You have to be good if people are still listening to your music hundreds of years after you are dead.

I started exploring this stuff in more detail a few months ago.

Started off with some Beethoven (fuck me, you have to take your hat off to this guy for composing masterpieces while he was DEAF), Mozart, and Vivaldi. I was hooked - especially with the way Mozart would handle the piano (one of my all-time favourite instruments).

I then also got hold of some Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Bach, Chopin (another master of the piano), Strauss and most recently, Tchaikovsky.

What I like about classical music is that you dont just listen to it, you FEEL it (something that is kinda difficult to explain if you are not totally into it).

Anyone else appreciate such music, and if so, what else would you recommend?

Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi are both fantastic

What I quite like is the "modern" takes on these, ie The LOTR soundtracks

my preferences are Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Mozart and Bach.

People look at me funny when I tell them I like classical stuff.

When I was younger I was most taken with Tchaikovsky's stuff, particularly his violin concertos, that I actually thought of learning how to play the violin.

Then I found out he was a queer and that devastated me.

I like most of the ones mentioned so far. Also good are Berliosz, Debussy, Elgar and Dvorak.

Tchaikovsky was gay?

very much so.

so was his brother.

Tchaikovsky tried to drown himself after he got married to a woman because of problems arousing from his own confusion about his sexuality

ive got a bit of classical stuff - mostly audiphile grade telarc or sheffield lab recordings

Tsh, musicians

lol

Whether he is straight or gay doesn't diminish the fact that he was great!!!

Why does his choice of lifestyle make any difference?

It doesn't diminish it at all. I was just curious. Most of the composers have had "interesting" lives. Like Mozart and his rivalry with Scalieri. The "tsh musicians" comment was a quote from The Crow that seemed appropriate, before your time I guess.