Robert Peters wrote: >Not being an expert in classical music and not having a paramount view, >I nevertheless say that I have already built up a kind of list of my >favourite works from the material I know and already bought: it would >mean pain to me missing Schuberts "Winterreise", Brittens "War Requiem", >Schumanns "Dichterliebe", Mendelssohns "Midsummer Nights Dream", Mozarts >Piano Concert Nr. 27 (which helped me a lot during a operation under local >anesthetics), Bizets "Carmen", Mozarts "Don Giovanni", Ravels "Pavane pour >une infante defunte", Pergolesis "Stabat Mater", Mussorgskys "Pictures of >an exhibition", Beethovens 9th Symphony. Gappy though your selections may be, they still reflect a sophisticted taste. And just by reading the list for a week, you'll be able to pull at least 25 core classics. But for what it's worth, here are some of my own personal likes, leaning heavily toward chamber music: (I'm afraid 25 is too low a number) BACH: keyboard partitas & sonatas; cello suites; brandenburg concertos; st. matthew's passion MOZART: string quintets, clarinet quintet, clarinet concerto, piano concertos too numerous to mention, operas such as Marriage of Figaro, Cosi fan Tutti, Abduction from the Seraglio, Magic Flute BEETHOVEN: middle quartets, late quartets, late piano sonatas, Emperor & 4th piano concertos CHOPIN: nocturnes MENDELSSOHN: octet, trio Op 49 BRAHMS: clarinet quintet, sextets, clarinet trio, piano trios, violin & piano sonatas, violin concerto BRUCH: 1st violin concerto (not my favorite composer by any means, but this is probably the most brilliant example of the romantic concerto) PUCCINI: La Boheme, Tosca VERDI: Aida, La Traviata WAGNER: Tristan & Isolde, the four Ring operas, Meistersinger R. STRAUSS: Rosenkavalier TCHAIKOVSKI: Piano concerto #1, violin concerto, 5th & 6th Symphonies PROKOFIEF: 5th Symphony, Romeo & Juliet, Sonata for flute & piano Op 84a SHOSTAKOVICH: 5th Symphony, and try some of his string quartets I actually wrote an extensive list of this kind, but with annotations, for a twenty-something friend of a friend. I'll pass along the same advice to you as I did to him: consider each of these a link to more of the same--whether through the composer or the form or the performer. Enjoy! Dave Wolf [log in to unmask]