Where To Start...

[Vanillawafer]

I must confess, I don't know much at all about classical music.  During my lessons growing up this was never forced upon me, and being a kid I took no interest in learning about classical music, or listening to an for that matter.  I would really like to give it a try as I'm now 28 and just in the past 2 months, after about a 10 year break, started taking piano lessons again.  My question is where does one start?  Can anyone recommend some good classical music to start listening to, possibly a CD or Two or Three   I must admit I find the selection and information about classical music quite over whelming, and I think some of it has to do with the titles of pieces and such... it just all looks like a foreign language to me... Probably because it is    Thanks a bunch for the help and recommendations!

[dveej]

A good book to use for deciding what to listen to is The Record Shelf by Jim Svejda. It has many editions; but any would work. Svejda lists recordings by composer and recommends his preference as to recording artists and as to the composer. He is informed and succinct and fun to read. He's not the final authority, but his book is a good place to start.

Another good book is Classical Music for Beginners. It is in comic book format.

Basically, any musician with decent training should know about the four major periods of music history: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary, and should have a sense of what each period is like, and should be able to name four or five famous composers from each period.

Once you know that stuff, then you should start to branch out and learn more periods (Ars Nova, Renaissance, Impressionism, Empfindasmer Stil, galant, etc.).

The whole point is that you get the tools you need to be able to CARE about all this stuff. It's all for the sake of you liking music more, so you should approach it as a treasure hunt in which there is all this free treasure for the taking, and there is so much you can't take it all, so you have to pick and choose which treasure you think is the prettiest! Not because you're going to go sell the treasure to someone else; but because you want to look at the treasure for yourself.

Have fun! I envy someone who is about to discover the bounty of classical music: you're in for a big treat!

[steinwayguy]

A really really great CD is on amazon- "The #1 Piano Album". Corny, yes, but extremely good content. My favorite from this CD is Misha Dichter's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 which is absolutely phenomenal.

Here's the link:
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000075A7R/qid=1118773143/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-2633344-5354465

[c18cont]

After you do as already suggested,

Try reading along on some scores while you listen....lots of fun once you get going, and makes the music take on new meaning...

Many things are widely available, and your local Community college can help with used materials from the bookstore...the prices are not bad on used...and many used book stores in general have music books...and usually at VERY cheap prices...

John Cont

[Vanillawafer]

Awesome!  Thank you so much for all the help, I'm excited to dig in