Award-winning Professor Robert Greenberg's Great Masters: Stravinsky—His Life and Music depicts the career of Igor Stravinsky as a dizzying, enthralling progression that creates a virtual artistic history of the West from the 1890s to the late 1960s. Discover this master of musical creativity to be a one-man compendium of people, places, compositional styles, and techniques. Among other things, these lectures on Stravinsky will give you a sense of the kaleidoscopic changes in musical expression that took place during much of the 20th century.
Great Masters: Stravinsky—His Life and Music
Discover this master of musical creativity to be a one-man compendium of people, places, compositional styles, and techniques.
Rated 5 out of
5
by
bsncelflt from
Eight lectures brings Stravinsky to life!
We have had all of the Great Masters lectures and enjoyed listening to them again while doing jigsaw puzzles during the pandemic. All are excellent! We learned so much & enjoy the music more. Highly recommend for anyone wanting a historical & biographical take on this composer.
Date published: 2022-02-24
Rated 5 out of
5
by
archer29 from
Fabulous series!
Robert Greenberg's 'Stravinsky biography' was fabulous. The dynamic delivery was very clear and easy to follow. A real understanding of how the music was constructed was put across and expertly woven into his life story. Both I (a composer) and my wife were entranced and learned a great deal that we didn't know before.
Date published: 2021-11-03
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Omnivore2 from
This course, and the entire series: Superb
On finishing this course--and the series--in 2015, I wrote the following analysis of both the Stravinsky component and the whole series.
This finally completes this 10-part series—2 years after the course on Mahler with which I started. This one is not only about Stravinsky (an interesting, complex individual on several levels) and his music, but also about 20th-Century music and art in general. Because Stravinsky wrote many great ballets, Greenberg provides extensive discussion of Serge Diaghilev and other aspects of this topic, as well as of Arnold Schoenberg, whom he considers the other greatest 20th-Century composer in terms of overall impact and contribution. He makes a compelling case for The Rite of Spring being the most important single work of the 20th Century, just as Beethoven’s 9th Symphony was of the 19th Century.
This is a remarkable set: 10 composers, 80 lectures, 60 hours altogether. It’s now about 15 years old but that makes no difference—although you have to get used to a less gray, slimmer, mustachioed Robert Greenberg. Greenberg is truly a master of this particular form, and the premier Teaching Company professor whom a few of the others might approach but not surpass. His presentations are masterfully constructed, articulate, dynamic, funny, pithy, and as far as I can tell truly authoritative. He goes to great length to distinguish between objective historical and musical information and his own views; he doesn’t overload the viewer with the latter but they provide perspective and enrich the experience.
Constructing ten 8-lecture courses in the same format, each providing a biographical and musical summary of a different composer, without making them formulaic, mechanical, and redundant must have been challenging, but Greenberg succeeds stunningly. Each course takes a different tack—focusing on a global aspect of music, European history, or human nature that is applicable to that particular composer but also to the course as a whole. Examples are anti-Semitism with Mahler, mental illness with Schumann, the musician as international celebrity with Liszt, homosexuality with Tchaikovsky, and world events and political oppression with Shostakovich and Stravinsky. Each course could stand perfectly well on its own, and the whole set is a truly spectacular achievement.
Date published: 2018-12-30
Rated 5 out of
5
by
JKuehn from
This is yet another of Dr. Greenberg's skillfully-presented and highly-educational series of lectures...(8 lectures on 2 DVDs). Allow me to whet your appetite with a few terrific insights provided right from the start which eventually lead to a broad and complete view of the man Stravinsky and his music.
Dr. G's opening point is that Stravinsky was a composer of incredibly diverse works. The musical examples he gives to illustrate this argument, comparing the homogenous works Mozart and Tchaikovsky with the widely-differing works of Stravinsky, are completely convincing, showing, as he states, that Stravinsky, "...was a supreme original. Stravinsky's compositional career is a virtual catalog of musical styles from the turn of the 20th century to the mid-1960s...from the nationalism of late 19th century Imperial Russia, to post-WWII intellectual modernism."
Dr. G presents a bounty of compelling details about Stravinsky's early life, beginning with his childhood, growing up in a cultured, westernized Russian home listening to his father singing opera, and surviving ill health. He takes us through his school days spent absorbing the sights and sounds and smells of the colorful, varied, stinking, overbearing, overcrowded, artistic atmosphere of 19th century St. Petersburg, a city offering a true confrontation of East and West, related, yet interdependent, and offering cultural mayhem. Dr. G shows how such details and many others influenced Stravinsky's musical development.
Dr. G. is intimately acquainted with practically every conceivable nuance of Stravinsky's life, and has the teaching skill to put each nuance in its proper place as he helps us to understand how an essentially self-taught young musician became the leading composer of the 20th century.
Dr. G reveals the importance of Stravinsky's private lessons in composition and orchestration with Rimsky-Korsakov. Equally vital in Stravinsky's life were the unqualified support and affection of his new wife Katya. These two close events led to his extraordinarily rapid development. And even more momentous was Stravinsky's meeting with Sergei Diaghilev (1909-1910), and the resultant writing of The Firebird--a true watershed in his life.
Diaghilev was a manager and a brilliant artistic director. His formation of the Ballets Russes was a major milestone in the artistic world of the time, eventually becoming the most influential ballet company of the 20th century. Under Diaghilev's leadership, Ballets Russes promoted unprecedented artistic collaborations among young choreographers, composers, designers, and dancers, all cutting-edge in their fields.
Dr. G tells how, at the premiere of The Firebird, Diaghilev addressed the dancers, pointed to Stravinsky, and said, "Mark him well; he is a man on the eve of celebrity."
The collaboration of Stravinsky and Diaghilev led to The Rite Of Spring, which was to the 20th century what Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was to the 19th: the most influential work of its time...so shockingly original that it literally changed the way we think about music. As Dr. G says, "Like it or hate it, the genius of the work and its revolutionary impact on western music was apparent to almost everybody from the beginning."
The musical world would never be the same. What anomalies the Stravinskys of the world were and are...(Jacob Collier, for example.)
By the way, did you know that the violent and scandalous public reaction at the Rite's premiere performance in 1913 was carefully orchestrated and staged by Diaghilev? I didn't. Just a year later, when The Rite of Spring was performed as a concert piece, Stravinsky was honored to the point of being carried out of the theater on the shoulders of the audience.
These sorts of inside information, including the effect of WWI, the Russian Revolution and Civil War which followed, and WWII on Stravinsky's life and works make the reader feel as though he really knows and understands the composer and his music. This is the type of backstory information which Dr. G is so good at, providing a complete and unabridged picture of whatever composer he is talking about...and I have only provided a few of such details.
Each of his series of lectures comes with a Course Guidebook which, among other things, provides an extensive bibliography. This is simply music history at its best--music history come alive. Dr. G rigorously analyzes the musical components of nearly ever major work Stravinsky created. He meticulously reveals the growth and development of Stravinsky's mature compositional style as well as his complex and contradictory personality. This is Stravinsky Revealed. You've got to hear this! Just take a Saturday and listen to the whole thing at once.
And as I have said before, the occasional light humor Dr. G uses is just the touch needed to make a serious and historic account listenable and enjoyable. No, it goes beyond enjoyable; it's...scholarly entertainment...no, entertainment is not the right word, either--it's simply teaching at its best. What an attainment! Bravo!
Date published: 2018-12-16
Rated 5 out of
5
by
mountainmann from
Good value
Excellent example of the value of streaming education
Date published: 2018-11-06
Rated 5 out of
5
by
MarleysGhost from
Intro to 20th Century Music
Like many other reviewers and semi-knowledgeable music lovers, I was familiar with “The Rite of Spring” and “The Firebird”. Less so with Stravinsky’s other works. Sure I had heard the “Violin Concerto in D” and had pretty much dismissed it, just as I had done with “Petrushka”. Thanks once again to Professor Greenberg, I am beginning to see the light. I really had no idea as to the scope of Stravinsky’s music over the scores of years.
We are helped in this at the beginning of the very first lecture. Dr. Greenberg gives us three samples of Mozart’s music over his compositional career and asks if we can tell that the music was written by the same person. Of course, we can. Then we get three excerpts of three pieces by Tchaikovsky and once again it is easy to tell that the music was written by the same man. Now we are presented with five different pieces of “Stravinsky’s music over the years: “Firebird” of 1910, “The Rite of Spring” of 1912, “Pulcinella” of 1920, “Ebony Concerto” of 1945 and finally “Abraham and Isaac” of 1963. Here the music is radically different, even though the first two pieces were composed only two years apart. This lays the foundation for the lectures that follow, where we see the radically differing styles of music and compositional techniques.
Interspaced with all of this we get the life and times of Igor Stravinsky. Here again I learned a lot as I was largely unfamiliar with his bio. As usual, Professor Greenberg does not shy from the less savory aspects of Stravinsky’s life, such as his estrangement from his mother, his affairs and difficulties with other composers. All of this is delivered in Dr. Greenberg’s trademark shtick, which is something that for me adds to the lectures, but that other reviewers dislike.
Dr. Greenberg is very clearly a far of Stravinsky’s music and it comes across strongly. For me his discussion of “The Symphony of Psalms” and “Requiem Canticles”, neither of which I had heard, gave me just enough background and inspired me to listen to them on my own. And to this I would add a new appreciation of the “Violin Concerto in D”. Thank you Professor Greenberg.
Date published: 2018-08-22
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Meerkat Madness from
Composer of the 20th century
I am half way through these CD’s and am really enjoying them. Professor Greenberg’s way of showing how Stravinsky’s music evolved over his lifetime by comparing him to the evolution of Mozart and Tchaikovsky’s music was effective and entertaining. Although I have some familiarity with Stravinsky’s life and works, this course has enriched my understanding and appreciation of his accomplishments.
Date published: 2018-08-14
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Tricialou from
ROBERT GREENBERG IS A NATIONAL TREASURE!
Robert Greenberg is a national treasure. His courses are the best of the best. His erudition, and vast knowledge are integrated into everything he does. He can talk off the cuff as easily as he does with his beautifully written lectures. He's funny, entertaining, brilliant, informed, wonderfully opinionated, and his delivery is as good as everything else. If you are a professional musician or a musical illiterate he's equally valuable. I've recommended him to every student and parent in my studio. I've bought his course "Music as a Mirror of History" three times because I can't help giving it away. Listen to this guy. He will change your life and give you a deeper understanding of more things and in more ways than you can imagine. He's wonderful! If you had 10 stars instead of five he'd get 10 - or 100!
Date published: 2018-06-27
Overview
About
Dr. Robert Greenberg is Music Historian-in-Residence with San Francisco Performances. A graduate of Princeton University, Professor Greenberg holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of California, Berkeley. He has seen his compositions-which include more than 45 works for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles-performed all over the world, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, England, Ireland, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands.
He has served on the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley; California State University, Hayward; and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has lectured for some of the most prestigious musical and arts organizations in the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Van Cliburn Foundation, and the Chicago Symphony. For The Great Courses, he has recorded more than 500 lectures on a range of composers and classical music genres.
Professor Greenberg is a Steinway Artist. His many other honors include three Nicola de Lorenzo Composition Prizes and a Koussevitzky commission from the Library of Congress. He has been profiled in various major publications, including The Wall Street Journal; Inc. magazine; and the London Times.
You can find more music content from Robert Greenberg on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RobertGreenbergMusic.
01: Introduction and There’s No Place Like Home
Igor Stravinsky was raised in a St. Petersburg that was an amazing mix of Western and Eastern Europe, a blend that is a key to understanding Stravinsky's musical development. His father, Fyodor, was one of the great Russian operatic bass-baritones of his time. Accepted into law school, he continued music lessons and was steadfast in his ambition to become a composer.
48 min
02: From Student to Professional
Rimsky-Korsakov was so impressed with Stravinsky's Piano Sonata in F-sharp Minor (1904) he agreed to take Stravinsky as a private student. In 1909, Stravinsky met the impresario Serge Diaghilev, who commissioned Stravinsky to write a ballet on the folk tale "The Firebird," which was followed by the ballet "Petrushka," a great success. Stravinsky's next score, "The Rite of Spring," would become arguably the most influential work of its time.
47 min
03: "The Rite of Spring"
"The Rite of Spring" changed the way we think about rhythm, melodic patterning, compositional technique, and expressive content. When it opened in Paris in 1923 it caused a scandal unparalleled in the history of music. Its lasting modernity is a testament to the fact that it does not sound like any work that preceded it, nor any that followed it.
46 min
04: The War Years (WWI)
The war years enforced an economy of means on the composer; large-scale works were out of the question. Among the creations of these years were the Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914), "Renard" (Fox) for four voices and small orchestra (1916), "Ragtime for 11 Instruments" (1918), and "L'Histoire du Soldat" ( "The Soldier's Tale ") (1918). "Les Noces" ("The Wedding"), finished in 1923, is a great masterpiece of this period.
47 min
05: Neoclassicism
In 1919, Diaghilev proposed a ballet based on music by the Italian baroque composer Pergolesi. Immediately after the war, Diaghilev and Stravinsky, collaborated on a ballet "Pulcinella;" based on music by the Italian baroque composer Pergolesi. From 1920 to 1923, Stravinsky composed the Symphonies for Wind Instruments, the opera "Mavra", and the four-piano version of "The Wedding."
46 min
06: Maturity
By the mid-1920s, Stravinsky's musical philosophy embraced the belief that a composition should be governed by purely formal considerations. In 1930 he wrote "The Symphony of Psalms", a deeply religious work with elements similar to, and an austerity totally different from, "The Rite of Spring."
47 min
07: A Citizen of the World
With the outbreak of World War II, Stravinsky and his wife settled in Los Angeles, where he became one of Hollywood's most sought-after celebrities. In 1948, Stravinsky met Robert Craft, who exposed the composer to 12-tone music. Stravinsky, in his early 70s, was about to change his compositional language and enter an entirely new musical world.
46 min
08: The New Stravinsky
The parallels between Schoenberg and Stravinsky are many. In the early 1950s, Robert Craft began conducting serial works by Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, which captured Stravinsky's interest. In 1962, Stravinsky visited Russia for the first time since 1914. "Requiem Canticles" (1966), Stravinsky's last major work, is considered the most accessible of his late works. He died April 6, 1971, and was buried in Venice on the island of San Michele.
46 min
