NOTE: This is NOT a balanced selection of classical music. I've left out entire chunks. This is, instead, a list of pieces and/or discs that I find myself listening to more than "average." A classically trained musician would probably tell you that I've no taste at all. They're likely right. Nevertheless, these I enjoy. I hope you will too. Boomzilla
Antonin Dvorák - Slavonic Dances / Rite of Spring (lots of great performances - I like George Szell & the Cleveland Orchestra)
Various - The Atlantic Brass Quintet - "Picture This" album (I particularly like their "Hungarian Rhapsody")
Ludwig Van Beethoven - Symphony No. 6 (Pastorale) - by Christopher Hogwood & The Academy of Ancient Music (get this SPECIFIC disc)
Ludwig Van Beethoven - Symphonys Nos. 2, 5, & 9 - lots of good performances
Edvard Grieg - Piano Concertos & Peer Gynt Suite - lots of good performances - I like the Laserlight disc by the Budapest Philharmonic
George Fredrick Handel - Royal Fireworks Music & Water Music - lots of good performances
Franz Schubert - Trout Quintet - lots of good performances
"Ein Straussfest" by Erich Kunzel and the Cleveland Symphony on Telarc label
Holst Suites Nos. 1 & 2 by Fredrick Fennel & the Cleveland Wind Ensemble on Telarc label
"Vienna" by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on RCA Living Stereo label
Petyr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture, Romeo & Juliet, & Nutcracker Suite - lots of good performances
Gioachino Rossini - Overtures by Ricardo Chailly
"Albioni, Pachebel, Handel, Bach, Coreli" by I Musici
"Encores" by Itzhak Perlman
Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring - Fanfare for the Common Man - Rodeo (all on a single Telarc disc)
Luigi Cherubini - "Simfonia in Re - Overtures" by Orchestra Della Toscana
"Mozart Piano Concertos" by Martha Argerich
"Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings & Charles Ives - Symphony No. 3" - by Neville Marriner & The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
"The Reiner Sound" by Fritz Reiner & The Chicago Symphony on RCA Living Stereo label (particularly "Totentanz" by Franz Liszt)
Mozart - Symphony No. 40 ("Jupiter") - lots of good performances
Igor Stravinsky - Firebird Suite - lots of good performances
Giacomo Rossini - various overtures - lots of good performances
Dominico Scarlatti - various sonatas by Valdimir Horowitz (Sony label)
Haydn - Clock symphony, London symphony - lots of good performances