For those of you who care, or are looking for something maybe you haven’t heard before, here are some of my favorite classical works. I’ve included covers and links to Amazon because these are my favorite performances of these works. You can get quite a big discrepancy between different performances of the same works. And thanks to the audio samples available at Amazon, you can get a good feel for what each piece is like. These are some of my favorites (wow, there’s a lot of Russian/Slavic pieces):

Large Works
St. Matthew Passion, by J.S. Bach (one of the greatest musical masterpieces of all time!)
Requiem, by Mozart
Requiem, by Verdi
Vespers, by Rachmaninov (two very different recordings, both excellent)
Symphony No. 9, by Dvorak
Requiem, by Durufle
The Planets, by Holst
Symphony No. 9, by Bruckner (probably the best recording since the 1944 Furtwängler recording)
Symphony No. 5, by Shostakovich (his son, Maxim, is conducting this one and, while there are tons of other versions out there and this one’s hard to find, it’s still my favorite) (the Haitink is very good also)
Symphony No. 3, by Mahler

Symphonic Poems
The Isle of the Dead, by Rachmaninov
The Noon Witch, by Dvorak
Fantasia on a Theme By Thomas Tallis, by Vaughan Williams
Marche Slave, by Tchaikovsky
Second Essay for Orchestra, by Barber (all three are good, but I especially like #2)
Capriccio Italien, by Tchaikovsky
Russian Easter Overture, by Rimsky-Korsakov
Appalachian Spring, by Copland
1712 Overture, by P.D.Q. Bach

If you don’t listen to any of the others, get the Bruckner 9 and listen to it. It was unfinished, meaning he died after only three movements were completed (four was the normal number of movements in a symphony). That third movement is so moving and poignant, you’re sure that Bruckner knew he was going to die and was writing his elegy. Sit in a quiet room somewhere and just immerse yourself in this symphony. I swear, if you let it touch you, you’ll be in tears by the end.