Great Composers

The Case for Greatness in Classical Music

As a child, I was essentially alone in my passion for music. No one in my extended family, as far as I knew, had sung in a chorus, played the guitar, anything. So the finished basement den of our house on Long Island was my private musical refuge, where I practiced the piano - a boxy old upright - and listened to classical records.

Our chief critic looks back at some childhood loves to talk about why we shouldn't be ashamed of looking for, and listening to, the great composers.