Was I ever that young ?
Personally, I’d stick to v. Weber, Wagner, Elgar, Bruckner and other romantics such as Mahler to ease into classical music. If he prefers the earlier masters, Haydn and Telemann are good.
This may sound a bit off, but how about a subscription to emusic.com and let him pick for himself? Or a gift card to itunes?
They let you play samples to see if you want to buy/download something. Let him graze for what he might like. Perhaps Amazon also has gift cards …
I suggest emusic because it has a large selection of all sorts of music.
Yeah, a nice Sennheiser headphone would be a better gift if he’s using some crappy headphones.
Not classical music but a classical musician. English violinist Nigel Kennedy has recorded some interesting non classical stuff that is still informed by his classical background.
East Meets East with the Kroke band is Eastern European folk
The Kennedy Experience is his interpretation of Hendrix songs
of course he has recorded all the great violin classics
I like your choices, even if I think it’s gauche to exclude any of the Hungarian dances. 
What my concern would be is figuring out what period he likes best. The OP said he heard him listen to Mozart, which may be a real like of the one composer, the period or something else. I love early music; Bach, Telemann, Monteverdi, Palestrina, and even further back, and yet I always seem to get Chopin and Tchaikovsky as gifts. It’s not that I dislike those two (far from it), but I much prefer Baroque and Renaissance. Judging by the pieces the OP threw out it sounds like he prefers 19th century stuff.
If I was forced to go with a box set, I would buy
this. It’s got Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Handel. That’s a pretty good spread, and I have a soft spot for Szell’s heavy handed conducting of “Music for Royal Fireworks.”
I love all stripes of classical music but I bolded the odd composers here. :eek:
You want to ease someone into classical music with Wagner, Mahler and Bruckner? That’s like easing someone into reading with a copy of War and Peace!
I don’t know where you live, but see if there are any live classical concerts nearby.
Thanks again.
don’t ask, he might enjoy your suggestion a lot since he got to play with “The Mark Wood Experience” last year. The Mark Wood group comes to your school and the whole school orchestra rehearses with the group all week, then puts on a big, loud, smoke machine and and laser light show like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdHB0AWVQT8
My son really enjoyed that. I found the whole thing incredibly corny, but it was nice to let the orchestra kids know they don’t have to stay in their seats or limit their playing to one type of music.
I think my son likes drama and romance in classical music, so I’m looking at the suggestions above for those qualities.
Check your libary for the videos of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts. They might be a bit too elementary for him, but Bernstein is always entertaining. Later in the series he uses then-current rock music as examples of some concepts.