The mother of all essential,desert island,favourite,top 10,top 3 etc list things.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There's a great deal to be said for choosing a composer whose music you think you like, but don't know all that well. Then you can have the joy of discovery.

[Serial_Apologist]

There's a great deal to be said for choosing a composer whose music you think you like, but don't know all that well. Then you can have the joy of discovery.

But on that basis, suppose what you've heard is the only thing of any worth s/he ever wrote - e.g. West Side Story? It's a long time to share a desert island with, when you find you don't like the other person's palms.

[HighlandDougie]

I like the idea of cheating a bit and having one per century (so that I can get in Purcell, Haydn, Debussy/Stravinsky but might skip the current one) but, gun to head, for me it has to be Schubert. OK, a bit light on the orchestral stuff but the rest I couldn't live without.

[ahinton]

I could no more make a decision on such a thing than I could pick eight discs for company when marooned on that island, let alone the "if you could take only one" routine; perhaps if the luxury item could be my delectable compatriot who currently presents the programme, that indecision might be made more bearable but, since such a request was once apparently denied to David Dimbleby, no less, I wouldn't fancy my own chances, frankly (anyway, she'd be an essential, not a mere "luxury" - the latter would be quite unforgivably patronising!)...

[3rd Viennese School]

The complete works of Ceefax

[PaulT]

Nobody has picked Mahler yet so I will, as long as I can hand pick the recordings.