Ooh! Don’t forget about Holst’s The Planets
Don’t turn up your nose at it just because it’s become popular with the non-cogniscenti! It’s brilliant.
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Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade (I’ve got the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit.)
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Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (I’ve got Sviatoslav Richter on piano with Stanislaw Wislocki and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.)
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Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances (I don’t have this one currently, but it’s a childhood favorite.)
These three are “popular” - but that’s because they’re so good. #'s 1 & 3 tell stories. #2 is just plain beautiful (IMHO of course).
Happy listening!
Lots of great suggestions above. I would add:
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Overture to Romeo & Juliet by Tchaikowsky. Very different from the Prokofiev version. Leonard Bernstein’s recording is good, but if you can find a re-release of an old recording with Leopold Stokowsky and, I think, the Philadelphia Orchestra, it’s a dream. I had an LP, but it was literally worn out years ago.
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The Firebird Suite by Stravinsky.
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Hi, Opal!
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The Partitas of J. S. Bach recorded by the late Glenn Gould. Yes, you can hear his humming in the background sometimes, but they’ve never been played better. I once thought Bach would be stuffy and “mathematical,” but these pieces are perfect elegance.
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Any Chopin piano works played by Artur Rubinstein.
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Beethoven’s violin concerto. Lots of good ones out there, but I like the remastered Heifitz version best.
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In the dreaded opera category, if you’re interested, Bizet’s Carmen. An excellent version of the opera is available on videotape with Julia Maguinnes-Johnson in the title role and Placido Domingo as Don José. The video is done like a movie, with location shots in Siville. It may be more palatable to an opera newcomer than a staged version. Even if you’ve never heard it before, you’re likely to recognize a number of the themes.
As usual, I’ve gotten carried away.
Enjoy! 
THere is a reason the “popular” music is popular, because it is so good. Check out Shuberts 8th symphony or beethovens 5th. They are very good peices to start with. For opera start with Carmen or Madam Buterfly, they are both very beautiful. (I don’t spell very well)
K364, while I whole-heartedly endorse your suggestion of The Planets, let’s not forget there’s more to Holst than that one work. There’s a lot more to Holst than that one work. In fact, there may be an entire musical education in Holst. My personal favourites include Savitri, the Cotswold Symphony, Beni Mora and The Perfect Fool. YMMV.
Octavia Smythe-Bunion I. Esq. (thank goodness for cut and paste), if you like Borodin, what would you say to the 2nd symphony, or In the Steppes of Central Asia?
Have I mentioned Sibelius yet? Sibelius. Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, and the Fifth Symphony should give a good introduction, and I will throw in recommendations for Luonnatar and En Saga, purely on the grounds that I love them.
Steve (you can always call me “Octavia”) I can’t say that I’ve ever knowingly listened to either of those works. I’ve heard of Steppes at least. For the most part, my classical music tastes tend to be limited to what others on this thread have defined as “popular” - although this is changing as I get older. (Which isn’t to imply that Steppes and the 2nd Symphony aren’t popular - only that Dances tends to be the one I find on CDs - and usually is paired with one of the other Russians.)
…I’ll have to check those out. I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy more CD’s. Bwuh ha haaaaaaaaa!
Here’s a list of favorite classical songs? pieces? thingies? from someone who doesn’t know a goshdarn thing about classical music except what she likes to hear.
Mozart:
Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Horn Concerto No. 4
Piano Concerto #21
Chopin:
Minute Waltz
Beethoven:
Moonlight Sonata
Fur Elise
Ode to Joy (from Symphony #9)
Ravel:
Bolero
Handel:
Halleluhah Chorus
Water Music
Bach:
Air On G String
Concerto #5
Delibes:
Flower Duet
Satie:
Gymnopedie #1
Tchaikovsky:
Waltz of the Flowers
1812 Overture
Borodin:
Polovtsian Dances #1
So Qwertyasdfg…how goes the quest?
No-one’s mentioned Mozart’s Coronation Mass yet. I know this is subjective and all but I don’t think you’ll find anything better than the Benedictus from that work…
I like fugues! so I’ll recommend Bach’s 2 organ fugues as well as his Well-tempered Clavier. Look out for Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues – they are rare, but fun to listen.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
Most commonly heard as an orchestral piece, but originally written for piano and later transcribed for orchestra. I have a copy of the piano version on vinyl somewhere, which I haven’t listened to in years and keep meaning to look for on CD.
Also available is a "rock"version by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, which I found quite interesting. On the same CD you’ll find Nutrocker, a short piece based on The Nutcracker Suite.