This is a thread for little questions regarding CLASSICAL Music.

don't all answer at once!

What is the best place for consumer information that would allow me to choose between different recordings of the same piece?
I don't know about best, but the amazon classical music site has some fairly good reviews: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/573448/

They have a little classical for beginners page, which is where a lot of the classical CDs that I have came from: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/284231/

re the Steve Reich:
According to one review on Amazon (taken from:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005NSQT/qid=1032770376/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_9/002-8786826-2736001?v=glance&s=classical )
Music for a Large Ensemble, while recognisable as the same piece it was before, has been rewritten & reworked for this version.

(ha ha on the ECM version there is a very obvious mistake at one point - I've always wondered why they left it in)

I have the Rostopovich set of the cello suites and enjoy it very much, but I don't have a lot to compare it to. Some of the classical guides I sometimes scan prefer Pierre Fournier's version on DG, but I've never heard it.

As for consumer guides, as I said, I do occasionally reference the Grammophone guide and/or the Penguin guide. The Grammophone guide is more opinionated and gives you more info about the composer and the recommended recordings, but the Penguin guide usually offers a more complete accounting of the available versions, even if it's usually much sketchier on why it favors one version over another. Grammophone also has a web site featuring recommended recordings and reviews.

Can someone help me with a retort to a right-winger who insists that universities should uphold certain standards by only teaching and collecting classical music?

Since when is classical music inherently "right-wing"? Granted, my knowledge is limited to opera, mainly, and some religious music. But it does seem that right-wingers feel that we're violating the canon in paying attention to any other genre. It's not fair to other genres, but I suspect it's not fair to classical music, either.

Zero points for limiting yourself to the twentieth century. Right-wingers don't much like that century, it seems.

Oh, and apparently jazz is also not up to the canonical standards of this person.

This is the first time I've seen the original question, to which I would answer Peter Wispelwey's second recording of the Bach cello solos for Channel Classics, UPC: 723385122982.