The Symphony.

The Symphony

Robert Greenberg 

The Teaching Company

4151 Lafayette Center Drive, Suite 100, Chantilly, VA 20151-1232

#7210, $374.95 DVD, www.teach12.com, 1-800-832-2412

"The Symphony" is a series of twenty-four informed and informative lectures brilliantly presented by Professor Robert Greenberg (currently the music historian-in-residence with San Francisco Performances). Professor Greenberg expertly and knowledgeably presents an overview and analysis of the history of the symphony over its almost 300-year existence as a basic form of Western concert music. The symphony is a multi-movement, multi-instrument, coordinated composition for an orchestra that has its origins in the concerti and opera overtures of the Baroque era, becoming an increasingly popular entertainment for the masses as well as the aristocracy and privileged classes during the Classical and early Romantic eras. The inherently fascinating description of the symphony's development and expansion includes succinct biographical portraits of some of the very best and most influential of the symphonic composers including such luminaries as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler, Ives, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Copland, Barber, and so many others. Examples of symphonic performances are laced throughout t the lectures themselves for illustrative purposes. Enthusiastically recommended for high school music department, university and community library Music History collections, the DVD format for "The Symphony" divides Professor Greenberg's superbly crafted, 45 minute lectures into three parts encompassing. "The Symphony" is also available in an audio CD format ($269.95), and in an cassette tape format ($199.95). Verbatim transcript books ($35.00) for this outstanding course are also readily available and recommended.