re: MB, tell me the best and most essential classical music I need to listen to

Hey Dan, I finally found that list I made last year or whenever. I compiled it off of some must hear lists online and recommendations from other people. I haven't listened to all of these but have enjoyed most everything I tried so here you go:

Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture, Violin Concertos, Symphony No. 4 and No. 6

Bheethoven - 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th Symphonies, 3rd and 4th Piano Concertos, Piano Sonato No. 21, No. 26 and No. 32, Coral Fantasia, Quintet for Piano and Winds

Bach - Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor, Brandenburg Concertos, Cello Concertos

Mozart - Quintet for Piano and Winds, Symphony No. 25, No. 29, No. 40 and No. 41, 24th and 26th Piano Concertos, String Quintets 3 and 4, Violin Concerto 5, Clarintet Concerto, Concerto Gran Partita, Piano Sonata 11, Sinfonia Concertante, Requiem in D Minor

Chopin - Nocturnes

Vivaldi - Four Seasons

Mandelssohn - Symphony's 3 and 4, Midsummer Night's Dream, Violin Concerto

Brahms - Symphony No. 4

Liszt - Hungarian Raphsodies - No. 2

Dvorak - Symphony No. 9

Respighi - Ancient Airs and Dances

Berlioz - Symphony Fantastique

Smetana - Ma Vlast

Carl Orff - Carmina Burana

Gustav Holst - The Planets

Modest Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition (solo piano version), Night on Bald Mountain

Mahler - 1st, 4th and 9th Symphonies

Saint-Seans - Symphony No. 3

Wagner - The Ring Cycle

Sibelius - Finlandia

Stravinsky - Rite of Spring, The Firebird

Richard Strauss - Zarathustra & Tone Poems (Don Juan, Til Eulenspeigel)

Shubert - Trout Quintet, Piano Sonata 22, Symphonies 8 and 9, Octet