The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works
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The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works
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Narrated by:
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Robert Greenberg
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Written by:
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Robert Greenberg
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The Great Courses
About this listen
Over the centuries, orchestral music has given us a category of works that stand apart as transcendent expressions of the human spirit. What are these "greatest of the greats"? Find out in these 32 richly detailed lectures that take you on a sumptuous grand tour of the symphonic pieces that continue to live at the center of our musical culture. These thirty masterworks form an essential foundation for any music collection and a focal point for understanding the orchestral medium and deepening your insight into the communicative power of music. While seasoned music lovers will find the lectures a revealing journey through the repertoire, the course welcomes newcomers to orchestral music, offering a very accessible point of entry to this magnificent repertoire.
You'll encounter symphonies, concertos, tone poems, symphonic poems, and suites, delving into the works through extensive musical excerpts. The course covers the major eras and stylistic periods in Western music from the early 18th- to the mid-20th centuries and highlights a wide range of European and American works. Among these: Haydn's Symphony no. 104, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, and Shostakovich's Symphony no. 5. Throughout these lectures, you'll learn about the major musical forms found in orchestral writing and how they're used in conveying expressive meanings. Knowing how these forms work allows you to grasp the structure of the music as you hear it, and also to appreciate how the greatest composers used them, extended them, and finally departed from them in sublimely original ways.PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2011 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2011 The Great CoursesWhat listeners say about The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Meryle Pankewich
- 2023-06-24
Loved it start to finish
I did not listen to classical music regularly but do on occasion. This was a great listen. The narrator was 6 stars being both informative and entertaining. Highly recommend.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Scott McRae
- 2022-07-04
Great introduction to core classical repertoire
For anyone interested in building their knowledge base about classical music, this course does a great job of introducing thirty pieces you should be familiar with as a listener. For those new to the genre, Prof. Greenberg does a good job of explaining basic principles. For classical aficionados, the course provides plenty of interesting insight to familiar scores,
Admittedly, I find Prof. Greenberg's overly chummy presentation style a little irritating, but you acclimatize quickly and his deep knowledge base more than makes up for it, nor do you need to listen straight through. Although the course is sequenced in a generally chronological order, there is no necessity to listen sequentially; each lecture is a free-standing unit and you can jump to whatever piece most interests you without fear of losing a narrative thread.
Each lecture provides biographical information about the composer, historical and cultural context when relevant, and a movement-by-movement breakdown of the piece under examination. Lengthy musical excerpts round out the lectures.
A great resource as you build out your classical library, and as a reference to return to when listening to any of these 30 pieces addressed in the series:
Vivaldi—The Four Seasons
Bach—Brandenburg Concerto No. 2
Bach—Violin Concerto in E Major
Haydn—Symphony No. 104
Mozart—Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor
Mozart—Symphony in C Major, “Jupiter”
Beethoven—Symphony No. 3
Beethoven—Piano Concerto No. 4
Beethoven—Symphony No. 9
Schubert—Symphony No. 9
Mendelssohn—“Italian” Symphony
Schumann—Symphony No. 3
Brahms—Symphony No. 4
Brahms—Violin Concerto
Tchaikovsky—Symphony No. 4
Tchaikovsky—Violin Concerto
Bedřich Smetana—Má Vlast
Dvořák—Symphony No. 8
Dvořák—Concerto for ’Cello
Rimsky-Korsakov—Scheherazade
Richard Strauss—Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Mahler—Symphony No. 5
Rachmaninoff—Symphony No. 2
Debussy—La Mer
Stravinsky—The Rite of Spring
Saint-Saëns—Symphony No. 3
Holst—The Planets
Copland—Appalachian Spring
Shostakovich—Symphony No. 5
Shostakovich—Symphony No. 10
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2022-08-30
Opinionated and incorrect
Just hearing this man’s very opinionated, smug and incorrect view of Vivaldi was enough to turn me off. I removed all his lectures I was going to listen to. Such a pity that a man who is teaching classical music has actually put me completely off. Teachers should be inspiring, not downgrading the composers who made musical history and still bring joy to the listeners of today.
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