Have Americans been neglectful philistines or simply sophisticated listeners who have their priorities straight?

By contrast, Stravinsky gave sophisticated listeners the thrill of a lifetime for the first 15 years of his career, creating works that shocked and rocked one day and were classics the next.

Music professionals, colleagues, sophisticated listeners and friends made the hall look comfortably full though not completely so.

Mr. Sondheim aims at highly sophisticated listeners, however.

It is possible that Mozart believed his musically sophisticated 18th-century listeners would not appreciate the apparent simplicities of Handel's score and that a Classical, symphonic reconstruction was required.

The music, says the record-company hype, is presented "in a manner that's full of surprises for even the most sophisticated listener."

Surely Mr. Reich believes that he is giving even his most musically sophisticated listeners something to grapple with.

The channel was described as "A musical oasis for the sophisticated listener culled from every imaginable genre and country.

To the sophisticated listeners of the capital, it was novel but ef- fective.

So how do you construct a program that makes sense for both the first-time listener and the sophisticated listener?