Wagner's tremendous but somewhat impenetrable if you don't immerse yourself in the Norse mythology and Nietzschean philosophy first. I've never seen the whole of the Ring but, like you, have listened to much of it (and have played bits here and there). The complete Ring cycle lasts around 16 hrs iirc though which requires some commitment in itself as an opera-goer, albeit split into four slightly more digestible chunks. I performed Parsifal a couple of years ago which is also an incredible (and, at a mere 5 hours, slightly less epic) opera.

If you're going to do it though - see it live. There really is no other way.

You might be waiting a while...

No, I just don't think that, in places like Nottingham which aren't a major hub for classical music, opportunities to hear an orchestra perform the Planets will come around that often. You would have to search further afield I think. Go to Birmingham (CBSO) or London and you might catch one in the next couple of years.

Nigel's a character - he was once on tour as soloist with a youth orchestra that I was playing in and, after a heavy night's drinking, went missing to be found the next morning by some cleaners, in a broom cupboard backstage at the concert hall where we'd played the previous evening. Apparently he figured he couldn't find his way back to his hotel and knowing he had to play at the concert hall again the next day, headed there instead and somehow found his way in and made himself a nest, to sleep off his excesses.

Nottingham is visited now and then by notable orchestras (I think I played there with the Philharmonia a couple of years ago) and musical figures but doesn't have its own professional orchestra so isn't putting on orchestral concerts week in week out, unlike Birmingham e.g.

Blind orchestra

I would've posted a snippet but that book appears to be temporarily missing from our shelves.  Here's a morsel of a piece from Játékok (Games) instead, his several volume pedagogical work for children.  He's quite playful with his scores, unlike his predecessor, Bartok, whose Mikrokosmos is a little drier, though still wonderful.

I've always found Ligeti's Musical Ricercata quite entertaining - a bit of a dig at Kurtag I think - here's one you can follow the music along to!

Imagine… How Music Makes Us Feel

Really interesting stuff but also reintroduced me to Jessye Norman’s wonderful 80s Strauss recordings.

Here’s the one that made Yentob’s brain freak out in the brainscaniminator:

Now that I am wearied of the day,


my ardent desire shall happily receive

the starry night

like a sleepy child.

 

Hands, stop all your work.

Brow, forget all your thinking.

All my senses now

yearn to sink into slumber.

 

And my unfettered soul

wishes to soar up freely

into night's magic sphere

to live there deeply and thousandfold.

I watched a few minutes of that. Normally exactly the sort of thing that appeals, but I couldn't stand it.

I might have got a bad bit.

The trailer didn't do much to inspire confidence but I'll get around to watching it at some point I guess.

I appreciate this is one of those "I can't believe you don't now this errrrrrrrrhhh" questions, but what's the music at the start of this. My music match app won't pick it up.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qh3z3/Locomotion_Dan_Snows_History_of_Railways_Episode_3/

Thank you!

Funny, I've got the 9th in my library somewhere because of the other bit. Not sure if I ever listened to the whole thing.

Featured heavily in Clockwork Orange.

Factoid time : When Philips were choosing the format for CD they picked one that could fit the 9th onto one side.

Have been listening to the 9th this last few nights - have two versions of it now.

Have had Furtwangler(EMI) for ages and just got a version by some guy called Karajan to compare the two (sorry I'm ignorant) - haven't done this before...I want to see if I can notice any differences!!

Have been thinking of getting St. Matthew's Passion - Gardiner seems to be one most Amazon posters gush about...

Got gifted the Planet Suite at Christmas by daughter no.1 which was nice.

@krs - That Sound and Fury thing looks about the most interesting and original classical music thing to have been on the BBC for years.  Vaguely reminiscent of Rattle's excellent Leaving Home which was on Channel 4 in the 90s iirc.  CD Review definitely floats my anorak too.

@davyk - Karajan's a big name in the conducting world, though he's long since departed this world. He (along with Furtwangler too) was one of the most significant and influential conductors of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, still widely-regarded as amongst the top 5 or so orchestras in the world.  There are too many great recordings of the Beethoven symphonies to list them all here and each offer something unique to the listener.  Everyone has their own favourite but, at the moment, I'm quite partial to Rattle's Vienna Philharmonic Beethoven cycle from about 10 years ago.

The interesting* thing to note about Bach recordings is whether or not they're 'period' performances.  (This, of course, applies to any composer whose works would have been played on instruments different from the modern ones we use today, though it's a distinction most commonly found with composers of the Baroque period). 
Gardiner is very a much a champion of period performance - that is, playing works as close to how they would have originally been intended as possible, using historical instruments, along with a huge amount of expertise, experience and research into performance practices and styles of playing too.  These performances are also usually at 'Baroque pitch' (about a semitone lower than modern pitch). Whilst there are many period recordings to choose from, Gardiner's recordings are particularly highly-regarded for being very well 'historically-informed'.  
Period recordings sound entirely different to recordings made on modern instruments, though those are no less valid - it's just a question of personal preference.  There are equally critically acclaimed recordings which choose to reinterpret works according to the advantages offered by modern instruments (which are more powerful and reliable and can offer a much greater range of timbres, dynamics etc.) I'd suggest comparing recordings on Spotify (e.g. Gardiner vs Karajan) to see which approach you prefer.

*yeah, well, whatever

The Sound and the Fury was rather disappointing and annoyingly apologetic towards 'difficult' music. Tom Service was his usual brilliantly effusive self though. They should have paid him to write and present the whole shebang.