Hi Jenny, I read your post a few days ago and I couldn't help much, but now I'm sitting here
at work reading the liner notes from my new Perahia CD and realized the answer to your
troubles might be the local library. If your library is anything like ours then there will be
a large collection of classical CDs which may have nice liner notes that you can quote.
The people who write program notes are extremely knowledgeable about musical trivia and
history but their knowledge does not come from sources that are easily available to laypeople.

Also, www.wikipedia.org has a lot of info about individual pieces (the more famous ones anyways).

Good luck!

Brian

Look at label companies:

Naxos

for example, see what is posted on their website under each composer. Perhaps you will find information there.

I agree, look at wikipedia, this site, and the sleeves of CDs. You can find lots of good information in the CD sleeves.