Classical music can be intimidating if you haven t had any experience with it befo

re. But once you reach 30 and you look over at the CD shelf, and only see Madonn
a, Black Sabbath, and 50 to 100 hip hop or industrial CDs, you know it s time to s
tart listening to music that s more mature and rewarding.
I ve listed 46 classical CDs below, from the Baroque, Classic, Romantic, and Moder
n periods. The selections are arranged in order of the composers births. Essentia
lly, this is a list of classical music after about 1600. I ve tried to make the co
llection as rounded, listenable, and affordable as possible.
If you re a novice, it s best to start with the Romantic composers. And no, being Rom
antic doesn t mean the composers just couldn t get enough of holding hands and smooch
ing. It just means their music is more personal and emotional. Once you get comf
ortable with some of these CDs, you ll probably want to learn more about classical
music, so I ve put some good books at the end of the list too.

BAROQUE: The Vivaldi is probably the most accessible of the bunch. Bach is, of c
ourse, the master.
- Corelli: 12 Concerti grossi, op. 6
- Albinoni: Adagio; Pachelbel: Canon
- Vivaldi: The Four Seasons/Fritz Kreisler: Concerto for Violin
- Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (The Historic 1955 Debut Recording)
- Bach - The Complete Brandenburg Concertos / Pearlman, Boston Baroque
- Mikhail Pletnev ~ Domenico Scarlatti - Keyboard Sonatas
- Handel - Messiah / Augér, von Otter, Chance, Crook, Tomlinson, English Concert,
Pinnock

CLASSICISM: Right now, Haydn is my favorite composer. Each of his selections is

the first disc in a set of two, and the second is recommended as well (enthusias
tically). I ve listed Beethoven s Symphony No. 6, the Pastorale , instead of the more o
bvious choice of the 9th because it s not as overbearing.
- Haydn: The London Symphonies, Vol. 1
- Haydn: String Quartets Op. 76, Nos. 1-3
- Clementi: Piano Music
- Mozart: Piano Sonatas KV. 281/KV. 330/KV. 333/Rondo, KV. 485/Adagio, KV. 540
- Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, etc / Karajan, Berlin PO
- Beethoven: The Late Piano Sonatas
- Beethoven: Symphony No. 6, Schubert: Symphony No. 5 / Böhm, Vienna Philharmonic
Orch.

ROMANTIC: Rossini s overtures will be familiar to you (especially if you ve watched

a lot of Bugs Bunny cartoons). Start with Schubert, Brahms, or Dvorak.
- Rossini: Overtures
- Schubert: Trout Quintet, Death and the Maiden / Amadeus Quartet
- Symphonie Fantastique
- Mendelssohn: Octet; Quintets Nos. 1 & 2; Quartet No. 2
- Chopin: Favorite Piano Works
- Liszt: The Great Transcriptions
- Franck: Sonata for violin in A; Elgar: Sonata for violin in Em
- Smetana: Má Vlast
- Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E major (ed. Haas) - Georg Tintner
- Strauss Waltzes
- Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 - Carlos Kleiber / Vienna P
hilharmonic Orchestra
- Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Bruch: Violin Concerto 1 / Chung, Tennstedt
- Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture/ Marche Slave
- Dvorak: Complete Slavonic Dances
- Elgar: Enigma Variations / Falstaff / Grania & Diarmid
- Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 5; Lieder
- MacDowell: Piano Concerto No.2/Liszt: Piano Concertos No.1 & No.2
- Frederick Delius: Orchestral Works
- Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Don Juan / Karajan
- Sibelius: The Complete Symphonies 2

MODERNISM: My list isn t very daring. The last composer, Benjamin Britten, was bor
n in 1913, so though these composers stray quite a bit from the established form
s, there isn t anything approaching the wild antics of later composers: nobody sit
ting and staring at the piano silently for 4 minutes, vomiting up parrots as the
y bang their heads on kettledrums, etc. If you get to the point where you want t
o listen to that music, you re not going to listen to my advice anyway. Of this gr
oup, start with Rachmaninoff and Vaughan Williams, move on to Prokofiev, and the
n to the Americans, Copland and Ives.
- Horowitz Plays Scriabin
- Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony (original 1913 version) / Butterworth: The
Banks of Green Willow - London Symphony Orchestra / Richard Hickox
- Rachmaninov: The Complete Piano Concertos
- Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Pelleas und Melisande / Karajan, Berlin Philharmoni
c Orchestra
- Holst: The Planets; Grainger: The Warriors
- Charles Ives: Symphony No. 2 / The Gong on the Hook & Ladder, or Firemen's Par
ade on Main Street / Tone Roads No. 1 / Hymn: Largo Cantabile, for String Orches
tra / Hallowe'en / Central Park in the Dark / The Unanswered Question - Leonard
Bernstein / New York Philharmonic
- Stravinsky: Rite Of Spring, Fireworks, Petrouchka / Ozawa, Tilson Thomas, Chic
ago Symphony
- Prokofiev: The Five Piano Concertos
- Bernstein Century - Copland: Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, etc / Bernstein, New Y
ork PO
- Shostakovich: Symphonies no 5 and 9 / Haitink
- Hovhaness: Mysterious Mountain/And God Created Great Whales
- Britten: Simple Symphony; Temporal Variations; Suite on English Folk Tunes