In somewhat of a direct reaction to watching Nodame on Flyin's recommendation, I got reminded why 'said title' genres of music I have not dealt with almost at all. Ive always been interested into getting into it but I find it really intimidating and little idea of what to start with. The anime took somewhat of a critical stance of said music as times, and honestly I have to say I was a bit lost. I mean, I can watch something like BECK and understand everything they talk about in terms of technique and the like. whether or not I can actually play guitar well, I can still hear and distinguish differences.
The main problems I have with it is that mainly I find that its a field that requires one to be a highly active listener which most people like me who have no classical music training do not have. i.e. I can hardly tune a guitar by ear let alone distinguish between small variations in sound. I definitely respect music a great deal and am always actively trying to expand my depth in it, but I find its somewhat hard when it comes to such things as classical music. This sort of leads to my second problem, as most of this music precedes the recording era....well I mean all of it, there isn't such a thing as an "album" by said artist. Its always ... plays ... i.e 'some' orchestra playing lets say some Shostakovich piece.
Problem being, I think most people in the same boat as me will listen to any recording and think, hey this sounds cool but have little idea on how to gauge what is a better playing or what not. Lets take for example that Im interested in getting a recording of Symphonie Fantastique, Im sure more then one group has made a recording of this, how does one go about actually knowing what is good or not? This is probably a really stupid question but yea.....please if possible enlighten me if you can.
Lastly, I know at least this type of music is seriously meant to be heard live and not as a recording as you dont get the same dynamic levels you can experience in real life through a digital cd or the like. So given the situation, what is the best way to listen to this as a recording? headphones, vinyl, etc..?

And on to the main question, what are some good recordings to start with....as I assume that the answer to most of my questions is just to listen to said stuff...alot.

You've given the answer to most of your questions already: listen to said stuff and over time you'll learn to hear the differences (especially when you hear some good recordings). I have no classical music education too, but I've listened to this kind of music for some time (not anymore though I still like it). For some good recordings you can search for music played by:
- Berlin Philharmonic (Berliner Philharmoniker)
- Vienna Philharmonic (Wiener Philharmoniker)
- London Symphony Orchestra
- Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest)

EDIT: Concerning your question on the best way to listen to recordings: That really depends. If you have some high-end headphones (e.g. Sennheiser HD 595 -- I have one of these and yes I'm a headphone freak^^) that would be the best way, but if you don't speakers might be better. I don't know about vinyl, I'm all for CDs.

Oh, yeah, you might want to check out the Hungarian Dances by Johannes Brahms, one of my favourite pieces.

Haha yay! You started it! Do you like it in general??? This show is so good it's breaking my heart right now XD

In terms of the music... I can't say I'm a classical music expert at all either, especially with regards to orchestra pieces. I played piano for a long time though, so... I think first thing is, with regards to the music critique in the anime anyways, to take it with a grain of salt. I definitely wouldn't say the scores were super amazing renditions, and I'm sure they loop the same tracks for different people/groups playing the same piece. Parts of it I can pick up the fact that they're trying to incorporate the Nodame factor - to play with more "emotion," less regard for technique, etc. Whether it actually is more emotive sort of depends on the listener. So I don't think you'd have to worry about feeling lost per se; I don't think the producers really expect the audience to be very well primed in the quality of classical music.

I think you're right that the answer to your question is just to listen to it a lot :D I guess the thing is with classical music is that to a certain extent, it is really subjective to the interpretation of the orchestra and it's conductor. And then it's subjective to the preferences of the listener as well, in my opinion anyways. If you wanted to pick up "good" recordings, you could look for recordings done by highly regarded orchestras. Here's an article I just googled up, I'm sure you can find more recommendations out there on a variety of different orchestras.

[edit: got overtaken by events - I started typing this before IceHand's post, so some redundancy, etc.]

Short answer: If all you want is "how to gauge what is a better playing or what not" - simply take a few recordings by famous performers - acclaimed soloists, big name orchestras under famous conductors. Compare. That's about it. There's no absolutely "correct" answer, but there is some consensus on how each piece should be rendered.

Long answer:
Imho classical music is a lot more than just "technique and the like", or how "the original band played it". You're (mostly) right about the music predating the recording era. (There are recordings of later 1900s stuff.) That's why interpretation has large part to play in classical music - how can you be sure if the composer intended a certain piece to be played in a certain way? You don't really know, usually. But it doesn't matter because the "free play" is there for different interpretations of the same music; performers can decide to portray the music in different ways. The downside of that is that it complicates matters for people like you, because it's no longer just a matter of whether the music is played well or not. (In fact, technical quality is a non issue since it's almost a given in any big name recording).

Having said that, there are, for some pieces, "authoritative" recordings that would be instructive to listen to. As you may guess, this means performed by a particular famous soloist / orchestra / conductor / etc. (Symphonie Fantastique? Trying the London Symphony under Sir Colin Davis.) There are also some peformers and groups who tend to specialize a lot on a particular composer's music or a particular period and they could be seen as more "expert" since they would have studied the works of the composer/period especially closely, and might arguably have a better understanding of the styles or trends thereof. And then, there are just some unique or plain bizzaire interpretations that you can't miss simply for the novelty of it.

Another issue is whether the "sound" is authentic. There are groups who go all the way and do it with period instruments, but the general trend is that this isn't a big issue. Still, just as food for thought, consider the following: piano pieces ~ 1700s are probably nothing like you usually hear them, because early pianos simply didn't have the dynamic range and power that modern painos have. Or how about the size of orchestras? The modern orchestra is much bigger than one from the classical era, for instance - the power and balance are clearly going to be different. It begs the question, which is "correct" - to try and render pieces in the way that they would have sounded in their time, or to try to figure out how the composer might have done it if "superior" instruments were available?

A different kind of "authentic sound" problem is when you *do* have "legacy recordings", i.e. 20th century pieces. Do you try to use the (poor audio quality) recordings as a basis for comparison?

I'm not an audiophile so I can't really answer your question about headphones or vinyl or whatever. >_<

As for recommendations - depends what piece / composer / period you're interested in, then it's more realistic for us to try and give some representative works/recordings. In general, listen to famous stuff by famous performers. I'll add to IceHand's list of orchestras; I'm quite a fan of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, do give them a shot. Also check out conductors like Herbert von Karajan, Arturo Toscanini, Leopold Stokowski, John Barbirolli, Thomas Beecham, Adrian Boult, etc. Well, that's assuming orchestral stuff, if you'd like to explore chamber music, solo pieces, vocal stuff - I guess we can come up with lists for those too.

But yeah, it's basically LISTEN MOAR.

There's also a good classical music livestream:

The audio quality is so-so (96kb/s) and it's a German radio station, but the latter shouldn't matter for the music :P
They are playing soundtracks, jazz and lounge too sometimes depending on the time of day.

Icehand, thanks for the recs, but do you have specific releases that I should check out? I have Berlin Philharmonic's Symphonie Fantastique which I liked alot, but nothing else. And not to mention, I havent heard a different recording of this so its hard to really gauge it to anything else. Ill definitely search the others up though and see what I can come up with. Oh and do you have a fav/rec recording for the Brahms?

I was figuring cans were the way to go. Speakers pretty much don't work on my attempts unless I blast it and have little outside noise. Im using AKG K280s with a CMOYamp that Ive quickly soldered to take a 9v adaptor and that seems to offer good depth to most of what I listen to though a little muddy. Im gonna guess soundstage is more important above other factors for this type of music, which the 280s are strong in as are the Senns you have, though...I have bad experiences with that brand personally which is why i opted for AKGs. Also, I got them for dirt cheap which is always a plus, 70 bucks used, and in relatively good condition given its been OOP. Might invest in a closed set as well, as I get alot of noise pollution mainly from comp whirring like mad and desk fan to fight summer heat.

I admit I'll most likely be downloading most if not all right now. I just asked about the format as I'm looking to invest in a vinyl setup for a small selection of older releases, mainly jazz probably, that will just sound a crapload better on that format then on digital. Well...everything sounds better analog but thats a whole other discussion and ultimately not always worth the effort+money.


and yea Flyin, like I tihnk i said in the other thread, I finsihed Nodame actually. Shit made me cry inside....uh...... Oh and yea, I wasnt really considering the actual music in Nodame as anything, its more the dialogue and subject matter peaked my interest. Kind of like how the music in BECK is shit, but what they talk about in terms of sound is very relevant and real. Yea.....Im thinking just looking up orchestras is the way to go now so Ill probbaly just do that.

Well, I'll just list some pieces that I like, but I don't know your preferences so you might not like them. And as for the recordings I generally like recordings played by the Berliner Philharmoniker and the London Symphony Orchestra, but again this is a matter of preferences (as hamstersanonymous has explained in detail already^^). Anyway, here we go:
- Hungarian Dances by Johannes Brahms (my favourite recording is by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan)
- Serenade For Strings/Czech Suite by Antonin Dvorak
- Eine kleine Nachtmusik ("A little night music") by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Piano Sonata No. 2 by Ludwig van Beethoven
- Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg
- Gymnopedies by Erik Satie
- String Quintet in E-dur by Luigi Boccherini

Some good new classic (single tracks):
- Oblivion by Astor Piazzolla
- Coultergeist by Phil Coulter
- Cancion Triste by Jesse Cook

But if you want to download the stuff, you'll probably have a hard time finding it. You could search for Karajan Gold, that's a nice collection and easy to find.
Btw, aren't the AKG K280s some good 10 years old? And bad experiences with Sennheiser? That's unfortunate, I never had any trouble with their headphones (had 3 different -- yes you can call me a fan^^;;)

Good recommendations, especially the Gymnopedies. ^^

Adding to the list again... more baroque and late-19th to 20th century pieces, to round it off some.
- The Four Seasons - Antonio Vivaldi
- Bach's Goldberg Variations (Glenn Gould's 1982 recording, just because it's so controversial.)
- Smetana's The Moldau from Ma Vlast
- Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture (if possible, by Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops w/ Kiev Symphonic Choir)
- Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man

Those are some nice selections. The Moldau is very awe-inspiring, and great example of a symphonic poem (conveying the Moldau river).

More to the list:

Handel - Water Music (Suide in D Major)
Stravinsky - The Rit3 of Spring (especially part 2)

Some good solo performances:

Franz Liszt - La Campanella
Clara Schumann - Scherzo Op.10
Bach - Prelude and Fugue in C minor (from well-tempered clavier)
Chopin - Mazurka in A Minor Op.17 (Wladislav Szpilman recording), Nocturne in C#m/Em/Cm, Ballade No. 2 in F Major (Janusz Olejniczak recordings)