Classical music newbie needs your suggestions

Mahler's First and Fourth Symphonies. Tunes. Drama. Worlds so real you find yourself walking around in them. Planet Earth in music. And yeah, Bernstein is a pretty good bet.

Chopin's Piano Etudes played by Maurizio Pollini. Things don't get much more virtuosic, passionate and romantic. Chopin and Pollini wear their hearts & souls proudly on their sleeves.

BTW, there's no math in these works. No intellectual concepts to tackle. Just stories told in music, with a few thrill rides thrown in to add spice..

Mozart's Symphony #29. Genial, happy, and loaded with tunes.

@jdougs  I've had a full on passion for Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto ever since I was about ten years old and my dad gave me a William Kappell/Antal Dorati mono LP of it in an attempt to get me to pay more attention to the piano in the living room. It didn't help my piano-playing motivation much but it did make me an intense fan of the piece. I've never stopped listening to it. It's been surging through my being for about sixty years now. It's still the performance I listen to the most.

I've got an update concerning my Jones for Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto. Try the performance by Marta Argerich on piano and Claudio Abbado conducting the Berlin Phil. Modern sound. Anger, energy and spirit to spare.

By now I'll bet you're googling the recommendations here and then zooming them through your system. Have at it! Go for it!

Right now I'm on Qobuz enjoying pianist Theo Fouchenneret do the Beethoven Waldstein and Hammerklavier Sonatas. If perhaps not the most outstanding performances I've ever heard, they are passionate, intelligent and virtuosic. Big round tone. If you got Qobuz, it's worth queuing up.