Classical Music - Check this out!!

@richardbrand I consider an early nudge in the right direction appropriate. It saves a lot of trouble down the road. As audiophiles want to reproduce the music as faithfully as possible, then the proper instrumentation of period pieces is part of that. I am fully well aware that the majority of people think Bach on piano (or synthesizer) to be perfectly fine. Most also stream MP3s over a Sonos speaker and think this is good audio.

Re improvisation, that is a central part of baroque music. Not just for a particular instrument, not just on cadenzas, but all over the place. This is what makes baroque playing interesting, as the written music is only a rough guide line. Consider the keyboard parts with figured bass. For the lower register, only a single note is given, and the keyboardist is expected to play a tasteful cord on that one note. That's just how baroque music works. 

I heard once some clueless classical performer play that lower register with just the one finger. Kind of comical, would it not be so sad. 

@oberoniaomnia 

I am glad to hear your partner appreciates appropriately played music

Funnily enough, this year’s Christmas concert by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra dropped Bach completely and featured a classical guitarist and, shock horror, music by living composers.

It had pieces by de Falla and Albeniz who are clearly post baroque.

In a reverse of the Bach piano controversy, Albeniz music, almost all written for the piano, was played on the guitar.  This is such common practice you could be forgiven for thinking it was originally guitar music!

I had problems with the link.

Are there specific works you are wondering about?

+1 for Presto.

My music collection consists of about 2,000 CDs, 2,000 LPs and 1,000 downloads - it has been built over 50 years.  

I do wish there were a term other than "classical", classical being, strictly, music coeval with Mozart, Haydn, early Beethoven, 1750-1820 are the usual dates. Western Art Music, perhaps, but that is a mouthful. My collection spans the period from Hildegard of Bingen (11th century) to Shostakovich (last work published in July 1975).  To my ears most of the attempts since then are noise - sometimes explicitly so with tin plates lying on piano strings etc.

Bach, and other Baroque composers, are a good place to start, but, as I have aged, increasingly I listen to the Romantics (later Beethoven, Brahms, Rachmaninoff) and early 20th century.

To find works, and performances, that you like, have you considered streaming, from Presto for example?  Presto sell an inexpensive streamer and the Bluesound Node is also Presto compatible.  That way you can listen, compare, and add the CD to your permanent collection later.

As an example of Presto's thoroughness there are over 150 (!) versions of the Cello Suites (at least one of which is a MUST HAVE for a collection). Similarly, they have over 160 versions of Mahler's 2nd Symphony (at least one of which is a MUST HAVE for a collection)..

Since Bach is a through topic here it is interesting to listen to both "authentic, period" performances and those performed using modern practices and instruments.  These comparisons show some of the richness of "classical" music, and how different artists find different musical expression in the same work.

For example, the Goldberg Variations.  Listen to Angela Hewitt and Glenn Gould - the notes are the same but there the similarity ends.  Then, add in Ralph Kirkpatrick (harpsichord).

For meticulously documented performances of Baroque & Early works DG's Archiv Produktion offerings are outstanding.  I have many Archiv LPs.

For later works the reissues of RCA's Living Stereo recordings are famous. (BTW, many are available on SACD, if possible, get an SACD compatible player).  The LPs are the fabled Shaded Dogs,

A subscription to Gramophone provides a fun and illuminating source.

Welcome to the world of "classical" music, I was brought into this as a 15 year old, 66 years ago, when the youth club in the small town where I lived would go to concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall in London.

@retiredaudioguy 

Agree, again!

Back in the old days when we had a dedicated classical music shop in Canberra, I was asked several times to curate (hate that word) a classical collection for novices.

I let the shop owner do a first cut, but always insisted that Elgar's Cello Concerto, with Jaqueline du Pre and Sir John Barbirolli, should be included.  It had always been full price, which says something!

Last year, it was the top choice of listeners to Classic FM by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.  Now it is included in a 7 CD set with other brilliant performances of Elgar's music, on special for about three bucks a disk.  See: Elgar: Orchestral Works - Warner Classics: 9029643842 - 7 CDs or download | Presto Music, but hurry the special closes on 7 January.