For the classical music lover who wants to become a listener: I have been a classical music lover for some years but I knew there was more that I could learn. I was familiar with the general history of the subject and had read a CD collecting guide. However, I wanted to know more about individual pieces of music and how to listen to them instead of just hear them. Then I found this book and it "hit the spot." The author gives the reader/listener a guided tour through forty pieces of classical music. Whether they are actually the "most popular and important" pieces is questionable, especially as to Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, but they are all wonderful works. Most are instrumental, but the book includes Handel's Messiah and Orff's Carmina Burana. They also have the benefit of spanning the spectrum of styles from baroque to modern. The pieces are arranged alphabetically, but I suggest starting with the programmatic pieces such as Smetana's Moldau, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, and moving toward the more abstract stuff such as Beethoven's Fifth, Brahm's First and Mahler's First. In order to follow the action as closely as possible you will need to have a watch you can reset, or to sit next to the CD player with the machine set to show time elapsed. The book provided two revelations. First, the music is full of subtleties of which I was unaware. Second, there are big differences in performances of the same piece. The most obvious difference is in whether repeats are observed or omitted. Highly recommended, and I hope Mr. Rudel will write another covering the next most popular forty.