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Rated 5 out of 5 by dibble from Delightful As always Prof Greenberg provides information and insight is the most entertaining and instructive way.

Date published: 2022-12-05

Rated 4 out of 5 by The Dean from Very thorough Lots of information about Haydn. Would have preferred more stress on the music and less on his personal life.

Date published: 2022-07-30

Rated 4 out of 5 by Ueli from Despite having ordered this course more than 3 weeks ago, and paying an unprecedented A$20.00 for handling and postage here within Australia, the item still has not arrived yet.... Otherwise, I love all the many courses I have bought over many years.

Date published: 2022-04-25

Rated 5 out of 5 by bsncelflt from Our favorite of the Great Masters! We knew a bit about Haydn but Professor Greenberg brings his life and music to a whole new level of knowledge for us. We have played his music in community orchestra for years but never delved deeper into his life. GREAT course. We do jigsaw puzzles while listening to the audio lectures. Highly recommend.

Date published: 2022-02-24

Rated 4 out of 5 by emmbee66 from One of Prof. Greenberg's better courses I don't know how Prof. Greenberg manages to be an expert on every composer and style of music when one considers that musicology, like other subjects, is laden with specialists who are experts in a particular genre, often spending a lifetime studying a narrow field. Nevertheless, and putting aside his usual histrionics, Greenberg provides a worthwhile and sympathetic biographical and musical introduction to one of western civilization's greatest and most prolific, though often less thought about, composers. As a professional musician, I especially enjoy Greenberg's trenchant comments regarding the abuse of musicians and how poorly members of society often treat even the very best of them. As usual, Prof. Greenberg's anecdotes, historical detours and borscht belt wit are characteristic of his overall articulate teaching style, and I do say that with a tinge of jealousy.

Date published: 2022-01-30

Rated 5 out of 5 by Judy100 from Love affair with Haydn I loved this course, like every Greenberg course that I have taken. I immediately ordered a bunch of Haydn CDs and have been listening regularly. Mr. Greenberg has re-sparked my love of this wonderful composer.

Date published: 2022-01-11

Rated 5 out of 5 by Wes S from A Fascinating Life Story Shared Brilliantly Robert Greenberg infuses his lessons with such enthusiasm that musical geniuses seem to come to life. As with the other courses taught by Greenberg, the end comes with sadness that this course is over. Fortunately, there are still several more classes he teaches which I have not taken yet. I leave feeling not only like Robert is a good friend sharing wonderful stories with humor and pathos, but as if I've gotten to know Joseph Haydn personally and come to also like him very much. I will be signing up for another lecture in the series of great composers, having already completed courses on Mozart and Brahms which I found equally captivating. His course on History and Music is a tour de force featuring several conductors that I also recommend and serves as a good introduction from which to select these more in depth character studies. While many Wondrium/Great Courses professors deliver fantastic courses, few can hold my attention and make me as happy to be learning as Professor Greenberg. Take this class along with other classes, and like me you will find you look forward to when it comes up in whatever type of rotation you may use.

Date published: 2021-08-11

Rated 5 out of 5 by CarlE from Informative and Extremely Engaging 'Haydn's marriage sank like a submarine with screen doors.' Edifying, entertaining and thoroughly wonderful!

Date published: 2020-11-10

Overview

Experience the musical riches of Franz Joseph Haydn, an artist so technically superb that he has come to exemplify the Classical style. In Great Masters: Haydn-His Life and Music, explore the life, works, and legacy of one of the most original and influential composers of all time. Taught by award-winning Professor Robert Greenberg, this course will reveal Haydn's extraordinary achievements not merely as technical feats or displays of pure talent-but as the work of a whole person, a triumph of generosity and the human spirit.

About

Robert Greenberg

For thousands of years cultures have celebrated themselves through their music. Let us always be willing and able to join that celebration by listening as carefully as we can to what, through music, we have to say to one another.

ALMA MATER

University of California, Berkeley

INSTITUTION

San Francisco Performances

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.

By This Professor

How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition

Great Masters: Tchaikovsky—His Life and Music

Great Masters: Mozart—His Life and Music

Great Masters: Mahler—His Life and Music

Great Masters: Brahms—His Life and Music

01: Introduction and Early Life

Haydn's name is synonymous with the Classical style. No other single composer did as much to create and standardize the Classical symphony and quartet. This lecture describes his early years at school and as a choirboy at St. Stephen's Cathedral school in Vienna. In 1749, when his voice broke, he was expelled from St. Stephen's to begin a new life in Vienna at the age of 17....

49 min

02: The Lean Years and the Pre-Classical Style

Haydn eked out a living for years before his compositional career took off. He absorbed the musical traditions of his day: the high Baroque, and the new rococo music of the Enlightenment. This lecture discusses influences on Haydn: the Mannheim orchestra, Italian composer Sammartini as well as Viennese composers Reutter, Monn, and Wagenseil. In 1761, he got the opportunity of his life when he was ...

45 min

03: Haydn's Marriage and Esterhaza

Musically, Haydn's development was an unqualified success but marriage to Maria Anna Keller was not. Prince Paul Anton and his successor, Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, were genuine music lovers. Haydn became the court music director with his own orchestra to conduct and write music for. Haydn was "forced to become original."...

45 min

04: Esterhaza Continued

Life at Prince Nicholas's court at Esterhaza was exactly what Haydn wanted: predictable and calm. Ideas of the new Sturm und Drang cultural movement imbued his music with a greater emotional range. Haydn became famous and wealthy, and he developed a close friendship with Mozart. His music became the template by which we measure the Classical style, perfectly balancing head and h...

45 min

05: The Classical String Quartet and the Classical Symphony

Haydn's string quartets and symphonies are models of the Classical style. He forged the notion of the string quartet as four individuals who collaborate to create a whole that is greater than its parts. As the years passed at Esterhaza, Haydn's fame grew throughout Europe and England. When Prince Nicholas Esterhazy died in 1790, he accepted the invitation of an English impresario to ...

46 min

06: London

Haydn went to London at the invitation of Johann Peter Salomon, a violinist and impresario. The symphonies Haydn wrote for his London audiences are among his finest. He returned to Vienna in 1792, but his reception there was mild. Moreover, he had lost his great friend Mozart and was soon to lose his old friend Marianne von Genzinger. It could not have been a worse time when the young Ludwig van B...

43 min

07: Beethoven, London Again, and Breakthrough

Beethoven's composition lessons with Haydn were disastrous. Beethoven was discourteous and even duplicitous toward Haydn, although he would later forgive the young and rebellious Beethoven. At his second visit to London in 1794, he was as enthusiastically received as the first time. His 12 London Symphonies, written during both visits, are the crowning achievements of his symphonic output. After h...

45 min

08: The Creation, The Seasons, and the End

As he grew old, Haydn's health began to fail, but he still kept a strict daily routine. He lived in the Viennese suburbs, continuing to receive a steady stream of medals, awards, and honors. He wrote The Seasons, his last major work, which was another extraordinary success. In March 1808, a performance of The Creation was given to a distinguished audience in honor of Haydn's 76th birthday; he died...

47 min