How to go about collecting Classical Music


At age 68 I’ve started to like Classical Music. It’s been mostly Jazz, Rock n Roll, and R&B up to now. I’m familiar with those genres, know their history, artists, and how to best and most economically acquire their recordings. Not so the Classical repertoire which covers a much longer time period and encompasses so many styles and forms.

What genres and/or periods of Classical music should I be exploring? I’m not looking for recommendations on particular composers or artists, only genres or periods. In Classical music there is orchestral music, chamber music, opera, church music and who knows what else to try out. Maybe you could advise me, if you wouldn’t mind, of some types to try? Or maybe you could recommend a book on the subject that would help a rookie get a start understanding what’s out there.

In buying classical music, for any one work, there may be innumerable recordings by various artists, orchestras and ensembles. How do you sort out which recordings you want in that respect. For example, I looked up Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring on Ebay last night to get some idea of pricing and what classical music available there. There were so many recordings of that work, I would have no idea how to sort out which would have been a good choice. Are there web sites where there are recommendations on which recordings are most exceptional? Or alternately, are there classical record labels you can rely on routinely to provide superior quality recordings? I’ve heard Deutsche Gramophone may be a reliable label for one, but that’s about it. Could you recommend any other labels to look for?

There seems to be a lot of Classical music in SACD format relative to Jazz or Rock n ’Roll. Is there some reason for that? Should SACD be the format of choice for purchasing Classical music, or is there good classical material in Redbook format to be found? I prefer to stay away from used vinyl due to condition issues, or new vinyl due to cost. I’m guessing the better dynamic range of CD’s lends itself to orchestral music. Is there any market for used classical SACD’s? Are there any sites you prefer to purchase your Classical CD’s, either new or used?

I grew up on Long Island. On one trip to midtown Manhattan I walked into an old church not too far from St. Patrick’s to view its’ magnificent stained glass window. Once inside I heard some equally magnificent classical organ being played. I discovered the church’s incredible organ was being played by some of New York City’s finest classical organists who would book time to practice on it. That large church was always deserted, and I went back many times for what amounted to free private concerts. I’d like to know what kind of music that was to try and replicate that experience to some degree at home, From what I’ve read here and elsewhere there surely is a plethora of other wonderful Classical music to explore and enjoy. Thanks in advance for any advice,

Mike






skyscraper
@skyscraper    My list of suggestions was in historical/chronological order.  If anything you listen to stands out, we can give you further lateral suggestions to explore.

Different music historians are going to use different terms, but it goes pretty much:
Renaissance
"Stylus Phantasticus"
Baroque
Roccoco
"Classical"
early Romantic
mid-Romantic
late-Romantic
Modernist
avant-garde
20C
minimalist
    A book you might want to consider is "The Indispensable Composers" by Anthony Tommasini, who is the chief classical music critic for the New York Times. It’s a brief history of classical music, roughly in chronological order, with lots of suggestions for what to listen to. It focuses on his favorite composers and types of music, so it leaves out a lot and you wouldn’t want to limit yourself just to the things he recommends, but it’s a good starting point.
    A good website for reviews of recordings is ClassicsToday.com. If you want access to all the reviews you have to pay an annual fee, but a lot of the reviews are available for free.
    HRAudio.net has reviews of hi-res recordings. Most (but not all) of them are classical.
   The stores Presto Classical and ArkivMusic aggregate reviews from many sources on their websites.
Years back I bought someones classical collection of about 1000 LP's. Slowly working through them but I must say it does not grab me like the other albums in my collection - Jazz, R&B, Rock. There is also a great variation in recording, with the Mercury Living Presence  mono recordings being extremely well recorded considering their age - mid 50's. https://www.speakerscornerrecords.com/news/details/4/mercury-living-presence-the-history
jpwarren -- I love going to classical concerts.  Of course, when I lived in SoCal it was so much easier to do.  No matter what the venue, I knew every parking place that was both nearby and easy to escape from when the concert wrapped up.  Had my share of season tix at Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium.
Brownsfan and Twoleftears gave you some good info. Them and Discogs. With Discogs you’ll probably pay $2-3 a disc.  I’m also 69 and was introduced to classical in college by another student who did a good job introducing me. So here’s my plan. Find a copy of Ted Libbey’s “NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection.”  How’s that for right up your alley? 
Since you liked the church music, why not get E. Power Biggs Plays Bach in the Thomaskirche. That’s a Columbia Masterworks release, which are always reliable. Mine is on vinyl, but open a Discogs account and look. Bach is a great place to start, so get the Brandenburg Concertos. I bet Neville Marriner and The Orchestra of St. Martin’s in the Fields has a good recording.  That puts you in the Baroque era. Vivaldi, Telemann, Corelli are all representative. Before them are Dowland, Tallis, Byrd.

next is Classical era. Find Hayden’s last few symphonies, No. 99-104. Then Mozart (I’m going forward in time here), late symphonies No. 36-41, piano concerto 17, 20, 21, opera overtures (Marriner again) Clarinet Concerto (Anthony Pay), horn concertos. Beethoven symphonies — directors von Karajan, Bernstein, Bohm all good — piano concertos, No. 5 is the biggie, 1-4 good, too. Violin concerto. 
I need to condense. Getting into Romantics. Chopin, Etudes, Waltzes, piano concerto 2; Tchaikovsky Sym. 4-6, piano concerto 1; Dvorak, Sym. 9, Smetana, The Moldau; Wagner, opera overtures only; Mendelssohn, Midsummer Nights Dream, Violin concerto, Sym. 3;  Brahms, Sym. 4, piano concerto 2; Rimsky-Korsakov, Pictures at an Exhibition; Respighi, The Pines of Rome, Ancient Airs and Dances; Mahler, Sym. 1,4, 5. Holst, The Planets

flying fast.  Prokofiev, Sym. 1, piano concerto 3; Rachmaninov, Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini, piano concertos 2-3; Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, The Firebird, Petroushka; Vaughan Williams, Greensleeves, The Lark Ascending, Variations on a theme by Thomas Tallis; Carl Orff, Carmina Burana; Gorecki, Sym. 3 (Sorrowful Songs); Arvo Part, Tabula Rasa, Sym. 3. 

Should have just left it at the Libbey book! Cheers.