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Here's a really cute CD. It features seven selected orchestral war-horses, from good ol' Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in C minor on through to Mussorrgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. These are outstanding performances across the board. Orchestras featured include the Philadelphia Orchestra under Riccardo Muti, the Berlin Philharmonic under Klaus Tennstedt and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields under Neville Marriner. The notes are funny and light and full of fun facts as well as a useful pronunciation guide (as in, "HIGH-dunn" and "roh-SEE-nee"). This is perfectly approachable stuff, just the kind of material that the Dummies Trade Press is known for. One correction, though: this really should be called "Orchestral Music for Dummies" since the program is entirely symphonic. -- Gwendolyn Freed