Hi Peggy, umm...  you're just starting, huh? A lot of the works (in fact,
the majority) you listed I myself won't touch, and I've been into classical
for nearly a decade-and-a-half...  almost all of them wouldn't be
considered "basic" or "good foundation" works...  and several really appeal
to only the tiniest of niche audiences...  by all means, start out with
the big ol' names-- Beethoven (concertos/symphonies), Brahms (C/S), Bach,
Chopin (certainly for piano!), then expand (i.e.  first maybe Ravel or
Debussy, then Bruckner or Mahler...  then who knows where you'll go).  But
sheesh, you thinkin' of starting out with Ives, Berg, or Webern??? Any one
of those would be a super tough nut to crack!!

As for individual works on that list...  to me Adams' Harmonielehre is
pretty new-age-like cool(Simon Rattle's is a nice version).  Although
perhaps not appropriate for foundation-type exposure to classical music,
just about all of Ravel's pieces are voluptuously beautiful (PIANO
CONCERTOS!!!  Zimmerman's recording is fantastic!).  I'm myself a Mahler
man, and supposedly Karajan's Symph#9 is the one to have (although many on
this list will most vociferously protest that opinion!!).  And Also Sprach
Zarathustra...  that's a good and famous one...  for me either the 1980s
Karajan or Fritz Reiner's.

As for Pollini, there is a recording on DG's "Originals" of him playing
Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Webern...  while the works get less and less
approachable as the CD goes on (what the heck is there to the Webern?? IT'S
JUST BANGING!!:-P), the Stravinsky piece (Petrushka) is faaaaantastic...
now them's is some fingers!!

Best of luck!

Albie