Classical Music - Check this out!!

Gramophone and Presto seem to have got into bed together!

Certainly the reviews in Presto include summaries of Gramophone reviews, and more recently Gramophone pushes its recommended recordings to Presto.

Technically @oberoniaomnia is correct about baroque and Bach but I enjoy Bach in large-scale orchestrations by Elgar and Stokowski just as much.

I did float the idea of ditching the word classical (except when correctly used for Mozart etc) and substituting long music, but my boat sank.

@richardbrand for large orchestral works by Bach, possibly try Nederland's Bach Society. I heard them play the Mass in B minor in Berkley. Hearing it on gut strings at a' = 415 Hz, HIPP played, that is a whole new experience. They recorded it, though I don't have that 2x CD. 

Baroque playing is not about playing loud with vibrato sauce, but about gestures such as trills and note shaping (messa de voce, much easier to do with baroque bow than with modern Tourte bow). Listen for the type of trill used (starting upper/lower note, turn at the end, speed change, number of oscillations) and also variation on repeats, which are typically not written out, as the performer was expected to improvise "in the usual manner". Classical orchestras are clueless about all of the above. That's why they compensate by playing loud and hide their ignorance with vibrato sauce.

Current audiences are by and large clueless and just like loud music. I went to a Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra "Baroque series" concert, where the musical director massacred a piece on the grand piano, did not even keep the lid on, utterly killing the theorbo's fine plucking by Master Schneiderman. Theorbo and plucked harpsichord form the Basso Continuo portion of the orchestra. Con-certare (playing together) went out the window, just me-me-me. It was viscerally painful. The carnage got a standing ovation, because it was loud and loud = good.

Perhaps it is too soon to start a collection? I would research on YouTube first. Find performers that you like, especially for Bach. There are a few performers that I connect with so I buy or try to hear every recording they make. Very generally speaking the level of performance and quality of recording improves from year to year so it is almost hard to find bad recent recordings of standard repertoire. It will take time to develop your taste. Even though I am inspired by certain performers, really the music is the most important thing.