From the author of the best-selling Opera 101 comes a comprehensive and highly accessible guide to discovering the glories of classical music, based on the fundamental principle of developing the skills to truly listen. In clear and entertaining prose, Plotkin explores a thousand years of music, introducing listeners to more than one hundred great works and profiling in depth many significant composers, including Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Dvorák, and Mahler. Plotkin illustrates how each piece of music possesses its own sound world, which is created by the unique style, voice, and vision of each composer, and made even more distinct by every musician who plays it. He defines major musical terms, and makes music theory comprehensible for the uninitiated. Conversations with important musicians offer fascinating insights into the art.