Classical fans, I need advice

Vedric---Yesterday I took the plunge and bought a two-CD set of Alison Krauss+Union Station's live performance in Louisville. The music and recording quality are both great!
Thanks for nudging me in this direction.

I also bought another of the "Bluegrass Picks On...." series. I mentioned before the "Phish" version. This time it's Led Zeppelin. Never having paid much attention to original Phish stuff, I didn't recognize anything, but I remember lots of the LZ tracks from the heady days of their popularity. It's another very good recording.

I'm anxious to hear results of your end of the "dare", heh heh.

BTW---I just thought of another classical piece you might enjoy: Kurt Weill's "Dreigroschenoper Suite" (Three Penny Opera). I have several recordings, but my favorite is by The Chicago Pro Musica on Reference Recordings, the most recent version being in a two-CD set compiling, along with the Weill, music which used to occupy three separate CDs.
Included in the set is the suite from Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat", another of my longtime favorites (I still have the original Columbia mono LP of Stravinsky conducting).
Jim

With talk of audio quality and chamber music I must repeat my recommendation of Tacet series of DVD-A discs. (A German audiophile label).

In general, Mozart is the best classical composer to start with. He was the "Pop" composer of his day.

The idea of borrowing from a library and/or listening to classical radio programming is good. So too is going to live concerts, if you can do that.

A few clear things I've learned after all of your suggestions. I enjoy the weight, warmth (cello?) and body an orchestra can add to solo performances. I enjoy the dynamics between each in a concerto as long as the orchestra doesn't overpower the solo performance. This is not to say I don't enjoy the orchestra. I do very much so! It's just the piece itself I guess and the scale in which it was written, or the sound as a whole. I've began looking into double and triple concerti in an attempt to find a greater solo performance focus within an orchestra.

For example, I listened to Bach: The Art of the Fugue by The Emerson String Quartet. I really enjoyed this but missed the warmth, weight and body of an orchestra behind them. I know the piece isn't written for orchestra I'm just describing my experience. I have some clear directions now and I will continue to refer to this thread. I feel like I'm learning a new language. So many names, performances, styles, recording labels etc. etc!

Meisterkleef,
I think you were on to something. The Bach piano concerti flow very much like the violin concerto. If I warm up to the piano in a solo role these will be my first choice.

Jim!
The Be Good Tanyas, I am so frustrated with them. The music is absolutely wonderful!! I like everything I hear but.. the vocals! Most of the vocals are done in an alternative rock drawl I like to call "vocals on novocaine". I have the same problem with Bob Dylan although he isn't trying to sound like anyone other than himself. I may break myself of this hangup eventually though!

The Ahn Trio has some interesting material. I really like their Riders on the Storm! Swing Shift may take some time for me Jim. In all fairness I only listened to samples though. Not exactly an honest listen. I'm glad you enjoy the AK+US Live CD set. I should have recommended this to you before the "Now That I've Found You: A Collection". The Live set really is a full featured sample of AK and AK+US. I have this on DVD-Video and the Hybrid SACD set. Having owned the studio version of everything I can say the performance is great but perhaps a tiny bit cold at the start. Completely enjoyable and a first rate recording.

Back to the search..

Vedric--- I understand your frustration with TBGTs. As I indicated, their "Chinatown" was the first CD I bought, and it includes a libretto. I found this most useful in deciphering what was being sung, and particularly after I bought their other CD, "Blue Horse", which doesn't have a libretto. Perhaps I'm being naive about this, but I haven't once thought of their vocals as being affected. I simply chalked it up to maybe that's the way people talk in "their neck of the woods". (As a Tennesseean, I'll be the last to criticize one's dialect!!) I hope your frustration is not sufficient to preclude your actual purchase and extended audition of one of their recordings. But if it is... that's what makes the world go 'round, after all.

Your comment regarding your preference for a soloist or small group being backed by an orchestra strikes a similar chord with me, to wit: As much as I enjoy a string quartet, I many times feel something's missing, like little if any percussion, too much midrange, and insufficient bass, to put it in purely audio terms. I think this is the main reason I prefer piano trios, since a piano can sound like "an orchestra in a box", given the proper score and pianist. It can flesh out the presentation in the form of both percussion and bass.
The beauty part of the Ahn Trio (pun intended, since they are knockdown gorgeous ladies, in fact) is that, although classically-trained (Juilliard graduates), they delve into primarily modern music, most of which has been commissioned for them, in addition to older standard repertoire such as Haydn, Ravel, Dvorak, etc. They are a delight, IMVHO.
Jim

Hi Vedric,
When I was in the same spot as you back in the mid-1990's, I came upon a book called "Classical Music" by Phil Goulding which proved to be an invaluable tool for building a collection. It's written for the beginner, and it ranks the top 50 all-time composers (Bach is #1, Borodin is #50) and lists 5 essential compositions by each composer (Expanded lists are also included if you want more than 5 by a particular composer). With the help of this book I built a nice collection of music.
As for specific recommendations, I will throw out a couple of my all-time favorite orchestral pieces:

1) Petrushka - Stravinsky
2) Piano Concerto #5 - Beethoven
3) Christmas Oratorio - Bach
4) A German Requiem - Brahms
5) Slavonic Dances - Dvorak

To find the best loved performances of these and other works, Amazon.com reviews work great. To find the highest quality sound is more difficult. Sites like this one and SA-CD.net work fairly well. Also, certain labels such as Chandos and Hyperion are oriented more towards audiophile recordings, so go with CDs on those labels when you have a choice.

Enjoy the journey!

Tom