J.S. Bach: To pick just a wave or two from an ocean of creativity: The Cello Suites particularly speak to me - maybe because one of the first recordings I could afford was a Vox Box of them, with which I went to sleep almost every night. For a little while I also tried playing a suite every morning (on bari sax) - it's interesting to feel that side of your brain tuning in - and have often stumbled through a few of Goldbergs at bedtime. I also love the Violin Suites (which to me are the same kind of thinking). The Nine Great organ works are mountains of heaven - I can never hear the triple fugue of the St. Annes without my hair standing on end, and I would like the b minor played at my funeral! I think a great book could be written about Bach as a genius who got lost - much of his great instrumental work was done early in his career - and the fabulous playfulness of the "Wir eilen" duet from Cantata 78, or Organ Sonata number 5? If Mozart was indeed a playful brat, as suggested in the movie Amadeus, perhaps Bach lost his playfulness and desires too soon.

I've long been a fan of Marcia Ball - not just Cajun rock'n'roll, but a fine keyboard artist and a great pop vocalist.

Beethoven, Sonata 32 (op.111): not cute, not bombastic, not homey: transcendental. The early Quartets are very fine, but it's the middle chamber music that speaks to me most: the Rassoumovsky Quartets, the cello sonatas op.69 and 102/2, the Ghost Trio.

I owe a lot to Ruth Kurzbauer - not only for the grace she radiates to all who know her, but also for introducing me to Hector Berlioz. I fell in love with Nuits d'Été, and am still trying to fathom Les Troyens.

Bernstein's West Side Story - his one totally successful major composition, and a crown jewel of the Broadway musical.

Bizet's Carmen - I love the movie with Julia Migenes-Johnson - the first Carmen I've seen with real killing Sex Appeal. Carmen is a little like Don Giovanni, but Carmen's victims are much better parts.

Johannes Brahms - the awesome first Trio, both Sextets, both string Quintets, the Requiem, the third Violin Sonata, the second Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, the four Symphonies (which I quaintly regard as one huge edifice), and bits of the Liebeslieder - any of these can knock me head over heels anyday! I'm still curious to hear Rinaldo someday!

Brave Combo is a group of strong musicians who seem to have dedicated themselves to fun - I love 'em.

I love much of Donizetti's opus - and while L'Elisir d'Amore may be a chestnut, it's an incredibly sweet chestnut. I've bought a lot of recordings of his less well-known operas, and I enjoy listening to them - but I don't find the glories in less-known Donizetti that I do in less-known Rossini.

I read Fanfare magazine for many years - their classical music reviews are a fine combination of literate background info with attention to the recording at hand - and something about the bulk of the magazine appeals to my pseudo-intellectual dark side! Gramophone is better organized, but less fraught with discoveries.

I love French opera - Le Roi d'Ys, Mireille, the Pearl Fishers, Lakmé, Les Troyens, La Juive; and when the seduction aria from Samson et Dalilah is played, a prudent woman may not want to be in the same room with me! I would even claim Gluck as a founding patriarch of this school. You could argue that the less singable phonetics pushed French opera more towards poetry and lyricism - but I just like French opera. (I even like Guillaume Tell and Don Carlos better than their Italian counterparts.)

Furtwaengler: one of the last representatives of the Germany that could have been.

Gershwin, Porgy and Bess: not just a masterwork, but one with special meaning for Southerners of the Civil Rights generation.

Gounod: I like Mireille even better than Faust. I would like to explore more of his operas, if someone would record them! (Romeo and Juliette is the only other one that I've heard.)

Grateful Dead, at least in the days before Donna Godchaux

Handel, Messaiah: I know it's a chestnut, but it's a GREAT chestnut, and great fun to sing.

Dame Myra Hess

Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel is nice, but have you heard the finale of Koenigskinder? I've also heard a tantalizing selection or two from the Bluebird, and I wish someone would record his other operas.

Irish traditional music

Josquin des Prez: his music is spooky, otherworldy, haunting as an Elven kiss.... (an impudent simile for a very Christian composer.)

Mahler didn't do much for me at first - until long ago someone put on the Ferrier/Patzak/Walter recording of Das Lied von der Erde, and the world went away - I dream of singing this someday, if I can put in a solid year or two of getting in shape! My hopes and hairs arise at "Auferstehen" in the Second Symphony. Mahler and Buber were my introduction to modern Jewish spirituality, which sadly is a little more difficult to find in current decades.

John McLaughlin: the awakening of pop music in the 60s cast some new stars into the sky... try listening to Birds of Fire.

Messaien: his organ works seem almost like improvisations from a great spiritual imagination. Some of my most cherished moments have been listening to Messaien (or Bach) in settings where I could float free on a river of music, hearing without listening, imagining without thinking...

Meyer's Emotion and Meaning in Music is a fine discussion of how difficult it is to talk about the real content of music.

When I was a young snot (alright, younger and snottier) I thought Mozart trivial; now I appreciate grace more, and am better able to hear the sorrow and hope. Singing the K.427 Mass was my first awakening, and the movie Amadeus (and Bergman's Magic Flute helped to reintroduce me. (I think the transition into the angry soprano aria in Amadeus is one of the funniest movie moments I've ever seen.) Figaro and Die Entfuehrung are my favorites of his operas, but my list of the hundred greatest operas would probably include seven by Mozart (Figaro,Zauberfloete, Cosi, Don Giovanni, Entfuehrung, Idomeneo, and maybe even Clemenza di Tito) There are some odd views of sex roles in Mozart, but the Countess' arias in Figaro work out an ideal of femininity which puts a lot of the parody and silliness into perspective. The Requiem is another unsurprising pick; I think I could sing the bass part to the choruses from memory. Instrumental listening favorites are the piano concertos (starting with no. 9) and symphonies 25, 35, and 36.

Offenbach (like Puccini) left us an unfinished grand finale to his oeuvre. Tales of Hoffman has led me back into his more comic oeuvre, which I'm still discovering - and for one who loves Gilbert and Sullivan (as I do) there is much to discover.

Turandot atones for all Puccini's tearjerkers! I have a special fondness for the 30s recording of Dame Eva Turner (with Martinelli) reminds me most of my mother's voice in her heyday.

Harold Schonberg wrote a number of fine books about classical - old-fashioned in that they emphasize the positive. (I can discern faults for myself, but someone who shows me an unknown treasure does me a great favor.)

Rossini was another of those copious geniuses who are almost impossible to grasp - Guillaume Tell is a great magnum opus, but only one of many great works. Check out L'Italiana, or Cenerentola, or the drum scene in the Thieving Magpie, or the duets in Ermione, or Moise, or many others. I've heard just a few of the riches from his Pechés de Viellesse, but I can't wait for someone to do a complete recording. If you want to understand Rossini, swear off Barbiere!!

Horowitz' recording of the keyboard music of A.Scarlatti knocked me off my feet, and I haven't tired of it since its first release.

I like a lot of syntho-pop - e.g. Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, or Spin Doctors.

Tchaikovsky, beyond the overplayed symphonic chestnusts, was a great opera composer. His three great successes (according to me at least) are Onegin, The Queen of Spades, and Mazeppa - but there's great stuff in many others too - check out Yolanta.

Verdi: Don Carlos is my favorite, especially the five-act version (which is probably too long for the stage) - but other favorites are Aida, Traviata (my virgin opera), Nabucco, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Simon Boccanegra, and Ernani.

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