Great Masters: Beethoven - His Life and Music

By: Robert Greenberg, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Robert Greenberg

Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Have you ever wondered how the lives of great composers - especially when set against the social, political, and cultural context of their world - influenced their music?

After listening to this perceptive series of eight lectures on the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven, you will likely find that you hear his work in an entirely different way, with your insight informed by new knowledge of how Beethoven was able to create masterpieces from the crises of his life.

You'll learn about the years of progressive hearing loss - ultimately to produce total deafness - and the understandable agony and rage such a fate would bring upon a composer. About his deep depression over the end of his relationship with the woman he calls his Immortal Beloved. About his pathological hatred of authority, his persecution complex, even delusional behaviors.

But you'll also learn how each of these crises, and many others, served to drive Beethoven inward, to reinvent himself and redeem his suffering through art, creating disruptive works of profound passion and beauty that reinvented the nature of musical expression in the Western world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2001 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2001 The Great Courses

Surprisingly interesting

I've taken it upon myself to dive into more classic works, including classic figures in many genres and on many topics. And while I've always found Beethoven interesting, I knew very little about him.

This is a great crash course to get you introduced.

Note to those who play at multiple speeds: prepare to slow down or prepare to sacrifice the musical sampling a that are included here. I typically go at 3X and so when the music played it sounded horrible. But when the talking came back on it was entirely too slow. But that's just a word of advice!

Fantastic

Dude is a great teacher. Loved these lectures! Have already got a few more of his.

deep insight into the pioneering master who was beethoven

insight into his personal life was great.he was a wild one to say the least.!!!!!comprende ?

Great musical lectures

I enjoyed the performance and details this audible presentation gave. The lecturer was up beat and very interested in the material. The samples of Beethoven's music helped to get a better understanding of the impact his music made on the world and how his personal life impacted his music.

Excellent information on Beethoven as a person

Beethoven was a deeply flawed person who created splendid music and I am more interested in analysis of Beethoven's music. As an introduction to Beethoven before piano sonatas, the string quartets, and the symphonies, this is good, but I much prefer Beethoven, the composer, to Beethoven, the man, who I think could be a despicable person.

His enthusiasm is worth the price of the course

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I knew very little of the man Beethoven and about the same about his music. Professor Greenberg educated me in both very well. His lectures were very clear, his use of portions of the music, made it very easy to understand his explanations of the music itself. I felt at the conclusion of the course I did have a bit of an understanding of the person, music and times of the great Beethoven.

What other book might you compare Great Masters: Beethoven - His Life and Music to and why?

If you are familiar with the Great Courses you will understand the format and amount of information available through these lectures. If you have not tried a Great Course I can strongly recommend them. The Audible website has scores of courses through the web.

Which scene was your favorite?

To hear that Beethoven, like many of the creative geniuses in history, was difficult to get along with was not as much of a shock as to find out about his instability as a person. Not only did he litigate with all he came in contact with, but he created his own mental world in which he lived.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. It was better to listen to one lecture a day.

Any additional comments?

Professor Greenberg was a joy to listen to.

Excellent writing and narration

Author and professor was fascinating. Though I attend the symphony often, I found myself listening to Beethoven’s 3rd, 5th and 9th symphonies on my tablet while listening to his lectures on my phone.

I have put professor Ginsberg’s other series on Beethoven on my wish list.

COMPELLING

I am in the process of reading how to listen to and understand great music. The professor's telling of a small part of his story That book made me want to learn everything I could about Beethoven the man as soon as I could.
For now at least the music is secondary to what I want to know. But do to the lecturers ability to keep my interest in future reviews I hope that changes . My goal in writing this review is to make clear that new comers to this area can learn a lot.
As interesting as professor makes his lectures I would recommend this book to anyone. Please begin with how to listen to and understand great music! You will get more out of it that way.

love it

loved it. dr. greenberg is absolutely fantastic. highly recommend it to any one who likes music

Excellent!

I thoroughly enjoyed the narrator and the information. Captivating and held my attention. I learned a great deal.