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:

Adams: Harmonielehre
Barber: Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance
Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta;  Miraculous Mandarin Suite
Berg: Violin Concerto
Corigliano: Symphony no. 1
Hindemith: Mathis der Maler Symphony
Ives: Symphony # 2;  The Unanswered Question
Janacek: Taras Bulba
Mahler: Symphony #9
Prokofiev: Scythian Suite
Ravel: La Valse
Schoenberg: Gurrelieder
Shostakovich: Symphony # 1
   (I was advised to get the one done by Rostropovich--Do you concer?)
R. Strauss  Also sprach Zarathustra  (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
Stravinsky: The rite of Spring
Webern: Passacaglia, opus 1

As an aside, my favorite instrument is piano.  Someone recommended Pollini,
M.  But I don't know what would be good by him.  If you do, I'd love to
hear what you'd recommend.  If I've seen him (Pollini) listed on a title,
"The Great Pianists of the 20th Century" CD, would that be a decent CD to
buy? (You'd probably want to see who the others were......which I cannot
tell now, I don't recall...)

If you are able to comment on this or recommend another book I need to
read, etc.  any of your thoughts and help is most appreciated.

With warm regards,

Peggy Lucero
Bethesda, MD
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