Well-known music you've somehow overlooked (or never got round to hearing)

[Chronochromie]

I've managed to avoid...Prokofiev's operas, Gluck's operas, Handel's operas and oratorios except Messiah, most of Mozart's chamber music (I think I did hear some quartets here and there, but can't remember),  most solo piano music by Rachmaninov, most cantatas by Bach (but who has heard most of them, really),everything by Babbit, Palestrina, Boccherini, Donizetti and Bellini...

[Daverz]

I've managed to avoid...Prokofiev's operas, Gluck's operas, Handel's operas and oratorios except Messiah, most of Mozart's chamber music (I think I did hear some quartets here and there, but can't remember),  most solo piano music by Rachmaninov, most cantatas by Bach (but who has heard most of them, really),everything by Babbit, Palestrina, Boccherini, Donizetti and Bellini...

Funny, Prokofiev's Betrothal in a Monastery is one of the few opera videos I've enjoyed from beginning to end (I suppose it doesn't hurt that it features a very young and fetching Netrebko.). War and Peace has very good music, but there's no way it could ever be more than a gloss on such a huge book. 

Gluck arias are entertaining, but I've never heard a whole Gluck opera.  I don't listen to opera much at all, because I find following with a libretto tiresome, but I don't like ignoring the meaning, either.

I like some of Handel's theater works in English, e.g. Semele and Solomon.

I'm quite content with a smattering of Bach cantatas.  Never regret hearing one.

Babbitt is pretty easy to avoid, but who's to say I wouldn't love it.  Never trust the common opinion of music that got caught up in the culture wars. 

Palestrina...don't like a cappella choral music.

Boccherini I love, but I don't try to collect everything, there's too much that's merely pleasant.

[Daverz]

If I've heard Beethoven's 2nd I don't recall it.

You'll love it!

No Schubert in my collection.

That's like saying you have no music in your music collection!

[Gurn Blanston]

With Mendelssohn, chamber music really could be the best introduction. The piano trios, string quartets, sextet, and octet are all first-rate stuff. Of course, there's some great orchestral music too, but I don't seem to listen to it as much as the other stuff these days.

Mendelssohn also wrote the occasional great work for piano, if you're into that. Top of my list: the six preludes and fugues, Op. 35.

While in general I agree with this, not just for Mendelssohn but for many composers, my own introduction to Mendelssohn was a disk with the violin concerto (which genre I was infatuated with at the beginning) which also contained the 2 piano concertos. Serkin and Ormandy/Philly. Boy was I hooked, not only on Mendelssohn but on piano concertos too. IMO, Mendelssohn is one of those composers who repays your interest 100X over. Don't manage to avoid it forever! 

[Jay F]

I haven't listened very much to most of the British composers. I inherited a large CD collection over 20 years ago which included Britten, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Delius, and others, but I ended up selling them or giving them away. The British composers sounded to me like all the other British composers. I realized at some point I really wasn't able to distinguish one from another, and I had so many CDs all of a sudden, I figured I'd let them go to a more appreciative audience.

[Mirror Image]

I haven't listened very much to most of the British composers. I inherited a large CD collection over 20 years ago which included Britten, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Delius, and others, but I ended up selling them or giving them away. The British composers sounded to me like all the other British composers. I realized at some point I really wasn't able to distinguish one from another, and I had so many CDs all of a sudden, I figured I'd let them go to a more appreciative audience.

This really should be in the 'Unpopular Opinion' thread, because the comment "The British composers sounded to me like all the other British composers," really is discouraging to read and makes me question how much time you actually spent with any of these composers' music. If you think Elgar, Delius, Britten, or Vaughan Williams sound alike, then I also question your ability to distinguish any composer of any nationality apart from the other.

P.S. This post is not meant to spark a negative reaction and I apologize if you take this the wrong way. I'm just baffled by your post.

[Daverz]

This really should be in the 'Unpopular Opinion' thread, because the comment "The British composers sounded to me like all the other British composers," really is discouraging to read and makes me question how much time you actually spent with any of these composers' music. If you think Elgar, Delius, Britten, or Vaughan Williams sound alike, then I also question your ability to distinguish any composer of any nationality apart from the other.

A friend of mine calls England "Das Land ohne Musik."

[Daverz]

I haven't listened very much to most of the British composers. I inherited a large CD collection over 20 years ago which included Britten, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Delius, and others, but I ended up selling them or giving them away. The British composers sounded to me like all the other British composers. I realized at some point I really wasn't able to distinguish one from another, and I had so many CDs all of a sudden, I figured I'd let them go to a more appreciative audience.

I bet many of us did crazy things 20 years ago...

[(poco) Sforzando]

most cantatas by Bach (but who has heard most of them, really)

I beg your pardon. Some years ago I embarked on a project to hear all the cantatas, 60 CDs from Harnoncourt/Leonhardt box. A most enlightening experience. I admit I haven't tried to go through all the secular cantatas . . .

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I haven't listened very much to most of the British composers. I inherited a large CD collection over 20 years ago which included Britten, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Delius, and others, but I ended up selling them or giving them away. The British composers sounded to me like all the other British composers. I realized at some point I really wasn't able to distinguish one from another, and I had so many CDs all of a sudden, I figured I'd let them go to a more appreciative audience.

I think Ferneyhough and Purcell sound rather different

[Jay F]

This really should be in the 'Unpopular Opinion' thread, because the comment "The British composers sounded to me like all the other British composers," really is discouraging to read and makes me question how much time you actually spent with any of these composers' music. If you think Elgar, Delius, Britten, or Vaughan Williams sound alike, then I also question your ability to distinguish any composer of any nationality apart from the other.

P.S. This post is not meant to spark a negative reaction and I apologize if you take this the wrong way. I'm just baffled by your post.

The topic is simply "music you're managed to avoid." This is my answer.

Thankfully, it was so long ago, I can't really answer any of your questions, ability questioner slash non-negative-reaction sparker. Stay baffled. You wear it well. I'm going to go listen to Mahler now. Bye.

[(poco) Sforzando]

A friend of mine calls England "Das Land ohne Musik."

That was first said some 100 years ago by a German critic, Oscar Adolf Hermann Schmitz, who felt that "nothing on earth is more terrible than English music, except English painting." You'd have to have a heart of stone not to find that extremely funny, but if there's any music I try to avoid, it's modern British. Bring down your howls of derision, but (exceptions here and there) I really can't abide most of Vaughan-Williams, Elgar, Delius, Tippett, or Britten. Now English literature is a whole different story . . . .

[Mirror Image]

The topic is simply "music you're managed to avoid." This is my answer.

Thankfully, it was so long ago, I can't really answer any of your questions, ability questioner slash non-negative-reaction sparker. Stay baffled. You wear it well. I'm going to go listen to Mahler now. Bye.

[Chronochromie]

I beg your pardon. Some years ago I embarked on a project to hear all the cantatas, 60 CDs from Harnoncourt/Leonhardt box. A most enlightening experience. I admit I haven't tried to go through all the secular cantatas . . .

I knew there would be someone! 

[Daverz]

I try to avoid, it's modern British. Bring down your howls of derision, but (exceptions here and there) I really can't abide most of Vaughan-Williams, Elgar, Delius, Tippett, or Britten. Now English literature is a whole different story . . . .

I'm sure those composers share much DNA, but to mix metaphors, that's a big sloppy brush you're painting with.

[amw]

To clarify, the topic of this thread was not about music you heard and didn't like, or music you intentionally ignored because you didn't like the composer/style/whatever, or about whether "masterpieces" are a thing and whether one "should" listen to anything; it is specifically about famous pieces of music (or whatever) that you did not listen to, or even perhaps hear of, for a long time relative to the amount of time you have spent listening to classical music. So not "I never listened to Scheherazade because I can't stand Rimsky-Korsakov" (or even "I listened to the first 10 minutes of Scheherazade but got distracted/bored/whatever") more "I never listened to Scheherazade because I overlooked it, thought I'd heard it already, lost the CD, didn't know the piece existed until five minutes ago, or just never got around to it for whatever other reason".

[Monsieur Croche]

I haven't listened very much to most of the British composers. I inherited a large CD collection over 20 years ago which included Britten, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Delius, and others, but I ended up selling them or giving them away. The British composers sounded to me like all the other British composers. I realized at some point I really wasn't able to distinguish one from another, and I had so many CDs all of a sudden, I figured I'd let them go to a more appreciative audience.

Lol. This really does best suit the "Unpopular Opinions" thread....
"British composers sound like all other British Composers."

I can well distinguish between them, while there is that comment on "all those" you've mentioned, including especially the late romantic and early to mid-twentieth century British composers -- by another British composer, Elisabeth Lutyens.

She lumped that lot altogether and called the genre "Cowpat Music."

Now, there is a truly British-style all-inclusive dismissal 

[Karl Henning]

While in general I agree with this, not just for Mendelssohn but for many composers, my own introduction to Mendelssohn was a disk with the violin concerto (which genre I was infatuated with at the beginning) which also contained the 2 piano concertos. Serkin and Ormandy/Philly. Boy was I hooked, not only on Mendelssohn but on piano concertos too. IMO, Mendelssohn is one of those composers who repays your interest 100X over. Don't manage to avoid it forever! 

Very Nearly Thread Duty:

In fact, I had somehow managed to avoid the Mendelssohn pf concerti for (say) four decades;  but once I heard 'em, I loved 'em.  (The vn cto, of course, was an immediate hit.)

[Karl Henning]

That was first said some 100 years ago by a German critic, Oscar Adolf Hermann Schmitz, who felt that "nothing on earth is more terrible than English music, except English painting." You'd have to have a heart of stone not to find that extremely funny, but if there's any music I try to avoid, it's modern British. Bring down your howls of derision, but (exceptions here and there) I really can't abide most of Vaughan-Williams, Elgar, Delius, Tippett, or Britten. Now English literature is a whole different story . . . .

There may therefore be a Britten piece you can endure! I am curious . . . .

[Florestan]

Very Nearly Thread Duty:

In fact, I had somehow managed to avoid the Mendelssohn pf concerti for (say) four decades;  but once I heard 'em, I loved 'em.  (The vn cto, of course, was an immediate hit.)

I once heard a famous Romanian pianist, with an excellent technique but a rather limited repertoire and who has long since disappear from concert stage, declaring Mendelssohn´s piano concertos to be idiotic. I have never understood what he meant by that or why he felt the need to say that.