Story of Classical Music 4D

"The Story Of Classical Music" produced by Naxos AudioBooks is an excellent introduction to Classical music. The 4 CD set traces the origins and progression of classical music from the Medieval Period through the 20th century. "The Story Of Classical Music" is written by Darren Henley and read by Marin Alsop. Each CD is loaded with many wonderful musical excerpts/examples from the vast Naxos label and includes the Naxos catalog numbers next to each track as a convenience. Total playing times on the four CDs is 4 hours and 34 minutes. CD 4 doubles as an interactive CD-ROM chock full of extra great features, including the composers, musical instruments, national flags and anthems, and much more, with additional audio examples. Clearly, the text is written and read with older children in mind. However, this should not deter anyone from purchasing this comprehensive and enjoyable release. The whole family will love it. The price is also an unbelievable bargain. Highly recommended.

This is a great review of classical music for the beginners. This audiobook will give you a review of classical music over the history and introduce you to the most famous composers and their work. The audio book reading is smooth and easy and the included music samples are just superb! nobel

I am an adult; but relatively new to the world of classical music. I began listening and enjoying classical almost exclusively about 10 years ago. Having never studied music or it's history, this CD set is just great for me to learn more about the orgins of my 'new' favorite music. I recommend this set for young adults and old adults too!

An amazing CD set. My kids haven't stopped asking for it. It is informative and entertaining and our whole family has learned quite a bit that we did not know before. It really introduces you to the composers and ties them together in time and space.

Naxos already has a wonderful set of CDs giving us a fairly detailed "History of Classical Music" by Richard Fawkes (NA 414012). But now a similar set has been released for a younger audience, "The Story of Classical Music" (NA331012). The text is by Darren Henley and it is read engagingly by conductor Marin Alsop. It uses some 150 musical examples and a good deal of silly sound effects like J.S.Bach walking over 200 miles to hear an organ or (more distastefully) a comic chop of the ax when thus and so were beheaded. But the music is well chosen-albeit too few examples are used for major composers-from the bottomless Naxos catalogue; and it covers the centuries from Gregorian chant right up to the film music for "Gladiator" and "Lord of the Rings." It is hard to say what age group is the target audience of this set; but I think many adults who know little or nothing about the world's greatest music and the men who created it (alas, women composers were simply too few and/or unrecognized to get into anthologies like this one) will appreciate this approach. It does not dumb things down (except for those sound effects) and even I learned a thing or two about some of my favorite pieces. Best of all is a slew of CD-ROM features on the last disc that provide extra information and pictures about the composers, the instruments of the classical orchestra, national anthems and flags, scores, the text of the CDs, musical terms, and several more. Please consider this as a thoughtful gift to an interested youngster-or to one who just might become interested. Good work