Classical Music-where do i start?

musicismylife78

So i dont own a single classical music album. Ive always been overwhelmed by the sheer number of different albums and artists who do interpretations of Mozart and Bach etc... Theres got to be thousands of albums of different interpretations of Beethoven alone. And a thousand of Bach.

So my question is, where do I start? What are some classic classical albums? if I want to get my toe wet in this music, what are some good albums of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Stravinsky and the like?

justam

Buy a Mozart piano concerto with Murray Perahia playing the piano.

Buy some Bach with Glenn Gould.

Buy some Beethoven symphonies with Arturo Toscanini conducting.

Buy some Chopin piano music with Arthur Rubinstein.

Buy some Rachmaninoff with Vladimir Horowitz playing piano.

That could get you started.

Also, lots of people (who don't know much about music) like Mozart symphonies and Haydn symphonies.

Haydn quartets are famous.

You might like french orchestral tone poems.

You might like Bach Brandenburg concertos.

Go to the library and see what you like!

PS. Schubert and Schumann song cycles if you like German lied.

Brahms chamber music is passionate.

You might want to just start with a lot of the most well-known pieces like Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue or Grieg's Peer Gynt. Some of the most famous pieces are played often for a reason. The compositions are solid or they are expressive. And, you won't have the disadvantage of hearing the pieces as "old-hat."

Digital Twilight

Beethoven's 9th
Four Season by Vivaldi
The Planets by Holst

I think those three are some of the greatest pieces around but also you will probably recognise some of them. Many have appeared in TV shows, films, adverts etc.


Your best bet would be to listen to a classical radio station and see what you like from there. After a while you will start to get a notion of what you like and what you don't like. Symphonies may not be your thing but you may like chamber music and also the different time periods affect the style too. I'm not much of a fan from the Baroque period but prefer the 'romantic' era.