “Tyah-tyah-tyah-TYAH; BOOM; tyah-tyah-tyah-tyah-dah-dah-DAH; BOOM!”
And it just so happened my college, Houghton, south of Rochester, was heavily into Bach.
They had a fantastic pipe-organ, 3,153 pipes, and definitely not a Mighty Wurlitzer — pretty much baroque.
I became a Bach freak.
Not long ago I gave away all my ‘60s vinyl albums, including Dylan and The Beatles.
The last rock album I bought was by Def Leppard.
I only hung onto one vinyl album, Cactus by Cactus.
To me that’s the BEST one. I also have it iTunes.
Once in a while I listen to it, thinking I probably shouldna given away Disraeli Gears.
But I’m always listening to WXXI. And every once in a while they hit me with “Finlandia” or “New World Symphony.”

• Nine years of classical piano-training — got so I could play “Rhapsody in Blue.” All vaporized by my stroke over 23 years ago — sloppy keyboarding is a stroke-effect. I could probably do it, but not interested.