Hello
Welcome to classical music. We aren’t as snooty as you thought.
Ignore the stuffed shirts spouting on about how SIMPLY RAVISHING their trip to the Opera was last night, and how CULTURED they are. It’s just music. Really good music. And you don’t need to dress up and shell out $200 concert tickets to get into it. All you need is about fifty bucks to spend on some MP3s, and most importantly, the will to invest way more listening time than you expect. Don’t expect to make any sense of even a single movement until you’ve heard it at least 10 times.
Use the links on the right to get a feel for each of the major composers (every page has a description of their style, along with several youtube videos of their standout pieces). There are also some more general articles to help you get started.
If you have any comments, please let me know.