I bought it so I’d have program notes for music on my computer (I don’t pirate classical, but I’m not going to haul out the CD or, worse, LP for a casual listening session) without needing to be distracted on my phone. It was a very good purchase.

Milton Cross released The Encyclopedia of Great Composers and Their Music in the ’50s to the same purpose. It’s in two volumes, has very in-depth biographies to AMG’s capsule summaries, and has limited if good musical analysis. But the crème de la croppe is The Victor Book of the Symphony, offering as good analysis as you’ll find outside specialist books to probably everything available on records among the major labels at the time (1930s), complete with musical examples, with an appendix of suggested recordings for a basic library that are often, but not always, Victor releases. To a record geek like me that’s a gold mine. I own some of them (on LP or CD, not 78).

Inspired by a YouTube channel: why not change “classic rock” to “vintage rock”? It’s arguably* less cringy than the pathetic corporate-radio-term-gone-mainstream “classic rock”.

• I hate this word with a fiery burning unyielding passion, especially when by reviewers who want to hedge their statements by sounding ponderous, but I feel it’s appropriate here