I credit my enjoyment of of classical music to cartoons. I'm not just talking about the wonderful "What's Opera Doc" Bugs Bunny episode, but more so the extensive use of classical music in the Saturday Morning cartoons of my youth.

Also, when I was about 14, I was channel surfing when the familiar tune caught my ear. It stopped my remote in its tracks and I was fasinated by a string quartet playing Hendrix songs. The juxtaposition of Jimi with "serious" classical musisions was eye opening.

Mozart was my favorite composer if only because his music is what what people think of when the think of "classical music". I was never a big fan of Beethoven, there was sometihng about his music that just didn't fit the "classical" mold for me... too much going on. And Tchiacofsky sounded too much like a movie soundtrack.

That all changed when I found The Teaching Company. I have many of their music courses by Robert Greenberg. His enthusiasm and insight into classical music is infectious. His series on The Sypmphonies of Beethoven opened up the world of Beethoven and turned me into a huge Beethoven fan. I highly recommend any of his courses. Don't be put off by the price, they have sales quite often so if you're patient you can get almost any course at a huge discount.

Yesterday, again while channel surfing, I stumbled across Keeping Score by Michael Tilson Thomas. The episode I saw was on Beethoven's 3rd symphony: Eroica. Michael Tilson Thomas is on par with Robert Greenberg. The really cool aspect is that the Keeping Score site has interactive features that let you listen to the music while following the score and you can click on video links, note, history, etc. This is one of the best uses of multi-media on the web I have ever seen.