Richard Fawkes: "The History of Classical Music" (Naxos)

The history of classical music is littered with attempts to explain itself to the wider world, most of them unsuccessful. This one not only succeeds, it succeeds on several levels at once: as a straightforward trot through 14 centuries of western art music it will appeal to those who complain that they don't know anything about the subject and don't know where to begin; its tantalising sound-bites of musical worlds beyond those of Mozart and Mahler will delight the already initiated; and as a study aid for music students - especially, I suspect, music students of the reluctant variety - it can only be described as a godsend. The secret of this success lies in the format. Books on the history of classical music, no matter how appealing or imaginative, are still books. Here, the clever use of the simple audio-book structure - Robert Powell reads Richard Fawkes - ensures that when the text is discussing, say, Monteverdi and the growth of opera, you get a glorious blast of entirely appropriate sound at exactly the right moment. No shuffling with accompanying this or explanatory that: it's all done for you, so that all you have to do is listen and enjoy. And if, of course, you're inspired to get yourself to a record shop for further investigation, so much the better, for the recordings shown off so sumptuously on this set are almost all to be found in the Naxos back catalogue at a fiver apiece. You can quibble 'til Doomsday over Fawkes's sense of priorities - reducing Brahms to two and a half minutes, for example, seems a bit harsh - and the occasional stiffness of his style, but this remains an undeniably impressive achievement.

By Arminta Wallace