MUSIC 101, MULTIMEDIA VERSION

posted by James Reel

    Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun offers high praise for the latest entrant into what Virgil Thomson used to call the “music appreciation racket.” Here's the nutgraf:

    If the thoroughly uninitiated, or just moderately interested, could be coaxed into spending some time with The NPR Listener's Encyclopedia of Classical Music (Workman Publishing, 979 pages, $19.95), a whole wave of new fans might be generated.
    Author Ted Libbey has created the reader-friendliest, yet fully substantive, publication of its type I've seen come along yet. … In addition to the quality of the text, there's an unusual extra: access to a Web site of 527 musical examples, adding up to a good 75 hours of recordings.