HELP Classically ignorant, need vinyl insight

As a departure from the straight and narrow classical/orchestral offerings, I've recently delved into orchestral movie soundtracks - my favorites from recent movies...

Lord of the Rings - all 3!
Braveheart
Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest
Snow Falling on Cedars
Gladiator
The Red Violin

and, although not necessarily orchestral (more world-music), I love Peter Gabriel's "Passion" (music from the movie "The Last Temptation of Christ").

If you try and like some of these recommendations, I'll be happy to provide more...

Happy listening!

Rtenyes, the scope of the topic is vast. You may find a good starting point by perusing some of the threads listed here:

Audiogon Classical Music Threads

As to cleaning supplies, I recommend Walker Audio Prelude record cleaning fluids and brushes coupled with a VPI 16.5 (or 17F) record cleaning machine to vacuum off the fluid residue. The commercial cleaning fluid makes a major difference in the quality of the results.
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1. French horn music

Mozart French Horn concertos and the Posthorn Serenade.

2. String music

Haydn string quartets are a good start. He invented the form and they sound great on LP.

3. Melancholy music, the type that makes your bones ache.

Brahms trios and other chamber music. I have a '60s-era recording of Brahms trios on RCA--Artur Rubinstein piano, Henryk Szeryng violin, and (I forget) cello. Dark and melancholy.

Liszt and Mussorgsky are also quite passionate and can be rather dark-sounding.

4. Conan the Barbarian music. You know the kind that makes you want to get on your horse and impale someone.

Respighi: He wrote the book on this stuff and must be the first guy they study in filmscoring 101. Listen to his Rome trilogy--Fountains of Rome, Festivals of Rome, and Pines of Rome. You'll hear the inspiration for lots of sword 'n' sandal sountracks as well as John Williams. Shostakovich orchestral, Holst--The Planets; Richard Wagner--Ride of the Valkries. Also, Ravel or Debussy orchestrated versions of works by Mussorgsky such as Night on Bald Mountain and Pictures at an Exhibition.

Oh, yeah, and a lot of Debussy orchestral music, especially La Mer and his three nocturns, Nuages (clouds), Fetes (festivals), and Sirenes (sirens--as in the singing goddess types). Fetes especially sounds like a horse-riding, impaling sort of thing.

Stravinsky--Rite of Spring.

Come to think of it, you may want to rent both Disney films, Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 to familiarize yourself with several genres of classical music.