Hey!  I always meant to add in to this… completely forgot, then mrshouse's post reminded me of it again.  Nice comments, and just agreed/appreciated the sentiments about the genre!  Thing is, I'm much more casual listener with just favorites once in a while rather than often putting it on (and yeah, being in the 'mood' and having some focus for it, like you), and know what you mean about knowledge of it or 'getting' various songs/people (or even knowing who you're listening to, at random).  So I wasn't sure could give much expertise except say 'neat post, I get it!' and own favorites.

Seriously, just the sheer amount of it… yet, no matter where you are, there's certain famous ones almost everyone has heard, right?  I guess that's part of the 'cultural education' of it, so to speak... hearing the famous ones used in different forms, even if don't remember the composer.  At least, that was the case for me, and maybe people with 'favorites' just further looked into ones they had heard that way?  Like Beethoven's Fifth, Ode to Joy, Pachelbel's Canon in D, ones they use in movies, etc.  Not to mention the compositions the older greats churned out often had titles hard to keep track of!  I second mrshouse's mention of getting to know the well-known Debussy's Clair de Lune (and also his 'Arabesque #1' very good!) and Pachelbel. Although you had me confused… I grew up knowing 'Canon in D' (or 'D Major')… not C!  Much less 'minor'.  So I went to check up on youtube, and... huh.  'D' is the original, but there have been some neat variations in C Major and Minor, which explains the different variations I'd heard before.  Not often you see that with one piece!

Maybe also Vivaldi's famous 'Seasons'... not sure how 'light'?  Plus the infamous beautiful Scheherezade (musically based on 1001 Arabian Nights).  I don't really know my composers other than the famous ones you hear about growing up, but some of the more "modern" ones like Andrew Lloyd Webber, Aaron Copland, and Samuel Barber (must hear his 'Adagio for Strings'!) are also great.
But definitely hear you on instrumental movie scores being right up there with classical, with being more storytelling.  Love it.  Tell you what though, the bright idea of putting classical to storytelling in Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" and Disney's "Fantasia" for kids is what drew young me to appreciate the pieces and get a familiarity with Bach, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Mussorgsky (Chernabog in 'Night on Bald Mountain' will always stick with me!), et al. animated to beautiful clips.  Highly recommend both, if haven't seen them, just to see how they use the music.  And of course I have our own favorite Sherlock to thank for a refresher in Rossini's awesome 'La Gazza Ladra' (which I now associate with Moriarty).  ;D  Love it when entertainment uses it in that way!

But I'm sure since now you've already discovered quite a bit... hear any of those, or some great ones?   

oh, and @mrshouse ---   very pretty!

SusiGo wrote:

And since you mention it - Barber's Adagio is a wonderful piece of music which I encountered - as many people probably did - via the film "Platoon". One of my all-time favourites. 

Gah, yes.     I may have heard it very long ago in a snippet here or there, but oddly I was never introduced to it like some people thanks to that movie.  I remember instead my dad's wife, a long-time piano player/teacher who majored in music when she was young, commenting a while back about having to pull the car over on her way home, because she had the radio on a classical station, and 'that adagio' came on, and it always makes her tear up.  Puzzled and wondering at this point, or if I had heard it before, I found it on youtube and..… well now I know what she meant.

Speaking of which, couldn't help but want to share just one version of something with you, out of the songs mentioned, since think some of you also enjoy Vivaldi, with the titles that were being bantered.  Don't often listen to it, but I always found his "Four Seasons" suite pretty neat, for being the types of songs that are so 'visual' in their style (like you talked about in your post, Whisky).  "Winter" in particular, and came across this beautifully impressive rendition with a talented first violinist as leader/conductor: