Classical Music - Check this out!!

OP, I am assuming you want to build a collection BUT you are not familiar with Classical music? If that's the case, boy are you in luck! By any chance do you spin CD's? People literally are giving CD's away. 

Secondly, there is a company called "Great Courses" These are study guides on many subjects. I own one called "How to Listen to and Understand Great Music". You could likely pick it up dirt cheap. Again this is a CD collection. Maybe they are online at this point. I don't know. I could recommend a few CD's that I own that are very relatable. I listen to about anything with Neville Mariner like the soundtrack to "Amadeus" I have more excellent suggestions if you like. Joe

If you want to enjoy Bach, consider he is a BAROQUE composer, not a classical. There was no piano at that time, so discount any recording using the awful piano. Second, most performances use the dreaded vibrato as a sauce. However, according to JS Bach himself, vibrato is an ORNAMENT, ranked #13, so to be used very sparingly. For all baroque composers, Bach, Telemann, Vivaldi, Biber, +++, look for musicians using HIPP approach: Historically Informed Performance Practice. Eg. Tafelmusik from Toronto.

I agree with richardbrand - Presto Music is the real deal.

Completely agree that Presto Music is an outstanding resource for classical music!

In addition, I recommend the classical review magazine Gramophone: Gramophone – classical music magazine, podcast and reviews | Gramophone

The main blog is free but with a paid subscription Gramophone has thousands of classical recording reviews going back a century!

I also recommend the streaming radio channel Accuradio: Classical - Listen to Free Radio Stations - AccuRadio

Accuradio does not stream in high-res but does have a wide variety of hundreds of free channels and sub-channels including a classical channel with 84 sub-channels listed and described. Since it is free it does have some commercials, but I don't find them intrusive all things considered. For desktop background listening it is quite enjoyable. 

Hi,

The books by Bill Parker are a great source for comparing recommended recordings.

His earlier books are LPs focused, which covers the 'golden-era' of recorded classical music and which translates to CDs in most instances, for example. Carlos Kleiber's Beethoven 5th and 7th are at the tops of everyone's LP list.  They can be found on the same CD.

His later books are CD focused, so they may not include many of the 'golden era' LPs, but the great ones are usually there...

Have fun, and keep reaching-out.  This is an astoundingly large library of music to explore, collect and enjoy.