Peggy Lucero wrote:

>Hello, I'm attempting to start building a CD collection of classical
>greats.  I've begun to get educated.
>
>I bought a book, Classical Music for Dummies (one has to start somewhere!),
>that I'm finding quite good.  In the back of the book they actually try and
>walk one through building a classical music collection.  They provide 5
>lists, the last one is the one I'm zeroing in on.  (If any of these are
>operas, Please tell me, as I don't care for opera.) It lists the following
>artists/works:

You have no music listed that appeared before 1900, other than the Richard
Strauss tone poem.  Other than that, it's a list of great works, singularly
free from fluff, but an unlikely one for people starting to listen to
classical music.  That doesn't mean you might not find any or all of them
fascinating.  Some people might consider Schoenberg's *Gurrelieder* an
opera.  I wouldn't avoid it on that account, however.

Walter Meyer