What a great thread and so many great pieces.
I started listening to classical seriously when I was in Jr High and was at a JC, somewhere in PA where I heard a quartet playing Pachabel I believe. It was great so when I returned home I found a radio station that was a Classical Station called KkHi in SF. They played Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi and Tchaikovsky, Handel and Grieg and Debussy. So that started me on the journey of my addiction to home audio equipment and classical music.
my favorite symphony
So getting to favorite classical pieces, I lean more towards the Baroque Composers, the transition Classical period from Baroque and handful of Romantic period and the Russian composer onslaught of the 19th Century and I do like 20th century American Composers.
The labels or orchestras I buy are as follows in no particular order-
• Sir Neville Mariner and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (Murat Perahia Bach Keyboard Concerto’s No 1, No. 2 and No. 3
Philips digital recording of Mozart Requiem
Deutche Grammephon Digital Recording of various composers (Albion’s Adagio Pachebel Canon Berliner Philharmonic with Herbert con Karajan
Telarc produced some good ones-Handel Water Music
These are just a handful of the awesome world of Instrmental Symphony, Orchestratrated and Quartet as well as Opera music to enjoy.