looking for ideas on must have classical music

 Pick up a copy of Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre. I have one on the Phillips label. You'll recognize music that you may have heard but didn't know who the composer was. I've listened to this CD maybe 300 times or more. ALSO, check out the deals on the Mercury Living Presents boxed sets. They are the best value in music today. The soundtrack from Amadeus is excellent. (Anything recorded by St. Martin-in the-Fields is going to sound great!) Enjoy! and let me know how you like the Saint-Saens. Joe 

looks like I have my work cut out for me here! wow. THANKS!!

I'm speechless and grateful. deeply.

Scanning through the above, there's not enough:

• Mendelssohn
• Schumann
  
• Schubert
• Chamber music in general (I only saw the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, which is a good rec)

So, with that in mind, I suggest you get

• Dvorak - "Dumky" Trio
• Mendelssohn quartets and/or trios
• Mendelssohn violin concerto
  
• Schubert string quartets - Death and the Maiden of course, but all good
  
• Haydn Lark Quartet
• ANY Brahms or Beethoven chamber music.  Beethoven Middle Quartets and Archduke Trio, Brahms Sonatas for more accessible, Brahms op. 51, Beethoven Opus 130 for truly innovative. 
  
• If you ever need a good cry, try the slow second movements of Brahms, Schubert, Dvorak.
• Schumann piano - Kreisleriana, Carnaval, Kinderszenen
• Schumann String Quartets

• Hindemith's Viola Concerto "Der Schwanendreher" and Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht are also beautiful. Neither is twelve-tone "serialist" but you are starting to get into not-for-beginners.

bdp24 wrote (in part):

...Holst The Planets conducted by just about anyone (I favour Sir Adrian Boult)...

I also have an EMI/Angel pressing of Adrian Boult's rendition. I have several versions of The Planets on CD and LP, and have heard the Seattle Symphony play it live twice, with different conductors.

Anyway, I was listening to the Boult Planets and there were things about it that caught my attention, particularly the tempi and dynamics, but also the ability to bring up the volume of particularly significant themes or harmonies. I thought, "Whoever this guy is, he sounds like he was BORN to conduct this." I checked the liner notes and it turns out Sir Adrian Boult conducted the world premier of "The Planets." Not only that, but he did all the legwork, recruiting an orchestra up to the challenges, finding a suitable venue, raising funds, getting the word out, etc. He was probably working out The Planets with an orchestra while Holst was still composing it.

Anyway, on the back of the album jacket is the facsimile of a note handwritten by Holst, profusely thanking Boult's participation in that project, and realizing it might not have seen the light of day without Boult's participation. 

So, yes Bdp24, there's a good reason for you favouring the Sir Adrian Boult version.

Another version I *really* like is conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. I was curious how a conductor so deeply involved in period-correct Baroque works, downsized for authenticity, could take such masterful command of The Planets, a work where the orchestral company has to recruit extra celli and bassists, and drag out just about every percussion instrument (plus the celeste) they can get ahold of.

It turns out that Gardiner is a descendant (grand nephew or something) of Holst's patron, who underwrote Holst's efforts to compose that ambitious work.

I love bombastic oversized orchestral works such as The Planets and Pictures at an Exhibition.

But I also love J.S. Bach's six Cello Suites. It demonstrates that J.S. Bach didn't know how to write bad music. The Suites are produced by one musician, one bow, and one cello, but the melodies are so compelling that they draw your mental focus in like a magnet. In fact, I find the Suites to be the best cure for earworms. Listen through one or two Suites and the musical flow on one hand and the creative intricacy on the other will make you forget everything else, and likely put a spring in your step for the rest of the day. Each of the six Suites is composed of six movements, which give you 36 first-rate melodies to flush out the earworms and replace them with a great stream of variety.

After 55 years or so, Janos Starker's version on Mercury Living Presence (from the mid-'60s) largely survives as the gold standard. A few years ago, it was *still* available on CD, SACD, LP, and hi-def download--every format up to the task.

I consider Starker's rendition of the Bach Suites analgous to the music you hear from the piano playing of the great Artur Rubinstein. Both are all business, avoid schmaltzy excess, and play with an expressive purity that showcases the genius of the composers. I also like Lynn Harrell's rendition (CD) on London Digital, whose tempo and style capture the dance origin of the Suites' format without getting too cute about it.

If you have a turntable, the Speakers Corner reissue of the mid-'60s Living Presence Bach Suites in stereo is to die for. I ought to know: I also have an original pressing in mono. I also grew up listening to Starker's Mercury Suites in stereo and heard my brother practicing his cello lessons for 9 straight years. The 9th year he studied under Lynn Harrell.

Excellent comments and suggestions above.

I would add:

Chrisropher Parkening, Parkening Plays Bach. Also John Williams’ recordings of the Bach Cello Suites. Another favorite guitarist is Carlos Barbosalima, any of his recordings.

Chopin’s Nocturnes and piano concertos, I like Pollini and Barenboim, but there are dozens of fine versions.

Schubert...some of his vast vocal music, I would begin with Songs for Male Chorus (Robert Shaw Chamber Singers), and sample some volumes from the Schubert Edition on Hyperion. I also recommend Schubert’s piano sonatas.

Mahler...the second symphony, Resurrection (again, lots of versions, but I usually reach for Gilbert Kaplan with the London Symphony). And explore some of his songs (“Lieder”), try Thomas Hampson or Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as a start.

Brahms, his German Requiem and the Alto Rhapsody...Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony versions are nice. And some of my favorite, Brahms’ late piano music, say opus 116-119, especially the recordings of Stephen Bishop Kavacevich.

Some delightful fun, Gilbert and Sullivan, Pirates of Penzance or the Mikado.

Something ethereal, Bill Douglas’ Deep Peace, Ars Nova Singers