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The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works  By  cover art

The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works

By: Robert Greenberg, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Robert Greenberg
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Publisher's summary

The piano is the most popular solo concert instrument in Western music. One of the key reasons is the fact that it has inspired many of the greatest masterpieces in the concert repertoire. To study these masterworks and to understand their genius and lasting appeal is to know one of the greatest accomplishments of Western culture, works that give great pleasure even as they deepen your insight into the meaning of music.

The 23 works you'll study are carefully chosen to highlight the most important compositional and pianistic achievements in the solo piano tradition.

These 24 enthralling lectures by Professor Greenberg take you through more than 200 years of piano music. Beginning with the monumental figure of Bach, followed by Mozart and Beethoven, you experience the piano music of such 19th-century masters as Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt, before moving forward to visionary modernists including Scriabin, Debussy, and Prokofiev. Each lecture presents a single work in a fresh, accessible encounter with its musical substance, welcoming listeners new to concert music as well as experienced concert music lovers.

In addition to your study of the music, the lectures treat you to a rich panorama of music history. You dig deeply into the artistic and cultural environments that the compositions reflect, shedding light on what inspired these great works and how they were written. As a third layer of the course, you delve into the fascinating history of the piano itself, uncovering the ways in which the evolution of the instrument directly influenced the music that composers wrote for it.

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

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

©2013 The Great Courses (P)2013 The Teaching Company, LLC

What listeners say about The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works

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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful!

My degree is in Classical piano, and, still, I learned so much.
Thank you. I will listen to it again.

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32 people found this helpful

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Greenberg is the Best

If you could sum up The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works in three words, what would they be?

Greenberg's grasp of the subject is masterful but always entertaining. This is my 11th Greenberg Great Course purchase.

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31 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A great introduction!

Any additional comments?

I agree with other reviewers - many of the audio samples are of poor quality, both in performance and in volume. Some of them are played on small pianos that do not do passages justice, or are poorly recorded, or are so quiet you can't hear them at all unless you're sitting somewhere very quiet while listening to this (almost never the case for me). I'd assume that if people are buying this audio book they probably care about sound/music/audio. Please get some better samples. The professor, however, is wonderful!!!! Still definitely worth a listen.

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25 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Prof. Greenberg is terrific as always, but!

Any additional comments?

Prof. Greenberg is terrific as always, but Great Courses could have used better recordings of the music!

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13 people found this helpful

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Brilliant!

As always, professor Greenberg fills this entertaining and informative series with interesting anecdotes, technical explanations, and, last but not least, his own idiosyncratic and witty teaching style.

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7 people found this helpful

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Magnificently interesting

Robert Greenberg does an amazing job explaining what could be boring material in a very entertaining way. I learned a lot from this series. I am likely to listen to it again. I learned things that have affected my own compositions. I am going through all of his lectures. Some may find him overbearing, but not me. I think he is terrific.

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4 people found this helpful

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A Grand & Glorious History

I loved the narrator's "characterizations" helping to make the history come alive. A most fascinating tale of the piano and those composers and pianists who helped develop it into the magnificent instrument it became and still is. A must read for true music appreciation.

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4 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Information is OK; sample quality is poor

Introductory info that some might find interesting or amusing, but the many examples are not only poorly recorded, but poorly performed as well.

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3 people found this helpful

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Great Mix of Music and Stories

I'll admit it. I came here for the virtuosos - I love Liszt and Rachmaninoff. However, I loved hearing the stories and music as they relate to the history and development of the piano. I loved hearing about the life of a concert pianist. Perhaps my favorite part was the group of short and well known songs along with their stories and related anecdotes. "Passengers will please refrain / From flushing toilets while the train / Is passing through the station. I love you."

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2 people found this helpful

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Excellent and fulfilling course!!

The lecturer's style comes across dramatically, but also knowledgable and profound. Ended up enjoying immensely.

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2 people found this helpful