For quite some time, the complete cycle of Rachmaninov's preludes with Ashkenazy has been in the car cd and I have often played it when I have taken my children home from kindergarden and school. My son Oliver, who is 3 1/2, wants it on when we drive home but today, I had Chopin's etudes on with Cziffra and he immediately recognized that it was the wrong CD and wanted me to change. So I did and he was happy again. Then I changed to Chopin and another etude which he did not hear yet and he within a couple of seconds knew it was wrong. Changed back to another random Rach prelude and he was happy again. Changed to another etude of op.25 of Chopin and the same reaction so I changed to another random Rach and so I tried a couple of times. He always knew, within a few seconds, whether it was Rach or not and with no exceptions.

Isn't it quite remarkable that a 3 1/2 can directly tell Rach from Chopin?

Next time, I will nother CD:s (perhaps the Rach etudes and Bach) and see if he still can differ Rach from other composers.

uhmmm your story sounds very amazing!! With that young age, he could realize his favorite composer' s works..... I believe it is a sign of genious! Grasp this chance to let him study piano or other his favorite instrument! I'll bet he will succeed

but he prefers ashkenazy to cziffra??!!??!!? might want to get that checked out...lol

give him a piano!!!!! wow thats a good sign!! youre so lucky with your child. I hope if I get any childs that he is that good in music

also he has a good musicstyle I love rachmaninoff

Are you planning to make a pianist of him? He sounds very talented and interested (also from your previous posts at the old forum).

Remarkable that he should seem to prefer Rachmaninov over Chopin. I don't quite get that. Unless it's just that he prefers Ashkenazy over Cziffra, which makes good sense to me (sorry Joe )

whell, I must say when I was yunger (10 years old) I didn't know much about classical music But I could hear If it was rachmaninoff. He has a style wich no other composer has i think...

lol, and i don't even like cziffra that much...

Actually, when he was about 1 1/2, he wanted to watch Rach:s 3:d almost every day so he is fed with Rach since he was very young. Pretty amazing that he could watch the entire concert at about 45 minutes. I think I have a movie someplace where he is watching it on my computer.

Also, he has a piano on his room already and I play for him every day when he goes to sleep. Too lousy Rach-player so he has to stick with Bach and Mozart. He always wants me to end with the first part of Mozart K.545. Very melodic and happy music and perfect before one go to sleep I guess. Then I have to read a book...quite a long process .

He regurarly tries to play but he seems unpleased with his motoric function which in this young age seldom is sufficient to play at all. He can point of the name of the white keys. That just came one day like a chock for me. It was his older daughter Alva who taught him I later found out. Still pretty impressive.

When he was younger (1-2 years old), he often sat in my lap when I played and listened and watched my fingers.

I will give him support in playing of course while never force him. It must come from the heart of himself.

I just post this because it is so interesting and must be pretty unusual. Unfortunately, he likely suffer from some kind of Asperger syndroms if you have ever heard of that so he is not good (actually really bad) in communicating and especially with other children which seem totally uninteresting for him.

Woo, Does your son know how to read any notes yet?

No he does not. He points at the notes but he cannot figure the connections with the keys.

It is amazing indeed!! Funny I read this right after what happened yesterday: I have a 2 1/2 year old son who is just starting to speak (his name is Oliver, too!!! He has been fascinated with Mozart since he was about 7-8 months old. Anyway, yesterday I was watching a video of an aria from Le Nozze Di Figaro which he never heard before. He came towards me and asked me "mommy, Mozart?" I was just dumbstruck and could hardly reply "yes"! I don't know if we have genius Olivers here but my husband was not so surprised. He is a classic pianist. He just said that his ear is so fresh and unstained that he can recognize the patterns in different composer's works much easier than many adults who have studied classic music. So, there it is. I am still very impressed though!!! At his age, I don't think I had even heard of Mozart:)

Oliver is a nice name isn't it?
I think we sometimes (or often) underestimate our children's abilities because of their size and that they do not speak well. Grown ups seem to filter out things that we do not specifically need to understand or know while kids take in just everything without analysing. That is why they see certain kind of logics and patterns even better than we do.

Yes, it is a wonderful name. It is precious as most other rare things.

When I see him do these kind of amazing things, I just stop and think about exactly what you said. Our brains are crammed up full with all kinds of responsibilities that we just miss a lot of things in the filtering process. Maybe this is why they say you should start studying arts while you are very young. Children's senses are so open ready to receive any kind of stimulus that what they naturally do and how they learn so quickly seems to us a marvel. I wish I could be like them...