This is a good overview of Handel. You get your Water Music, your Fireworks, and of course your Messiah in one convenient double-disc set. Even a classical music neophyte like me can recognize the key parts of these pieces. Also included are the Largo from "Xerxes", The Harmonious Blacksmith, and the not-so-grosso Concerto Grosso #8.
I recently went to the San Francisco Symphony with my mother to see one of their "Spirit" and "Soul" sets of the music of the Bach family, which got me to thinking about baroque music. If I could only pick a single composer from that era it would probably be Bach (the elder), but Handel currently would be a close second. There's just too much iconic stuff here to ignore! However I think I'm favoring the Classical period more. Baroque is easier to wrap my brain around, but I find it a little stiff. Romantic era stuff is certainly exciting but I get lost in it, and not always in a good way. Modern is still mostly the undiscovered country.
I've got a book on classical music lined up in my reading queue and will post some thoughts on that later, probably around July or so. A little appreciation couldn't hurt this "most difficult" of Western artforms to grasp (Jacques Barzun, I think?).
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