The 'Tannhauser' overture is a good beginner's point.
The overture to 'Tristan und Isolde' is slightly more challenging as is the beautiful 'immolation' sequence which forms the final 25 minutes or so of the Ring Cycle ( this is available on a great 'highlights' CD conducted by James Levine ). Whatever one thinks of Wagner's rather strange world views his music was, at times, sublime. Hell, it's almost as good as the Beatles.

quite a wide field to chose from mate, from my shelves here's some stuff I think that fits the bill;

Mahler - Symphony No 2
Wagner - Overtures - especially Parsifal
Elgar - String Quartet and Piano Quintet (the Cello Concerto veers a bit into Classic FM territory perhaps but is great too)

Steve Reich - Desert Music, Different Trains
Philip Glass - huge catalogue, but I'd start with Glassworks as a good selection of short, stand-alone pieces
Copland - Appalachian Spring (try and get it on a CD with Billy The Kid and Rodeo)
John Taverner - The Protecting Veil

None of these I think could be described as that 'jolly' or 'Hovis ad'

Saint Saens, Debussy, Sibelius, Grieg, Respighi, Delius and Liszt.

What have you got against good, memorable, melodies?

Was thinking about this just this morning as I was listening to Richard Addinsel's Warsaw Concerto. I usually listen to classical music at weekends or sometimes late at night. I too have a small classical collection (compared to the rest) but would recommend for starters

Copland's "Appalachian Spring"-uplifing stuff
Brahms' Symphony Number Four
Mendelssohn's (Songs Withou Words)-piano pieces

Happy listening, I realy should listen to more classical music.

Re Hovis ad ; New World Symphony by Antonin Dvorak is a fabulous piece of music. Maybe you just know the Brass Band version and that's only the 2nd movement.Check out a full orchestra doing the whole thing.

Why not check out any version of Thomas Tallis' Spem in alium.

It's a choral piece for, wait for it, 40 voices and is quite remarkable to listen to.

It is quite ethereal and, even though it was written in the 16th century, nothing has ever come close to it ever since.

Vespers of 1610 also called Vespro Della Beata Vergine is quite ethereal in places and rather beautiful.

Bach - Nulla in mundo pax sincera - one of the most beautify classical vocal/strings pieces.

I have two versions, neither of which is the best I've heard of it - can anyone recommend a definitive version? I have the version off the "Shine" soundtrack and Emma Kirby with the Academy of Ancient Music. Both lovely but I am sure I've heard a better version.

I've got a soft spot for the clarinet concerti by Aaron Copland and Carl Nielsen. The Copeland has a load of wonderfully expansive american countryside evoking sound but it was written for jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman and contains some great jazzy elements. The Nielsen is interesting with a solo snare drum adding a counterpoint to the clarinet.

The two are available togther on a rather good CD...

Copland / Nielsen Clarinet Concertos
Label: Chandos CH8618
Composer: Aaron Copland / Carl Nielsen
Janet Hilton / Scottish National Orchestra

COPLAND - Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra with Harp and Piano; LUTOSLAWSKI - Dance Preludes;
NIELSEN - Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, Op.57

Janet Hilton (clarinet), Scottish National Orchestra conductor Matthias Bammert.

Elgar's cello concerto. Simply sublime and guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye (unless you've got no soul).

Bach's "Valet Will Ich Dir Geben" may be the greatest piece of music ever written.

If you want ethereal then the recommendations of Tallis and Monteverdi definitely fit the bill. Following the Sacred Music series on BBC4 you might also want to check out Palestrina, and look out for Bach next week.

But your current list with Shostakovich, Mahler and Gorecki seems to hint at more modern and more earthly fare, with links to death and dying. I would add:

Mahler 9th Symphony elegaic and his last completed symphony
Mahler Das Lied Von Der Erde No matter what happens to us, the world keeps on turning for ever, ever, ever ...
Sibelius 7th Symphony, one movement, no tunes, just an empty Scandanavian landscape as far as you can see.
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No 1 is great, but I love
Prokofiev Violin Concerto No 2 especially the slow movement
Berg Violin Concerto if you want to check out the atonal.

Following on from the Pärt and your wish for atmospheric music, chamber music might have something:

Messian Quartet for the End of Time, more modern and very moving
Beethoven Late Quartets, the slow movements in particular are reflections on life and death
Bach Solo Cello Suites are masterpieces
Ravel Introduction & Allegro for Flute harp and Strings and the Flute Viola and Harp Sonatas are lovely and his String Quartet is great but a little 'happy' compared to your current list.

But if you want sheer beauty then it has to be Mozart, try some of the later Piano Concertos, I love no. 20 in D minor.

That seems enough for now and I haven't even got started on Choral, Piano music or most of the Romantic stuff (the ones with big tunes!).

I'm currently absorbing Bach's "St Matthews Passion" has passages of real beauty

My tuppence worth.

If you're after both drama and atmosphere then these contrasting modern masterpieces should fit the bill. I'm incapable of describing them but they all contain passages of quiet drama and brain-rearranging thrills.

- Debussy's 'La Mer'
- Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring'
- Faure's 'Requiem'
- Britten's 'Four Sea Interludes'

And thanks to everyone else who has posted on this thread - classical recommendations from thoughtful types such as yourselves are always a brilliant thing.

Terje Rypdal: Lux Aeterna

Norwegian Jazz Guitarist shrugs off typecasting with an ethereal spacerock take on an Organ concerto

Jan Gorecki and the Hilliard Ensemble: Officium

Jazz saxophone and polyphony-and blow me it works

Delius: In A Summer Garden

What could be more English?

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

This could...

Giovanni Gabrieli: Symphoniae Sacrae II

Not as prodigious as Monteverdi and Venetian rather than Roman but his take on "Quem pastores vidistis " (Ahem, "while shepherds watched") is a subtly arranged blend of polyphony, brass, strings and organ

I second comments re Fauré Requiem and Tallis's Spem in Alium having sung em both

....is always a good place to start as any fule kno

I forgot to mention Rachmaninov's Vespers...

Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs. Music of utter autumnal beauty. Some swear by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's recording, but I can't get beyond Jessye Norman's magisterial version.

Personally I'm a sucker for solo piano music, and you can't go wrong with Chopin's Nocturnes. There are umpteen recordings and I'm not enough of an expert to proclaim any one to be better than any others. A great place to start, however, would be on Emusic, where you have the whole Naxos catalogue to sample, including Idil Biret's complete Chopin recordings, which sound pretty good to me.

One other modern favourite is Richard Harvey's Concerto Antico, which is a guitar concerto. I have the premiere recording featuring the wonderful John Williams. My nearest and dearest and I love it enough to have had it played when we got spliced...

Stravinsky.

I think you might enjoy The Rite Of Spring, Patrick; it isn't melodic Classic FM territory, and it isn't anaemic wittering, IT ROCKS.