Greetings!!!

There is a wonderful guide:

"The NPR Guide to building a classical CD collection"

It lists 350 essential works with extensive notes on each.

You may be able to buy it from Amazon

Enjoy your journey

@oberoniaomnia 

As Sir Thomas Beecham said:

the British don't like music, they just like the sound it makes

This afternoon, and every year, my partner goes to a specialist Baroque Christmas concert led from the harpsicord.  I go shopping.

Another Beecham quote:

The harpsicord sounds like two skeletons copulating on a tin roof

Bach had to make do with the instruments he had, and unfortunately the piano was not one of them

i dont think there is progress in a technological sense with musical instruments.

Harpsichord to my ears sound marvellous in many case.

Piano too .

I think a didgeridoo is as valuable as an organ but the two are used in different context...

I am fascinated by Peter Pringles youtube site about ancient music and ancient instruments : 

Building My Replica Of The Gold Lyre Of Ur

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjTqKPaiip0

 Then  after building the old instrument  this 80 years old artist sing the hymn in  sumerian :

A Song Of Dumuzid And Inana In Sumerian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBa4FKj6ei8

«Music is our mother and too old to have any need for our progress»-- Anonymus mucicologist 

If you're "raised on rock n roll" then start with Baroque music (Bach, Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi) as this period has the most in common with what you are familiar with. Maybe start with really familiar stuff (Brandenburg Concertos, The Messiah, The Four Seasons) and build from there. You can move to the next period (Classical) with music of Mozart, Haydn and early Beethoven. Then maybe move on to the Romantic period with later Beethoven. This lets familiarity work for you.