Ten Composers.......one piece each.

[Tsaraslondon]

Yours seems to be the best beginner list so far (of course next  to mine), most of the other posters recommendations would "scare" me away from Classical Music for good.  While they may enjoy lots of long symphonies these are too difficult for beginners.  For example I love the symphonies of Mahler and Shostakovich but I would never recommend a neebee try these first!  For Shostakovich the Festival Overture, Hamlet, The Bolt, The Age of Gold, The Jazz Suites and Tea for Two would be better entry points.

I believe Symphonic Poems, Overtures, Ballet and other music with lots of tonal color and rememberable melody lines are much better place to begin with any composer.   I think posters are losing sight this is supposed to be a starter list for beginners!! 

Thank you, Teresa. That is what I tried to provide. I don't think I was an unusual teenager. I still had a healthy love of pop music, though I did come from a musical family. My father was an amateur musician, who was musical director of many of the local operatic societies, albeit those who put on musicals and operetta, rather than opera. My mother sang, my brother was learning the clarinet and I the piano. Music was always part of our daily life, though not necessarily classical music. It was really a family friend who got me into classical music, and I will remain indebted to him for the rest of my life. He was quick to understand and see which pieces I responded to, usually, as you say, pieces with lots of tonal colour and memorable melody lines, and gently led me along my voyage of discovery; one I am still enjoying to this day. Appreciation of the core classics (Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Mozart, Schubert etc came much later), but I think it is probably down to him that, now in my 50s,  I have such wide ranging tastes. Really there are very few areas of classical music that I don't enjoy or appreciate on some level.

[techniquest]

These would be my recommendations:

Rimsky Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture
Orff: Carmina Burana (all of it - not just the 'O Fortuna' bit)
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No.1
Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture (Fingals Cave)
Britten: Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra
Borodin: Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
Ravel: La Valse
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Janacek: Sinfonietta
Arnold: Concerto for 2 Pianos (Three Hands)

That should keep you going for a nice day's listening

[Teresa]

These would be my recommendations:

Rimsky Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture
Orff: Carmina Burana (all of it - not just the 'O Fortuna' bit)
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No.1
Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture (Fingals Cave)
Britten: Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra
Borodin: Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
Ravel: La Valse
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Janacek: Sinfonietta
Arnold: Concerto for 2 Pianos (Three Hands)

That should keep you going for a nice day's listening

Excellent choices, I know them all except the Malcolm Arnold piece.  I love all the Malcom Arnold works I have tried so far so I guess I will be looking for the "Concerto for 2 Pianos, three Hands"  Have you heard Arnold's "Tam O'Shanter"?  It's one of my favorites.

[c#minor]

Mozart: Requiem
Ravel: SQ in F
Beethoven: "Tempest" Piano Sonata
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 or PC No. 1
Dvorak: New World
Bach: St. Matthew Passion
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 or Piano Quintet in f minor or PC No. 2
Chopin: Ballade in g minor
Rachmaninov: PC No. 2 or Symphony No. 2
Sibelius: Violin Concerto in d minor

I could live if only these pieces of music existed, though the world would not be as happy of a place.

[dave b]

Mozart------horn concertos
Vivaldi------Four Seasons
Respighi----Ancient Airs and Dances ( I know, I list this on every single forum I get on)
Telemann---Trumpet Concerto
Bach-------Brandenburg Concertos
Berlioz-----Racosky March (spelling)
Vaughan Williams---Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus
Dvorak---Cello Concerto
Holst----The Planets
Corelli----Concerti Grossi, Op. 6

[vandermolen]

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

Beethoven: Symphony 7

Bach: Goldberg Variations

Schubert: Unfinished Symphony

Vaughan Williams: Tallis Fantasia

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra

Sibelius: Symphony 2

Thomas Tallis: Spem in alium

Shostakovich: Symphony 10

Copland: Third Symphony

[Christo]

Respighi----Ancient Airs and Dances ( I know, I list this on every single forum I get on)

No problem!

That is to say: as long as you're referring to the Third Suite of these Antiche arie e danze per liuto from 1932 - for Strings alone, and vastly superior to the first two sets (imho, of course).

[Daedalus]

Here is my list for beginners.

I have been listening to classical for just over a year and so it isn't that long ago that I was a beginner myself. In fact, I still consider myself to be a neophyte - with all of the music out there, I probably will always feel this way! 

The following were the ten composers and pieces of music that I first listened to and thoroughly enjoyed.
Each piece listed caused me to further investigate each of the composers mentioned.

Bach - Brandenburg Concertos
Beethoven - Symphony no. 5 or no. 7 or no. 9 (take your pick)
Brahms - Symphony no. 3
Dvorak - Cello Concerto
Elgar - Cello Concerto
Handel - Music for the Royal Fireworks or Water Music
Haydn – Cello Concerto 1 or 2
Mahler - Symphony no. 1
Mozart - Clarinet Concerto
Sibelius - Symphony no. 5

D.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Okay; I'll have a go:

Korngold - Violin Concerto

Roussel - Bacchus et Ariane (Suite No. 2)

Delius - On hearing the first Cuckoo in Spring

Debussy - Fêtes (from the Nocturnes)

Beethoven - Egmont Overure

Wagner - Siegfried's Rhine Journey (from Götterdämmerung)

Liszt - First Piano Concerto

Ravel - Ma Mère L'Oye

Stravinsky - Firebird Suite

Rachmaninov - Symphonic Dances

[rockerreds]

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

Beethoven: Symphony 7

Bach: Goldberg Variations

Schubert: Unfinished Symphony

Vaughan Williams: Tallis Fantasia

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra

Sibelius: Symphony 2

Thomas Tallis: Spem in alium

Shostakovich: Symphony 10

Copland: Third Symphony

Nice list.

[Don]

Bach - Well Tempered Clavier
Beethoven - Hammerklavier Sonata
Mozart - Mass in C minor
Brahms - Handel Variations
Shostakovich - Sym. 10
Weinberg - Violin Concerto
Miaskovsky - Violin Concerto
Schumann - Davidsbundlertanze
Chopin - Op. 28 Preludes
Debussy - Piano Etudes

[vandermolen]

Nice list.

Thank you!

[greg]

Or the teacher who introduces them them to jazzified Mozart's and to the eternal masterpieces of Sade (the singer, not the author  )?

MUCH worse.

[op.110]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
Brahms: Violin Concerto
Bach: Well Tempered Clavier
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2
Schubert: Unfinished Symphony
Liszt: Piano Sonata
Dvorak: Symphony No. 9
Mozart: Requiem

[Teresa]

Okay; I'll have a go:

Korngold - Violin Concerto

Roussel - Bacchus et Ariane (Suite No. 2)

Delius - On hearing the first Cuckoo in Spring

Debussy - Fêtes (from the Nocturnes)

Beethoven - Egmont Overure

Wagner - Siegfried's Rhine Journey (from Götterdämmerung)

Liszt - First Piano Concerto

Ravel - Ma Mère L'Oye

Stravinsky - Firebird Suite

Rachmaninov - Symphonic Dances

Excellent choices!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Excellent choices!

Thanks! I imagined myself to be, say, a 12-year-old - I am sure one of these pieces would have thrilled or moved me...

[PSmith08]

Bach: Das wohltempierte Klavier I
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Beethoven: Symphony no. 9
Brahms: Symphony no. 1
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
Bruckner: Symphony no. 8
Mahler: Symphony no. 6
Bartók: String quartet no. 5
Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms

[Opus106]

To the potential classical muisc fan: tune into a good classical radio station, listen to it for a two or three hours, if you can, and start exploring the music from all the works you like.

[Grazioso]

Yours seems to be the best beginner list so far (of course next  to mine), most of the other posters recommendations would "scare" me away from Classical Music for good.  While they may enjoy lots of long symphonies these are too difficult for beginners.  For example I love the symphonies of Mahler and Shostakovich but I would never recommend a neebee try these first!  For Shostakovich the Festival Overture, Hamlet, The Bolt, The Age of Gold, The Jazz Suites and Tea for Two would be better entry points.

I believe Symphonic Poems, Overtures, Ballet and other music with lots of tonal color and rememberable melody lines are much better place to begin with any composer.   I think posters are losing sight this is supposed to be a starter list for beginners!! 

It's the long, supposedly difficult symphonies of composers like Bruckner and Mahler that helped spark my interest in classical music. There's a good chance someone coming to classical music for the first time is specifically seeking out something more complex, challenging, and emotionally involving than the sorts of simpler music they might have been listening to previously.

[LVB_opus.125]

Bach: Brandenberg #2
Beethoven: 9th Symphony
Dvorak: 7th Symphony
Wagner: Orchestral Highlights*
Handel: Water Music
Schumann: Fantasy in C
Brahms: 4th Symphony
Chopin: Nocturne, op.9
Mozart: Requiem
R. Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
Holst: Planets

I know that this is all day one stuff, but it's best to start off with warhorses and these works all stand up to most seasoned listeners.

*I can't very well recommend a WHOLE opera for beginners, but they must have some exposure to Wagner, regardless.