nomadologique posted:

Hey, I'm looking for some help getting into classical music.

For many years, I have listened to it on public radio, Pandora, Last.fm, whatever -- and I have enjoyed it immensely -- but I am literally undiscerning. As in, I cannot recognize a piece or know if I have heard it before, I have no sense of time periods, regions, composers, styles, forms, etc.

So what I'm looking for is a widely-varied "starter list" (or multiple starter lists), recommended samplings of many places and times so I can start to get an idea of what I like and what I'm hearing!

The other day I was listening to the radio and they played Bach's Violin Concerto #1, and it was the first time I ever listened to a piece of classical music as a unique object: i.e., "This is Bach's Violin Concerto #1, which is not any other piece of music in the world but itself." That is something I would like to add to. So I'm humbly asking for help.

Thanks in any case!