Experience has taught me that if I don't tell my family what I would like for Christmas, I get nothing. So with that in mind, I made a list of books, and emailed it to them, and I've also been picking out some CDs.
I really like this by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. I just included the clip of #3, but obviously I mean the whole thing.
Trouble is, I can only see it on DVD when I look for it online.
Can someone tell me if it's available on CD.
Do you have any other CD recommendations for this beginner? Thanks, dg

Here is a great list from my sister's favorite classical station, with recommended recordings and a brief history.

Sadly, I also cannot find the Brandenberg Concertos by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra on anything but DVD.

dg I don't recommend the Vivaldi Four Seasons complete. If it's played in full it seems interminable!Or maybe that's just me.

The New World Symphony , on the other hand, is so varied and with such good "tunes" that the whole thing puts no strain on the patience of the listener.

There are plenty of recordings of the Brandeburgs.And I bet that many are as good or better than the version by the rather obscure orchestra cited.Highest rated on British Amazon is on the Archiv label, a label of DG (Deutsche Grammophon). It's by The English Concert (that's the full name of the orchestra, a variant on consort) conducted by Trevor Pinnock.

Fuse, that's a great link. Thank you for your help.

Thanks for your advice, Fred. I'll look for these.

I have a wonderful recording on vinyl of the Brandenburg Concertos, by Karl Munchinger & the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. This uses flutes instead of recorders which, as I am no purist in these matters, I much prefer. I can also recommend my CD version by Neville Marriner, recorded in several 'goes' between 1981-1984. However, this uses recorders for no 4, which just takes the gloss off it for my personal taste.

George Malcolm gives a very good account of the extremely difficult keyboard solo in the first movement of no 5 with Marriner, but Igor Kipnis is far more red-blooded and exciting in his reading of the same passage with Munchinger...If you go to this performance you will see Gustav Leonhardt doing a very fine but somewhat restrained reading of the above mentioned harpsichord solo

I have not heard the Pinnock version, Fred, but it will, I am sure be a very fine one. Whomsoever you select, dg, you will possess six of the greatest orchestral masterpieces of the entire Baroque era!