Early days in childhood - Classical Music roots

As previously mentioned, my first exposure to classical music came via my mother's LPs, many of which were compilations of popular classics. From these LPs I came to know such musical delights as 'Finlandia' by Sibelius, and Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2, (or at least the famous opening movement). Certainly this was how I got my first exposure to the great Ludwig Van Beethoven, the most memorable being two of his most well known pieces; the first movement of the 5th Symphony, and Adagio movement of the 'Moonlight Sonata'.
A particular favourite of mine was a compilation album called 'Orchestral Fireworks', which I used to play a lot. This album contained many short pieces which are still favourites today, including a couple of the 'Hungarian Dances' by Brahms, de Falla's 'Ritual Fire Dance', and 'Festivals' from 'Nocturnes' by Debussy.
Also this album contained the first bit of music that I ever heard by a composer who much later in life would become very important to me. This was the 'Magic Fire Music' from Die Walküre, by Richard Wagner.
Pictured below are two of the classical compilation albums from my mother's collection that I remember the most:

Also worthy of a mention, although technically a film soundtrack album, the soundtrack to '2001: A Space Odyssey', comprised of  much classical music which also made its way into my affections. Most notably the short introduction to 'Also sprach Zarathustra' which for me was indelibly associated with the NASA moon landing of  July 1969.

But the classical album which made the biggest impact on me by far was a recording of Gustav Holt's: 'The Planets' made by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.
This LP was easily my most played classical album of my childhood days, and something which I've never at any point not had a recording of in my collection. I was absolutely fascinated with this music. Particularly the dark and brooding first movement: 'Mars: The Bringer of War', and the final most ethereal movement, 'Neptune: The Mystic'. Although I did used to listen to this album in its entirety, and there wasn't a single movement that I didn't enjoy listening to.
I've owned several versions of 'The Planets' over the years, from the famous Herbert Von Karajan recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, to André Previn conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. But for many years, none of the recordings that I acquired sounded quite as good the particular recording that my mother had, because after years of childhood listening, I had become so attuned to it. Although my current favourite version is by James Levine conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This was introduced to me by a friend a couple of years ago, and it's the only version that's managed to wrestle the Adrian Boult/LPO version from first place in my affections.
But here is the LP that was the most important classical album of my childhood:

When I first went to grammar school at the age of 11, I was introduced to even more classical music via our music lessons. The first couple of years of this broadened my repertoire further, and before long I acquired a few classical records of my own, including the following favourite examples:

In the grand scheme of all things classical, these may not have been the most groundbreaking of composers or works, but they definitely helped to keep my mental door open to my passion for the great composers like Beethoven and Wagner and others that would come to dominate my tastes in more recent years.