The WNYC Classical CD Buyers' Guide

To the uninitiated, walking into the sedate, glass-encased classical section of a record store can be a daunting experience. Suddenly, you're faced with a bewildering assortment of recordings (and often dozens of versions of the same piece) and seldom a road map to navigate by. In response to this all-too-common predicament, the Music and Interactive Media departments of WNYC have developed this practical guide to building a classical CD collection. We'll help you get to know the musical masterworks of past and present through a representative selection of essential recordings of major repertoire.

We've selected discs that not only feature the most compelling interpretations and the finest sound quality, but will, with any luck, stimulate your hunger to learn more. Wherever possible a moderately priced recording was selected, with attention given to letting you discover the widest range of orchestras, conductors, and soloists.

Symphonic Works
From Beethoven and Mahler symphonies to Strauss and Stravinsky tone poems, orchestral works have been the backbone of the classical tradition since the 18th century. In short, this is classical music in its biggest, boldest, and most public form.
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Chamber Music
Intimate and personal in scale, chamber music encompasses everything from string quartets to piano trios to brass quintets. While its public function often seems to be background music for weddings and cocktail parties, it's also where some of the classical music's most adventurous ideas are nurtured, and where interaction and dialogue reign supreme.
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Concertos
A child of the Baroque, the solo concerto did not come of age until the last decades of the 18th century, largely through the efforts of Mozart. Since then the genre has grown in stature and scope, embodying classic concepts of contrast, struggle, and competition.
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Opera
Long before the Three Tenors and before "divas" became a staple of MTV, opera was the popular entertainment of the 19th century. No doubt the likes of Puccini and Verdi would be heartened to learn that opera only gets more popular: Surveys have shown that opera attendance has steadily risen over the past two decades, and that many listeners are young (one-third of the U.S. opera audience is under age 35, according to the National Endowment for the Arts).
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Solo Keyboard Works
Historically, the piano was the most accessible and powerful medium of music for the common man: domesticized by the widespread availability of the upright piano and relatively inexpensive sheet music. It was the emergence of a succession of outstanding, even mythical performers, however, that truly deepened the public's enthusiasm for the instrument.
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Baroque and Early Music
The Baroque period, usually reckoned as 1600-1750, covers an impressive historical era, one that marked the Age of Reason in philosophy and science; Milton, Swift, and Moliere in literature; and Rembrandt and El Greco in painting. Bach, Vivaldi or Handel are the musical titans of this period, and today they're hotter than ever, thanks to a new generation of early-music specialists.
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