Denis Fodor replies to me:

>>...There are as many ways to enjoy classical music as there are people.
>>I would suggest listening to as much free stuff as possible --
>for example,
>>at the public library.  Make a note of what or who you like and explore
>>from there.
>
>This thread started with Peggy asking what she should get to start a
>collection of classical music.  What she gets from Steve, above, is a
>reasonable and amicable statement on his own behalf, but not relevant
>advice.

Sure it is.  And it has the advantage of costing nothing more than time.

>Starting a collection is tantamount to starting to learn to appreciate
>classical music.  The received way of learning is to start at the
>beginning and then proceed with things as they develop from there.

The received way of learning subjects that require progression is that way.
I doubt this applies to classical music, however, or any art for that
matter.

>You're not helped in an endeavor to start collecting classical cars by
>someone's advice to buy a 2001 model Oldsmobile, or any model-year of
>Rolls Royce.  To be sure, they're among the makes that date back far into
>automotive history, but that's all.
>
>The way to start anything is with the basics.

This implies that there are basic pieces and later you state outright
that if you don't know these pieces, you don't know classical music at
all.  I'm sorry, but no piece of music is absolutely indispensible to an
understanding of the art, not even Bach's Goldbergs.  The only thing that
truly guides anyone is one's own taste.  The rest is mainly advertising
with snob appeal.  My suggestion to the writer is to find out what her
taste is, as opposed to my taste or your taste.

My stomach twists about five different ways when I hear variants of We
Should All Know the Received Canon, when it's not really very clear what
that canon is.  This makes things difficult, I know, for some, and the
word "relativism" (as an insult) will probably get thrown around a lot at
this point.  But if we all had perfect taste according to some external
standard, art wouldn't be half the fun, because the fun lies in the risk
of *not* knowing.  Of course, we could always look at the programs of the
Munich Philharmonic.

Steve Schwartz