Clemency Burton Hill published a book called Year of Wonder (it’s still on The River)
There is a piece of music for everyday some popular some more obscure each is accompanied by a description
There is also an Apple Music playlist to accompany it
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What non classical music do you listen to normally?
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Many of my suggestions will be repeats, but I’m going to limit myself to chamber music.
Bach - cello suites, lute suites - then violin sonatas and partitas.
Mozart - string quartets 14-23, clarinet quintet, clarinet trio
Haydn - string quartets op. 76. If you like those, Haydn wrote many more. Any quartet with an op. number of 20 or higher is worth a listen.
Beethoven - the string quartets. Start with op. 59. Piano trios
Schubert - Trout Quintet, String Quintet (for me the most beautiful musical work ever composed), octet, piano trios
Brahms - Piano Trio op. 8, violin sonatas, clarinet quintet. Brahms published 24 chamber works. With the arguable exception of his three string quartets (put them off till last), they are all worth checking out.
Debussy - string quartet
Ravel - string quartet, piano trio
If you want to explore 20th century music, start with the Shostakovich string quartets.
And for something completely different:
Feldman - piano and string quartet. Listening to it in a dead silent environment is the closest I ever get to meditation.
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Thank you all for your suggestions - there’s a lot to look into!
I listen to everything practically other than classical. I have a few few classical compilations but would like to listen to full pieces rather than snippets you hear in commercials and film sountracks.
I listen to a lot of technical Prog, Heavy Metal stuff i.e Dream Theatre, Rush, Joe Satriani and such and love to hear intruments playing off each other, which is why I mentioned Quartets in my first post above.
Listen to Schubert’s Arpeggione then. It’s scored for piano and cello. The best (musically speaking) recording of this I think is Benjamin Britten on piano and Rostropovich on Cello and they hand the music backwards and forwards to each other in a most beguiling way.
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In that case, just buy yourself a set of Beethoven’s Complete String Quartets, some of the greatest music ever written by a human being.
The Quartetto Italiano (on Philips) are unmatched, four people playing as one, all captured in glorious analogue sound.
The Vegh Quartet (led by the wonderful Sandor Vegh, whose constant sniffing, very well captured by the engineers, almost turns the pieces into Quintets) is less polished than the Italians, but arguably quite a bit deeper in feeling.
Both the Veghs and the Italians are quite old (analogue) recordings, and you may want to try a more modern grouping, such as the Belcea Quartet in lovely modern digital recordings for EMI.
The easiest advice is to say buy all three sets. All are very special, and none is likely to disappoint!
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Thanks Graham
I’m in the same position. I’ve a few things I like that I’m familiar with, but I’ve no in-depth knowledge about what’s what.
However, I’m slowly expanding my Favourites list by keeping some Classical radio stations playing while I’m pottering about the house of reading or the like. Every now and then when my ears prick up because I’m hearing something I like, I investigate and save whatever version I find via my Qobuz account on to my FOCAL & naim app. 
Why not listen and watch. I have this video on DVD. It features five great performers (although Mehta switched to conducting), all in their youth.
Absolutely agree.
Do ask away here, and I’m sure that there will no shortage of Members keen to put forward their advice.
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Do give Radio 3’s Record Review a listen - 9:00 to 12:15 every Saturday morning, Mike.
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Have ordered from Presto on your recommendation
Just ordered the The Quartetto Italiano (on Philips). I’m sorry to be a bit thick, but the other suggestions are the same pieces by different Quartets? The Vegh I can only find second hand for around £60 - £130.
Thanks for the recommendation … Pete
That’s great, Ian, have you ordered the Barbirolli or the Hickox record?
I very much hope that you won’t be disappointed with either, the symphony is such a wonderful piece. I find that it’s a bit like listening to RVW’s ‘Tallis Fantasia’, in that it seems to transport the listener back in time.
But, of course, you will make up your own mind!
Incidentally, isn’t this Forum a wonderful way of being able to transmit our mutual musical inspirations?
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The Hicox , after your recommendation (and Presto had it top of their list, which seems to be a hint)
Yes, Pete, exactly the same music, but each sounding very different at the hands of different players.
I always try to buy at least two recordings of any Classical music that I love. That avoids me falling into the trap of thinking that any single recording of a Classical piece is ‘definitive’ in some way. For example, I happen to believe that Carlos Kleiber’s recordings of Beethoven’s Fifth and Seventh Symphonies are the very best that I have ever heard or am ever likely to hear. But I have recordings of the symphonies under the direction of a number of other conductors who approach them quite differently. As a result, I think that I have a far better understanding of what Beethoven wanted me to take from his work than ever I would do if I only knew the piece from one conductor.
That’s my take, anyway.
I find that the same can work for modern music too. I have a much higher estimation of, say, some of Bob Dylan’s best work by having heard it sung by other artists such as The Byrds, Jeff Buckley or even (in one famous case) Jimi Hendrix.
Wondering which other species have contributed to the genre.
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That was my own little joke to myself (after I had just contributed to a discussion on the possibility of aliens in a completely different thread on the lovely Concorde airliner).
I was also remembering being amused by blurb that I have on the original paperback copy of Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting’, which is along the lines of the best novel ever written by man or beast. I would quote the actual wording, but I’m away from home at the moment.
I see. My interest was piqued, as the none of the alien composers I’ve met have had a vast classical repertoire. Synth obsessed, most of them.