Classical Music Favorites

These recommendations from many people have been compiled from various online newsgroups and message boards over the years. I've left duplicate recommendations intact so that you can judge popularity of different works.
See also our list of Classical Music Books with links to Amazon.

Albeniz

Iberia (Larrocha, London)

Bach

Brandenburg Concerti Menuhin Seraphim 2fer (bargain)
Orchestral Suites Pinnock
Mass in B
Goldberg Variations Glenn Gould (Sony)
Goldberg variations (Gould, 1981) Sorry, Matthew Tepper!
Sonatas and Partitas for violin (Szeryng)
Well-Tempered Clavier (Feinberg)

Bartok

Concerto for Viola and Orchestra Christ/Ozawa/BPO
Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta Ozawa/BPO
String Quartets Juilliard Quartet

Beethoven

Missa Solemnis
Piano Concerti Fleischer & Szell
Pno Cntos- 3cds Sony Fleisher/Cleveland/Szell
Piano Sonatas Op. 109-111 (Richard Goode)
String Quartets, you might start with a middle period set (Opus 59), if you don't want to get all 16 Piano Sonatas, you've already started exploring worth continuing
Syms:1 & 6 RCA Chicago/Reiner
Symphonies 2 & 8 EMI LCP/Norrington (digital/ period inst)
Symphonies 3,5,6,7,8 and 9 at the least
Symphonies 3&8 Sony Cleveland/Szell
Symphonies 4 & 6 Sony Columbia SO/Walter
5th / 7th Klieber DG Originals
Symphonies 5&7 DGG BPO/Kleiber
Symphonies 5th and 9th
Symphony No. 6 (Karajan, DG)
Symphony 7 don't have a good recording of this
Sym 8 Harnoncourt
Symphony 9 (Furtwangler, Reiner, Szell or early 60's Karajan)
Symphony 9 Tahra Philharmonia/Furtwanlger (1954) (mono) or DGG Staatskapelle Dresden/ Sinopoli (digital)
Violin Concerto Heifetz
Violin concerto (Oistrakh, Heifetz, among others)
Piano Sonatas ("Pathetique", "Tempest", "Appasianato", "Moonlight", "Pastorale" various
Triple Concerto (Oistrakh et al),
Piano Concertos
Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7
Missa Solemnis (Toscanini 1940, Levine)
last 3 sonatas, op. 109, 110, 111 (I like Arrau, Fischer, Hess, Michelangeli, etc. in these pieces, but a fine, available disc of all 3 is Brendel's newest one)
symphony #9 (there have been many great performances of this work. I have no real preference amongst the various Furtwaengler's, Toscanini's, Klemperer's, Kubelik, Karajan, et. al.)

Berlioz

Symphony Fantastique Stokowski

Borodin

Symphony No. 2 (Gergiev/RPO, Philips)
Sym 2: Seraphim VPO/Kubelik

Brahms

Pno Ctos- 2 cds DGG Gilels/Jochum
String Quintet in G, Op 111 Berlin Philharmonic Octet
Symphonies Walter
Sym 1. Either Furtwaengler/Hamburg or Karajan (DG Originals)
Symphony 1 Bruno Walter (Sony)
Symphony No.1 Klemperer. EMI
Symphony 1 (Szell)
Syms: 2 & 3 Sony, Columbia SO/Walter
Sym 1 Tahra NDRSO/Furtwangler (mono)
Sym 4 DGG VPO/Kleiber
Symphony #3 (Abbado)
Piano Concertos
symphony #3+4 (Klemperer)
Violin Concertos Heifetz, CSO, Reiner. RCA Victor Living Stereo 1 CD

Bruckner

Sym 4, DGG BPO/Jochum;
Symphony No. 4

Chopin

Preludes Martha Argerich (DG)
Nocturnes (Moravec)
Piano Concerto #2 (Ax),

Delius

Florida Suite (Beecham, EMI or Mackerras, Argo)

Dvorak

7th, 8th, and 9th Giulini EMI (double forte)
Piano Trio in F minor (forgot the details, sorry think its Sony)
Symphony 9 (Kubelik)
Symphonies 7-9 & Symphonic Variations. CGA & Colin Davis. Philips Duo 2 CD

Elgar

Cello Concerto Jacqueline DuPre (EMI)
Cello Concerto & Sea Pictures

Grieg

Peter Gynt

Hanson

Symphony No.2 "Romantic" (Hanson, Mercury or Schwarz, Delos)

Liszt

Piano Sonata in B minor (Pollini, DG or Argerich, DG)
Consolations #3 (Van Cliburn)

Lutoslawski

Concerto for Orchestra (DePriest, Delos)

Mahler

Sym 1 Bernstein DG
Sym 4 Szell
Sym 5 EMI New Philharmonia/Barbirolli).
Symphony 2 (Klemperer)
Symphony no.5 Karajan/BPO
Symphony #9 (Karajan)

Mendelsohn

Syms 3 & 4 London SFSO/Blomstedt
Symphonies 4&5 (possibly Blomstedt.)
/Bruch Violin Concertos Vengerov (Teldec)
Piano Concerto #2 (Serkin)

Mozart

Ave verum corpus (I can't remember)
The Marriage of Figaro Sir Georg Solti (London)
Jupiter Fricsay
Late Symphonies including 40 and 41 Fricsay DG 2fer
Mass in C Minor (Leppard/Te Kanawa/Cotrubas)
Piano Concerti Gardiner & Bilson
Pno Ctos- try the two Philips Duos with Brendel/ASMF/Marriner for a cheap way to get the later ones.
Sinfonia Concertante Phillips/Gallagher/Orpheus C.O.
Symphonies Neville Marriner
Symphonies 40 & 41 (Kubelik)
Piano Concerto #20 (Ashenazy)
Symphonies 35-41 BPO & Böhm. DG Originals 2 CD
Cosi Fan Tutte (Boehm I can't believe I'm picking a Boehm recording!)
Don Giovanni and Magic Flute (Klemperer)
Marriage of Figaro (Kleiber)
Symphonies #39-41 (Klemperer)

Mussorgsky

Pictures At An Exhibition Karajan (DG)

Nielsen

Sym 4 (Chicago SO/Martinon)

Orff

Carmina Burana (Joachum) Philips Duo 2 CD

Poulenc

Sextet (Roge etc., London)

Prokofiev

Piano Concerto No. 3 (Argerich, DG or Parker, Telarc)
Alexander Nevsky

Puccini

Tosca Maria Callas (EMI)
Madama Butterfly (Karajan with Freni)

Rachmaninoff

Sym 2 Previn
Piano Concerto #3 (Kissin)

Ravel

Piano Concerto in G major (Duchable, Erato or Argerich, DG or
Bolero

Rimsky-Korsakov

Scheherazade Stokowski
Scheherazade (Reiner)

Saint-Saens

Symphony #3 (Dutoit)

Schubert

Piano Sonata in B flat D960 (Goode, Nonesuch or Horowitz, RCA :-))
9th / Haydn 88th Furtwangler DG Originals (mono from the 50's)
Impromptus: Brendel on a Philips DUO is economical
String Quartet in d, D 810 "Death and the Maiden" Brodsky Quartet
Symphony 8 & 9 Furtwangler
Symphony #9 "The Great" (can't remember).
Piano Trios Beaux Arts Trio on Philips (2 CD)
Symphonies, esp. 5,6,8,9

Schumann

Sym 3 (+ Beethoven 5) DGG LAPO/Guilini
Fantasy in C for piano (Richter)
Schumann/Grieg Piano Concertos Radu Lupu, LSO, Previn. Decca

Shostakovich

Symphony 5 Stokowski
String Quartet no. 8 Kronos Quartet.
Piano Trio in e minor (The only recording I have is Ma, Ax and Stern which I don't like. I've heard much better live performances)

Sibelius

Sym 5 (DG BPO/von Karajan) and
Symphony 2 (Blomstedt or Ormandy)
violin concerto Lin

Stravinsky

Rite of Spring (Eiji Oue)

Tallis

Spem In Alium Tallis Scholars (Gimell)

Tchaikovsky

1812 Overture Stokowski
Marche Slav Stokowski
Symphony 5 & 6 Stokowski
Symphonies 4, 5, and 6 Mravinsky DG (double CD)
Symphony No. 6 Karajan/VPO
Syms: 4-6 DGG Leningrad PO/Mravsky (mono or stereo)
violin concerto Heifitz/Reiner

Verdi

Requiem Giulini
Requiem (Solti),
Falstaff (Bernstein) WPO & Carlos Kleiber. DG Originals 1 CD

Wagner

Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (Solti, the new recording)
Tristan Und Isolde (Furtwaengler)

My Personal Favorite Classical works/CDs not on the above list

Verdi Rigoletto highlights, Laserlight
Mozart Requiem
Brahms German Requiem, DG
Elgar Enigma Variations
Chopin Polonaises, especially opus 53
Wagner Ring (start with a highlights CD/set)
Greig/Rachmaninov (#2)/Tchaikovsky (#1) Piano concertos (often 2 of these on 1 CD)
Puccini La Boheme (or any Puccini highlights CD)