Deryk Barker responds to Peter Wisse's response to this thread:

>This person is just STARTING!  How about Beethoven sonatas & concertos,
>Mozart concertos (and sonatas I suppose), Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, etc.
>
>While I very much admire some of the music you've listed, I don't think any
>of it is really suitable for somone who's just beginning a collection.

While I agree that a basic, beginning classical music collection without
Beethoven and Mozart, etc.  seems wrong somehow, I strongly disagree with
the notion that there is some music that is not 'suitable' for beginners.
I started collecting about five years ago and almost from the start, I
collected Bartok and Janacek and Ligeti and Rochberg along with Palestrina
and Bach and Mendelssohn.  As far as I am concerned, there is only music
that appeals to me and music that does not.  I think the mystification of
modern music is simply ridiculous.  I have loved modern music for as long
as I have loved classical music in general and though my technical
education has been slow, that which I have managed to accumulate has not
convinced me that I am wrong.  Music is primarily an emotional experience,
and you do not have to be literate to respond to it, however it has been
put together.

Regards,
John Parker