Bill Pirkle wrote:

>If you had to select 10 compositions to introduce someone to classical
>music which ones would you choose? Remember, you don't want to turn
>them off with works that are hard to understand.  They should include
>symphonies, concertos, and trios, quartets and piano works.

Seeking breadth, while vitiating the less-accessible

Bach's B-minor Mass
Beethoven's Symphony 5
Beethoven's Piano Concerto 5
Beethoven's Moonlight Piano Sonata
Catakini's "La Wally"
Dvorak's Symphony 9 (New World)
Finzi's Love's Labor Lost / Clarinet Concerto
Grieg's Holberg Suite
Handel's Water Music Suite
Haydn's String Quartet Op. 76, No. 3
Holst's The Planets
Mahler's Symphony 9 (Barbirolli)
Mozart's Jupiter Symphony
Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances
Schubert's Trios
Sibelius' Symphony 5
Sibelius' Violin Concerto
Tchaicovsky's Piano Concerto 1
Vivaldi's Four Seasons

So much for "ten." To limit one to ten and simultaneously desire the whole
spectrum of styles and periods is just not reasonable (although someone, I
hope, will be better able than I to try).

My own view is that the symphonic form is the most colorful and engaging
to the novice.  I've tried to cover different musical periods as well as
different musical forms, including an opera.  I was very tempted to include
Pachebel's Canon in D, but Baroque is already well represented.  A solo
violin piece would be appropriate, but I can't stand them, so none is
included.  Only two choral works are included and none from the present
age.  But, as the recent discussion of Janacek and Dvorak suggest, choral
music is neglected at our peril.  The Trio form rarely excites me, and
Haydn's Trios could easily supplant Schuberts.  Only one tone poem is
included (Holst), but any by Sibelius, Dvorak, and to a lesser degree,
Strauss, could be added.  Delius, Rodrigo, Bartok, and Stravinsky would
be good second-level choices.  Wagner's overtures would also be a good
second-level choice.Two conspicuous absentees are Chopin and Brahms.  To
select one piece from Chopin's ourve is just not possible; and Brahms,
while better known, isn't always better liked.

D. Stephen Heersink <[log in to unmask]>