The first thing is that you will want to find one of those used Penguin guide books for classical music. This will give you some suggested recordings that are worth spending money on. Check out your local library too and see what they have that you can borrow and hear.

Here are just a couple of suggestions for now in no order:

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5
Alexander Nevsky (film score)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad)
Mahler: Symphony No. 1, or 4
Vaughan-Williams: Sea Symphony
Janacek: Sinfonietta
Taras Bulba
Dvorak: Symphony No. 8
Copland: Symphony No. 3

If you find anything you like, just try and listen to more stuff by the same composer. Usually, shorter classical pieces will be coupled with stuff by the same or a related composer, so there are some good starting points for further discovery.

When you listen to those Rimsky-Korsakov pieces, you'll hear where many film scoring cliches come from.

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Please avoid the Dutoit/Montreal, Wordsworth/RPO, Svetlanov/LSO and Gergiev/Kirov versions. They'll put you to sleep. Try Jansons, Ormandy, Muti, Yuasa, Temirkanov... there are too many to name.

I can't believe Sakman mentioned the Dvorak 8th, but not Dvorak's Symphony no 9.

Tchaikovsky: excerpts from the ballets (The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty).

Glinka: Orchestral Works & Suites from the Operas

And of course, some of the sampler compilations can be pretty entertaining. EMI had a couple of "Heavy Classics" albums which can be very nice samplers, and Universal released a "Thunder and Lightning" compilation.

Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis on the Themes of Carl Maria von Weber

Puccini without words (Kunzel on Telarc)

Suppé: overtures

Verdi: choruses and overtures from the operas

Rossini: overtures

Respighi: the tone poems

Rachmaninoff: Symphonies 1, 2, Symphonic Dances

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder
(just listen to the tunes & melodies, the orchestrations, the raw power and the yearning love music, the tragic death scenes, the war cry... it's the world's most overblown film score. 160 musicians, 300 choristers, 6 soloists.)

Strauss: Vier Letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs)

Wagner: The Ring without words

Do yourself a favour though, and avoid most of the Naxos releases by the Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra or any such high school band on the same label. When I was building my music collection, I fell into the trap of thinking "Well, it's the music that counts, so I'll get this Naxos low price thing, it can't be that different, right?" I very soon discovered that a 1960 Sony recording was easily better (on all aspects) than a 1990 digital recording on a cheap label. For the same price as the Naxos, you can get a real orchestra, and an exciting performance in first-rate sound on the Sony Classical Essential Classics series, on the Universal Classics Eloquence series, or the EMI Classics Encore series.
Naxos has some real gems coming out since 1999 or so, but much of their early catalog (1985-1999) is still filled with second rate performances of the "big" classical composers. Their Shostakovich cycle to take but that is pathetic.

And of course, you can always explore the film scores of the classical composers. Vaughan Williams on the Chandos label, Shostakovich on many labels.

And don't forget MAURICE RAVEL, his Daphnis Et Chloe is an astoundingly magical work that has been very influential (check out Goldsmith's Secret Of NIMH and Legend).

Vaughan Williams's Symphony # 7 'The Antarctica' is very film music like.....erm, possibly because it was adapted from his film score to Scott Of The Antarctic

Also check out the concert works of WOJCHIECH KILAR on the NAXOS label, some wonderful and very accessable music there if you like Kilar.

Also, try the Kalinnikov first symphony, and maybe Howard Hanson's 2nd Symphony.

Adams' Harmonielehre
Adams Violin Concerto
Nyman's MGV
Corigliano's Symphony No. 1
Schnittke Concerto grosso No. 4/ Symphony No. 5
Schnittke Viola Concerto
Tavener The Protecting Veil
Rautavaara Symphony No. 7

any tone poem of the 19th century will do, too. Liszt, Strauss, Smetana....it's all good.

quote:

---

Originally posted by JJH:
and there's LOTS of good stuff on the Naxos label from composers most people don't know about, like Zez Confrey (who?). and it's all budget priced to boot.

---

Indeed. That's what Naxos excels at: unknown and underappreciated repertoire.

- Dimitri Shostakovich: Symphony no 5
- Dimitri Shostakovich: Symphony no 11
- Maurice Ravel: Mother Goose
- Gustav Mahler: all of his late symphonies
- Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
- Igor Stravinksy: Firebird
- Aram Khatchaturian: Spartacus
- Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
- John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine

and a few that are a little more demanding perhaps:

quote:

---

Originally posted by lancer:
thanks guys your all great!!! I knew I could count on some good feedback, I dont post here all that often, I'm more of a shadow lurker that enjoys reading the posts, and occasionaly pops in for a few comments, but I consider everyone to be cyber friends(something like that).

---

Glad to be of service

Let us all know which works you'll take the plunge with and what you think of them?

Tim

(http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Rachmaninov-Anatole-Fistoulari/dp/B00005Y2JD/

Any Rachmaninov fans here? Do you think it's a good sampler of his work? Any glaring omitions?

[Message edited by tjguitar on 10-09-2006]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Timmer:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=1 face=arial>quote:</font><HR size=1>Originally posted by lancer:
[b]thanks guys your all great!!! I knew I could count on some good feedback, I dont post here all that often, I'm more of a shadow lurker that enjoys reading the posts, and occasionaly pops in for a few comments, but I consider everyone to be cyber friends(something like that).<HR size=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

Glad to be of service

Let us all know which works you'll take the plunge with and what you think of them?

Tim

[/B]

---

Almost a year ago now Lancer, how did you get on? what did you go for? Are you still lurking/posting?