Classical music newbie needs your suggestions

What a nice Xmas gift you guys (and gals?) have given me. Thanks so much.

I'm adding postit notes on each album as I listen to them, rating them, and describing the mood, etc. Then I'll sell/give away the questionable ones. I'll pull out any Mozart that happens to be in the Opera section. I already found I love the Russian composers that I have, and Hayden. But I've only just begun...

btw, do you live near me, Plainfield, NJ? After you learn more about what you respond to, I inherited a lot of LP’s and have many classical I will part with for very low price. I am more interested to have more room on my shelves.

It took me over a year to appreciate (some) music from the 40's through 50's when I bought 12 feet of albums (for $75!).

This will be a much more enjoyable experience. I listened to the whole Solti Wagner epic and some Puchinni when I was a young man.

Hi, I could write at length with suggestions, but I’ll try to limit myself.

Some folks above have suggested some accessible beautiful pieces, such as Pachelbel’s Canon. I’ll add Handel’s concerto grosso Alexander’s Feast, and three discs by pianist Vikingur Olafsson consisting of collections of short pieces by Bach (some transcribed for keyboard), Mozart, and Debussy/Rameau. Outstanding collections.

Bach’s music for solo instruments is varied and wonderful. For keyboard (which I prefer played on piano over harpsichord), there are the Goldberg Variations (many to choose from; I prefer Jeremy Denker’s and Murray Perahia’s versions, along with Sitkovevski’s rendition for string trio), the Well-Tempered Clavicle I and II (again, many to choose from; I like Jennifer Hewitt’s); French Suites (not discussed on this forum much; I like Gavrilov’s); English Suites (Andras Schiff is my favorite). For violin, the Sonatas and Partitas, and I suggest starting with Partita #2 in D, and I like Hilary Hahn although there are many great ones to choose from. Someone above mentioned the Cello Suites (Yo-Yo Ma’s are terrific).

Handel’s concerto grossi are a gateway to his very listenable works; Andras Schiff made a recording of three piano sonatas by Hadyn; and speaking of accessible sonatas, try Uchida’s recordings of Mozart’s sonatas for piano. And, well, speaking of Mozart, his piano concertos, esp. nos. 18-26 (and extra especially no. 21’s second movement (the theme from the movie “Elvira Madigan.”)

Brahms: his Ballades for piano (try Pollini) and for late-night meditation, his Intermezzi (Arkady Volodos).

I’ve gone on way too long and probably suggested too many piano pieces, but here’s one more, which I think is a highpoint of Twentieth Century music, Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, our times’ Goldbergs.

Enjoy!

What a fun question!

Do you have a favorite instrument? Favorite era of classical music? Affinity to a particular composer or conductor or orchestra?

I played trumpet through college, so I'm partial to music with lots of brass. Baroque music often has a lot of high (piccolo) trumpet parts, especially Handel. My favorite classical pieces that have extensive trumpet parts are Mahler's 5th Symphony and Ravel's adaptation (for full orchestra) of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." Don't overlook Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" just because it reminds you of an outer space film. Brass ensembles are great fun to listen to: Empire Brass and Canadian Brass are two of my favorites.

My mother and son play cello, so I have gathered quite a collection of cello music. Others have mentioned Johann Sebastian Bach's "Cello Suites." They are extraordinary pieces to listen to, being majestically powerful or hauntingly beautiful through the various movements. In addition to just getting these suites as performed by Yo-Yo Ma (he has several recordings of the Bach suites), it is fascinating to hunt down high-quality pressings by other famous cellists that have also recorded the suites: the seminal album by Pablo Casals, and then Jànos Starker's and Mstislav Rostropovich's pressings are also in my collection, and make for fun comparisons on interpretation.

Another strategy is to find combinations of conductor and orchestra that produced great recordings during the vinyl era; obvious pairings are Leonard Bernstein/New York Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic. Also look for recordings done by great conductor/orchestra pairings that also feature awesome music sections: some of my favorite sources of recordings are the Chicago Symphony under Fritz Reiner and Sir George Solti that also contain the superlative Chicago brass section, with principal trumpet player Adolph "Bud" Herseth, or the San Francisco Symphony during the Pierre Monteux years that had principal trumpet player Charles Bubb, Jr.

I also enjoy vinyl recordings of film scores, jazz, Bossa Nova, French Yé-Yé pop, and bagpipe music, but that will be a topic for another day's question.

Enjoy the listening, and Happy New Year!