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Life & Works - Johannes Brahms
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Life & Works - Franz Schubert
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Tom George, Peter Yapp, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
The life of Franz Schubert has been a gift to romantically inclined biographers: the beautiful, brilliant, modest boy who sprang to fully fledged genius at the age of sixteen; the quintessential ‘artist in a garret’, entirely consumed by his art and living a hand-to-mouth existence in Vienna (home of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven); the gentle, cheerful, convivial young man who prized friendship almost as highly as music itself; the unworldly poet from whom great music poured like water from a fountain; the unrecognized master who died almost penniless at the age of 31.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Informative Look at Franz Schubert, the Heir to Beethoven's Musical Legacy
- By Margaret on 07-06-18
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The Life and Works of Beethoven
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Bob Peck, Neville Jason, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 16
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For many people, Beethoven is the greatest composer who ever lived. In this portrait-in-sound, actors’ readings combine with his music to reveal a titanic personality, both vulnerable and belligerent, comic and tragic, and above all heroic, as he comes to grips with perhaps the greatest disability a musician can suffer. No man’s music is more universal; few men’s lives are more inspiring. In every sense but one - his modest height - he was a giant. The great bonus of this audio-biography is that the development of Beethoven’s music can be heard in the context of his life.
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3 out of 5 stars
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I'm a Believer
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The Life and Works of Bach
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, John Shrapnel, Trevor Nichols, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
Although now beloved and revered by millions as the greatest composer who ever lived, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was best known in his lifetime as an organist, and was eclipsed in fame as a composer by two of his twenty children. For the last twenty-seven years of his life he was a schoolteacher and choir director whose duties extended to meal supervision and dormitory inspection. Yet throughout his career he composed a vast body of music which is amongst the most joyful, dancing and enrapturing ever written.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Interesting
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The Life and Works of Tchaikovsky
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Malcolm Sinclair, Karen Archer, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 21
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Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular composers of all time. His melodies are known to many people who may never have heard his name. They crop up on mobile telephones, alarm clocks and answering machines as often as on records and concert programs. Like his music, the man himself was widely loved, but his inner life was fraught with sufferings, confusions and a deep vein of self-doubt. The drama of his emotional life is vividly reflected in his music, letters and diaries, all of which play a major part in this intimate portrait-in-sound.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved this audible book
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The Life and Works of Frédéric Chopin
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Anton Lesser, Neville Jason, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
Frédéric Chopin is the pianist-composer par excellence. Regarded as one of the most mesmerizing performers of his day, he lives on in his music – his waltzes, mazurkas, études, preludes, nocturnes, three piano sonatas, two piano concertos, and much more. Here, his life, from his birth in Poland, his famous affair with the French writer George Sand, to his death at the age of 39 in Paris, is told with his music featuring prominently. We think of Chopin as a "frail, sheltered genius" but this forthright portrait demonstrates he was far more boisterous than that.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Frederic Chopin
- By Mary Hawthorne on 03-24-17
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Life & Works - Antonin Dvorak
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Sean Barrett, Jonathan Keeble, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 11
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 11
One of the best-loved composers of all time, Dvorák rose from rural origins to become not only a great but an influential composer. The first composer to put his native Bohemia on the musical map of the world, he was invited to do the same for America. One result was the famous "New World" Symphony, which made him a household name across the globe. Writing music of irresistible color, lilt and peasant vitality, he was also a melodist-in-a-million. This portrait-in-sound follows a lovable and in many ways a very simple, man from hay cart to imperial palace, from tragic loss to heart-warming joy, to pigeon-raising and world celebrity.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Serviceable, lightweight bio with music
- By Bonny on 07-05-14
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Life & Works - Franz Schubert
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Tom George, Peter Yapp, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
The life of Franz Schubert has been a gift to romantically inclined biographers: the beautiful, brilliant, modest boy who sprang to fully fledged genius at the age of sixteen; the quintessential ‘artist in a garret’, entirely consumed by his art and living a hand-to-mouth existence in Vienna (home of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven); the gentle, cheerful, convivial young man who prized friendship almost as highly as music itself; the unworldly poet from whom great music poured like water from a fountain; the unrecognized master who died almost penniless at the age of 31.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Informative Look at Franz Schubert, the Heir to Beethoven's Musical Legacy
- By Margaret on 07-06-18
-
The Life and Works of Beethoven
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Bob Peck, Neville Jason, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 16
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
For many people, Beethoven is the greatest composer who ever lived. In this portrait-in-sound, actors’ readings combine with his music to reveal a titanic personality, both vulnerable and belligerent, comic and tragic, and above all heroic, as he comes to grips with perhaps the greatest disability a musician can suffer. No man’s music is more universal; few men’s lives are more inspiring. In every sense but one - his modest height - he was a giant. The great bonus of this audio-biography is that the development of Beethoven’s music can be heard in the context of his life.
-
3 out of 5 stars
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I'm a Believer
- By SydSavvy on 10-20-14
-
The Life and Works of Bach
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, John Shrapnel, Trevor Nichols, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
Although now beloved and revered by millions as the greatest composer who ever lived, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was best known in his lifetime as an organist, and was eclipsed in fame as a composer by two of his twenty children. For the last twenty-seven years of his life he was a schoolteacher and choir director whose duties extended to meal supervision and dormitory inspection. Yet throughout his career he composed a vast body of music which is amongst the most joyful, dancing and enrapturing ever written.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Interesting
- By JP Bogers on 05-23-15
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The Life and Works of Tchaikovsky
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Malcolm Sinclair, Karen Archer, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 21
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 20
Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular composers of all time. His melodies are known to many people who may never have heard his name. They crop up on mobile telephones, alarm clocks and answering machines as often as on records and concert programs. Like his music, the man himself was widely loved, but his inner life was fraught with sufferings, confusions and a deep vein of self-doubt. The drama of his emotional life is vividly reflected in his music, letters and diaries, all of which play a major part in this intimate portrait-in-sound.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved this audible book
- By Gail A Hopkins on 01-13-16
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The Life and Works of Frédéric Chopin
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Anton Lesser, Neville Jason, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
Frédéric Chopin is the pianist-composer par excellence. Regarded as one of the most mesmerizing performers of his day, he lives on in his music – his waltzes, mazurkas, études, preludes, nocturnes, three piano sonatas, two piano concertos, and much more. Here, his life, from his birth in Poland, his famous affair with the French writer George Sand, to his death at the age of 39 in Paris, is told with his music featuring prominently. We think of Chopin as a "frail, sheltered genius" but this forthright portrait demonstrates he was far more boisterous than that.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Frederic Chopin
- By Mary Hawthorne on 03-24-17
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Life & Works - Antonin Dvorak
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Sean Barrett, Jonathan Keeble, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 11
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 11
One of the best-loved composers of all time, Dvorák rose from rural origins to become not only a great but an influential composer. The first composer to put his native Bohemia on the musical map of the world, he was invited to do the same for America. One result was the famous "New World" Symphony, which made him a household name across the globe. Writing music of irresistible color, lilt and peasant vitality, he was also a melodist-in-a-million. This portrait-in-sound follows a lovable and in many ways a very simple, man from hay cart to imperial palace, from tragic loss to heart-warming joy, to pigeon-raising and world celebrity.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Serviceable, lightweight bio with music
- By Bonny on 07-05-14
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Life & Works - Giuseppe Verdi
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Freddie Jones, Elaine Claxton, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9
With the possible exception of Mozart, Verdi is the most popular opera composer who ever lived. Quite early in his career his tunes were being cranked out by barrel organs throughout Europe and were well known to many who may never even have heard his name. But the complex man behind them remains elusive and puzzling. In this portrait-in-sound, Jeremy Siepmann and a group of distinguished actors take an in-depth look behind the popular image of a man who was, and perhaps remains, the most enduring national hero in Italian history and a colossus in the history of music itself.
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The Life and Works of Mozart
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Nicholas Boulton, Edward de Souza, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the most astonishing child prodigy in the history of music, is felt by many people to be the greatest composer who ever lived. Dominated and shaped by a highly intelligent but frustrated and ambitious father, his story sees the development of a unique genius, from precocious and often endearing childhood to liberated fulfillment, unexpected poverty, and a tragically early death. Generously illustrated by Mozart’s music, from his fifth to his final year, this portrait-in-sound reveals a fascinating yet elusive character, drawing richly on the words of the composer himself and those who knew him.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Mozart, oh Mozart
- By SydSavvy on 07-23-14
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Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion
- By: Bill Messenger, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Bill Messenger
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 396
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 350
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 348
Jazz is a uniquely American art form, one of America's great contributions to not only musical culture, but world culture, with each generation of musicians applying new levels of creativity that take the music in unexpected directions that defy definition, category, and stagnation. Now you can learn the basics and history of this intoxicating genre in an eight-lecture series that is as free-flowing and original as the art form itself.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A Disappointingly Distorted, Myopic View Of Jazz
- By Parallax View on 08-18-13
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Joseph Haydn: His Life and Works
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, David Timson, Nigel Anthony, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 9
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9
No great composer’s story is more predominantly happy than Haydn’s, though even his has its share of clouds. A classic rags-to-riches tale, it sees him move from humble beginnings through decades as a liveried servant to his emergence as the most popular and successful composer of his time. One of the healthiest and least neurotic artists in musical history, he did more than any other single figure to pioneer the symphony, the piano sonata and the string quartet - and he was the first truly great practitioner of each.
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Schumann
- The Faces and the Masks
- By: Judith Chernaik
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella, Judith Chernaik
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 3
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2
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Story5 out of 5 stars 2
Schumann: The Faces and the Masks draws us into the milieu of the Romantic movement, which enraptured poets, musicians, painters, and their audiences in the early 19th century and beyond, even to the present day. It reveals how Schumann (1810-1856) embodied all the contrasting themes of Romanticism - he was intensely original and imaginative but also worshipped the past; he believed in political, personal, and artistic freedom but insisted on the need for artistic form based on the masters: Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
- The Learned Musician
- By: Christoph Wolff
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 21 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 3
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Performance3 out of 5 stars 2
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Story3 out of 5 stars 2
Although we have heard the music of J. S. Bach in countless performances and recordings, the composer himself still comes across only as an enigmatic figure in a single familiar portrait. As we mark the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, author Christoph Wolff presents a new picture that brings to life this towering figure of the Baroque era. This engaging new biography portrays Bach as the living, breathing, and sometimes imperfect human being that he was, while bringing to bear all the advances of the last half-century of Bach scholarship.
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Mozart: The Magic Flute
- By: Thomson Smillie
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 1 hr and 10 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
The Magic Flute almost defines a masterpiece, because it can be enjoyed on every level. It is a superb fairy story, complete with dragons, demons, a handsome prince, and a lovely maiden seriously in need of rescue; it is a political satire, social commentary, and psychological drama; it is full of tunes from the playful to the heart-stopping, jolly songs, and deeply spiritual outpourings. It is, in short, "Mozart" - and there is no greater compliment than that.
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2 out of 5 stars
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The sublime and the ridiculous
- By Zaubermond on 04-19-13
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Discover: Music of the Romantic Era
- By: David McCleery
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 14
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Story4 out of 5 stars 9
Amid a background of wars and revolution, the 19th century produced many of the world's best-loved composers, including Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky. Discover: Music of the Romantic Era charts the course of music through those turbulent but exhilarating times with 40 music excerpts. Light-hearted but authoritative, it tells the fascinating, often scandalous life stories of the 19th century's greatest composers and describes how they created musical history.
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Chopin
- By: Darren Henley
- Narrated by: Marin Alsop
- Length: 19 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5
This is a story from the More Famous Composers collection.
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Joseph Haydn
- His Life and Works
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 20
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9
Symphonies, quartets, concertos and keyboard works poured from the pen of Joseph Haydn, making him one of the most important figures in classical music. Jeremy Siepmann tells the story of the man and his work in this lively autobiography, enhanced by numerous examples of the music itself, taken from the Naxos catalogue. There is no better programme with which to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer's death.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great history of Haydn
- By Kip on 07-16-09
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Mendelssohn
- By: Darren Henley
- Narrated by: Marin Alsop
- Length: 22 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1
This is a story from the More Famous Composers collection.
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Handel
- By: Darren Henley
- Narrated by: Marin Alsop
- Length: 24 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4
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Story4 out of 5 stars 4
This is a story from the More Famous Composers collection.
Editorial Reviews
Unlike the Naxos musical biographies of composers, this is an anatomical dissection of a single noteworthy piece of music. In terms more familiar to music professionals than to beginners ("a harmonic wash of pure pianistic tone colour"), Siepmann analyzes the construction, difficulty, unconventionality, and beauty of Brahms's second piano concerto. His technique is to say a few words about a musical passage and then present it piecemeal, working step by step through the entire work. Finally, we hear the whole movement with much more appreciation than before.
Publisher's Summary
Brahms is one of the best loved yet most controversial of all the Romantics. Almost uniquely, his works have never suffered the slightest period of eclipse. Profoundly emotional yet governed by an iron discipline, the music, like the man, is a fascinating, entertaining, often deeply moving blend of opposites. He had a gift for friendship and a capacity for love far beyond the ordinary, yet no man could be ruder or more hurtful. Though humble, he was consumed by a sense of destiny, and his inner life, colored by his adoration and fear of women, found expression in some of the greatest music ever written.
Listening to this audio-biography is leaping inside the life and times of a great German Romantic, understanding the man who was haunted by the ghost of Beethoven for years and was 43 before he wrote his first symphony.
What members say
Average Customer Ratings
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 05-24-17
Excellent introduction.
What a delight! The combination of life story , musical interludes and the extracts from letters etc read by actors makes this a very engaging and informative introduction to the life and works of the composer . I enjoyed it very much and the format held my attention and interest throughout.
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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
- Rodney Wetherell
- 02-24-17
Fine study of Brahms' life & work
I love Brahms but knew little about his life. This filled the gap very well.