Recommend me some classical

[Candyflip]

My music library needs some culture. Outside of the more popular stuff (Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, etc) I've had zero exposure, and I feel compelled to broaden my horizons and all that jazz. So, where to start?

[TVC15]

What exactly are you looking for?  Symphonies, piano shit, string quartets, etc?  Shostakovich is my favorite 20th century composer, and he ended up doing a bit of everything.

[Smooth Groove]

Those dudes you mentioned were  the greatest composers.  Their reps were well deserved.  It'll take forever just to listen to everything that they wrote. 

Classical music isn't like other genres where some, no-name independent artist might be better than big names. 

[TVC15]

Yeah, for the most part, these are the names that are worth mentioning:



Starting at Monteverdi, really.  Classical didn't get interesting until the tail end of the Renaissance.

[Smooth Groove]

Awesome graph.  Where did you get it?

edit:Wiki,duh.  But what's the original source?  I'd like to find a good Classical music site. 

[TVC15]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music

Best part is that all the names in the chart are links.  It's been a very useful page for me the past year.

[GilloD]

I adore the modern minimalists, try John Adams. He's most famous for "Nixon in China", but "Century Rolls" has some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard

[Madrun Badrun]

Dvorak's 9th and his Slavic Dances. 
Beethoven's 7th and moonlight sonta
Bach's Brandenburg concertos   
Tchaikovsky's piano concetos
Chopin Nocturnes
Mahler's 5th
Mozart's 39th, 40th, 41st. 

I'd Start with the first three of those.  After that just download a top 100 classical torrent and just go though it and see what you like. 

[Candyflip]

If I had to pick I'd say I'm probably most interested in piano, but I'm pretty receptive to anything. That chart is fucking awesome; I guess I'll work my way through that and try some of the other stuff mentioned in here.

This is actually what sparked my interest in the first place but I have no clue where anything lands on the scale of great composers

[Bildi]

If you're interested in classical guitar there's a mountain of stuff, either orchestral music adapted for guitar or things specifically composed for guitar.

Augustin Barrios is my favourite composer.  If you are interested a good starting point is a CD by guitarist John Williams called "The Great Paraguayan" which is all Barrios.

[Powerslave]

This is fucking great, I'm gonna listen to some of these composers and appear very intelligent.

[permutated]

Chopin's Nocturnes are some of the most incredible pieces I've heard in my entire life, classical or otherwise.



http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Nocturnes/dp/B000005J03

[Oblivion]

Listen to Dvorak's 4th symphony.



It was used in One Piece with Luffy vs. Crocodile.

[Madrun Badrun]

I adore the modern minimalists, try John Adams. He's most famous for "Nixon in China", but "Century Rolls" has some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard

ewww just listened to it.  It was like listening to a distinguished mentally-challenged child with a stutter trying to talk.  I bet Whiteman would like it tough.  He's into that sort of thing. 

[inoperative]

Tchaikovsky. 1812 Overture is a good piece to start with.