Amazon has a very good price for Karajan's 5-disc box set of all Beethoven's symphonies:
http://www.amazon.com/Ludwig-van-Beethoven-9-Symphonien/dp/samples/B000001GBQ/ref=dp_tracks_all_5Beethocen
This is indeed a must to have!
If you like Satie (as I do) these are great albums:
Reinbert de Leeuw - Gnossiennes & Gymnopédies (real slow performed pieces)
Aldo Ciccolini - Oeuvres D'Erik Satie
I "collect" all kind a Gymnopédie No. 1 versions and have some cool versions. Orchestral, Flute, Jazz versions etc.
John Hackett & Steve Hackett made a great album: Sketches of Satie.
If you like I can send you some versions.
One of the best "Four Seasons" version I know, is the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields version from 1970.
Overtures from Mozart: Naxos - Capella Istropolitana
Wagner: Orchestral Music - Philharmonia Orchestra (Otto Klemperer)
Tchaikovsky - Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 - Berliner Philharmoniker (Shura Cherkassky on Piano)
Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture (with real canons and carrellion) Mercury label
Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals (WITH Danse Macabre) Decca label 1980
Various - English Chamber Orchestra - French Connections
Grofé: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra - Orchestral Works, 2 CD's from NAXOS label
Scott Joplin - Piano Works - Dick Hyman
Something Extraordinary: Mozart in Egypt - Bulgarian Orchestra
John Williams - The Guitar Album (1994?)
Veracini: Complete Overtures & Concertos 2 CD's NAXOS label
Various (Wind) concerti by Vivaldi, Corelli
Albinoni: 6 Oboe Concerti - I Solisti Italiani DENON label (great recording)
Locatelli: Concerti Grossi NAXOS label 2 CD's
Bach: Complete Orchestral Works & Brandenburg Concertos - Le Concert des Nations - Jordi Savall on "old" instruments. (great recordings)
Mozart: Piano Concertos - Academy of St. Martin in the Fields - Marriner
Beethoven: Piano Concertos - Capella Istropolitana - Barry Wordsworth on Piano, NAXOS label
ETC ETC ETC
Did I mention I owned a CD store in the time there was no fast internet connection?
Regards,
Theo