How to go about collecting Classical Music

Primephonic+1. Not long ago they were running a half-price sale. One problem with Primephonic though, is that you are constrained to their app or a web interface. Can’t use my Innuos Zenith. One is similarly constrained with Idagio.

Larryi, +1 on the Schubert quintet and Winterreise. I have only 5 recordings.

Between lps and cds I have around 1000 disks. This is a small collection compared to those of many in this thread. A big problem with even 1000 is to get around to listening to everything. There is a big temptation to settle in to 30 or 50 disks that you just love, and visit with them again and again. I finally decided I needed a listening strategy. Mine is to take a week or so every month and binge by category -- an opera binge, the next time a chamber music binge, etc. I’ve found that not only do the binges force me to listen to stuff I might not have gotten around to in a less structured way, but my set of favorites slowly evolves. However you do it, this is something to think about. With 150+ Bach cd’s, it’s just going to be hard to manage, and if you listen to them all at once you will learn to hate Bach.

You are in for a great adventure!
The are some caveats: performance quality and recording quality rarely match up. You can find most great performances in mediocre quality, and the best quality recordings often have material that (as many say) should never have been recorded, and we would not have lost anything. As the saying goes, they most often press only that material in high quality that would otherwise never sell. Vice versa, if people want to hear it, why bother with quality, just press more of the weak recordings. This is a kind of pun, but unfortunately stems from life. For example, Angel and Seraphim have excellent interpretations of the Baroque era, but their recording quality is generally the lowest of all. (Except for the newer Angel digital, which is pretty good, and you will mostly find that on CDs - but their older analogue recordings are quite poor in quality, using second hand master tapes.)
First, your task is to figure out what you like.There are landmarks, who are the giants of classical music.
Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven is the immortal trio upon which practically the rest of classical music is founded upon. I would advise to get acquainted with them first, to get a strong foundation.
The modern composers (such as Stravinsky, etc) offer a very different perspective.They mostly use the same instruments, but the purpose of the works is just about the opposite.Bach, Mozart and Beethoven is all about meditation, beauty, harmony, exploring your inner universe and linking it to the outside world. When you find such works in a good interpretation and good recording quality, it leads to powerful healing and inner growth. Restores you, even saves your life when you have a super stressful job or going through desperate times in life. They also give inspiration - for example, Mozart was Einstein's muse...

Modern composers do the opposite: they explore the outside world, take you for an ecstasy ride, they delve deep into excesses, horrors and terrors of history. Drama, drama and more drama - the more grand, ostentatious, unpredictable, the better. They are suitable when your life is spot on, no worries, and you need some excitement in your life, and want to experience extremes. Listening to much of this music will gt you energized and ready to act, but often leave you unnecessarily agitated and unbalanced. Just to stick to Einstein's opinion, he used very harsh words to describe many modern composers, I am very civil with my descriptions.

That is the general tendency, but there are always exceptions - there are plenty of healing works in modern music (Gustav Holst has that effect on me), and some WTF moments for baroque composers. But, the general tendency is there, and the vastly different expectations of the ages, what people expected from their contemporary music in eg the XVI century and today are vastly different.
I second HM, DG, Telarc, Teldec, EMI, DECCA, London, Telefunken, RCA LSC as superb sources. You can also go for Hyperion, Unicorn, Delos, L'oiseau Lyre, these are superb, smaller labels of high quality. 

Although I have a sizeable classical CD collection, I mainly listen to classical on LPs. Do not be afraid of the condition... yes, sometimes LP used condition is terrible, but you can find pristine early pressing treasures which completely redefine quality listening experience. Get 2-3 copies of the same LP for 1-2$ each, keep the best and you are still under 5$ budget per record. It will be a great experience: how vast a gap there is between two copies of the same recording. While digital format (to me) is perfect for pop and electronica music, and modern sounding recordings, but classical connects much more on LP. Digital somehow convey too much control: can work well for modern composers, but spoils Baroque ambience completely. Although there are some labels that do a pretty good job on CD with baroque classical music, Dorian comes to my mind with fantastic classical CDs.

For LPs, a secret is boxed sets. They cost very little, and are most often in mint condition: maybe Side A of the first record was played once, and that's it. That's the flip side of box sets as well - you can have the best recordings, and they are worth next to nothing if you try to sell them. The exception being the sealed box sets, which go for ridiculous money. Once you remove the plastic cover, you have knocked off a zero from value.
In your place I would start discovering Bach first, then a little Mozart and Beethoven. Then Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Ravel, Holst, Mahler, Shostakovitch, Mussorgsky. You can also expand to medieval music and renaissance (going back in time). That's also a very different kind of music

Also, be aware of the conductors. Their interpretation impacts the piece greatly. For example, a Mozart piece can be conducted to sound as a Beethoven piece, or Bach to sound like Khachaturian. There is a great nimbus for such performances (called modern interpretations), but you want to stay away from those at first, to get a feel for the core and the tradition.

Have a great journey!

Of all the genres of music I shop for, I've been the most fortunate at purchasing super cheap classical vinyl in near mint condition.  I think it is because classical music listeners tend to take better care of their vinyl and own better turntables that don't damage the grooves.  There also doesn't seem to be as big a market for used classical vinyl, either.  I've found huge collections dumped at the strangest places, a thrift stores in Ridgecrest California, a Goodwill in Lancaster CA, a book sale at the local community college, HPB, etc.  I'm cool with you not wanting to go that route, though.  Leaves more vinyl for us less fortunate vinyl junkies.

Telefunkin, I especially like to find records just like you describe. My late wife loved to go antiquing, but hated when I stumbled upon some bins of old records. And from limited looking through the classical records you find that way, you're right that they do on the whole look to be in much better condition that rock n' roll or jazz records you find . I'll have to start looking again, after having mostly switched to used CD's on Ebay. to avoid the condition issues. From what you are saying we do frequent many of the same type places, albeit on opposite coast.

Realworldaudio, thank you for your informative post. I will be pay careful attention to all the labels you mentioned above, both good and less so. That is valuable information to have. I haven't come across any used boxed sets of classical music, but have not looked either. I'll keep my eyes open. I hear what you are saying about avoiding "modern interpretations". The box set of Bach I'm waiting to get in the mail goes in the other direction, even using period instrumentation. I'd prefer to experience the music the same way the composer would have.

I am considering getting the Deusche Grammophon Beethoven complete works set next, but need to research it more as some here have been disappointed with DG's recording quality in years past. The rest of the artists you mentioned I'll have to try piecemeal to get a feel for what is most enjoyable, Same with conductors, orchestras, individual performers and the like.

Label19, it will probably take years to get though all 157 of the Bachs, but will be fun to do so. I'd only listen to one if I felt like it. Its been fun having  63 Miles Davis records and CD's to choose from, and I never seem to tire of them. My listening to parts of my collection tends to come in jags, and I'll plow through different parts of mf maybe 1500-2000 records and CD's depending on what interests me at the moment, based on sometimes nothing more than catching a few minutes of an artist on TV or maybe. reading a reference to an artist here

Mike.

While I think some of the guidelines offered above are helpful in making initial selections, they should not be treated as "rules." One of the best things about classical music and performances thereof is how wide open and varied are the possible choices. 

Should performances try to adhere to original interpretations (however that may be divined) and be played on original instruments?  I have many recordings that purport to be such "historically informed performances" and I do like some, but, I also appreciate performances that are decidedly not in that camp.  For one example, I would not rule out Glenn Gould piano performances of Bach keyboard pieces just because the piano had not yet been invented.  I even like some modern transcriptions, such as Bernstein's string orchestra version of Beethoven's late string quartets (No. 14 and 16, I believe).