HELP Classically ignorant, need vinyl insight

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.

I would HIGHLY recommend the "now re-issued again" EMI boxed set of Ravel's Orchestral music!!

Cluytens was one of "the" Ravel interpreters,and it is a GORGEOUS multi disc album!!Amazingly good sounding,and though it ain't cheap,it will light any music lover's fire.

Of virtually every silly post I have ever made,THIS is the one I am most serious about!!

For once,someone will thank me,if you buy this masterpiece!!

Good luck.

Btw,I'd take a look at some of the online LP vendors,like The Classical Collector.Owned by Jerry Cantor...a super honest guy!...Don't spend any money until you've given yourself some time to familiarize yourself with pricing and desireability.

This was the "most" fun to me,when I began "a long time ago"!!

I also love the Bizet orchestral suites, particularly the Carmen and L'Arlesienne suites.

I particularly like the one on Columbia of Stokowsky conducting the National Symphony Orch. for the Bizet suites, for performance, hall acoustics, and sound quality.

 
Welcome back to vinyl - we've been waiting for you.

French Horn -
Franz Danzi: Concerto for Waldhorn
Strauss: various Horn concertos
Teleman: Horn Concerto
standard horn joke: the difference between a French horn and a lawn mower is that you can tune a lawn mower. (heh :-)

String music -
Felix Mendelssohn: Overture 'The Herbrides' - Fingal's Cave
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez

Melancholy -
Rachmaninov: Isle of the Dead (pensive, forboding) and his Symphony No.2 - at least the start - find the Slatkin on Reference if you can.
Tchaikovsky: 6th Symphony, 'Pathetique' pretty much says it - Mehta's is good

Conan -
Brahms: Schicksalslied 'Song of Destiny' - I love big choral
Basil Poledouris: various Conan soundtracks on vinyl
And of course Wagner, already mentioned

For classical with nice sonics, here's a starter list

Wrt record cleaning, I use a Loricraft 3 and the Walker Prelude system augmented with Nerl Reagent Grade water.
 
Tim