More and more people are listening to classical music today, yet to many it still seems a closed and inaccessible world. Classical Music is designed to demystify this seemingly complex world - making everything from Gregorian chants to Beethoven symphonies to Philip Glass operas accessible to laymen. It is an informative guide to the musical moods and talents of 800 years of classical music.Classical Music takes a broad look at the times that inspired the music, a closer look at the lives of the individual composers, then focuses on the compositions themselves, and recommends recordings - selected by Gramophone magazine, for the key works of every composer. As well as telling the stories of the great and the famous, such as Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart, the book introduces a number of talented composers - such as Franz Berwald, John Field, and Hugo Wolf - whose music is less widely known and deserves to be discovered. Read Less