A Great Course with a Great Caveat

Would you try another book from The Great Courses and/or Professor Robert Greenberg?

Yes

What did you like best about this story?

Prof. Greenberg's style is passionate and humorous which makes the course quite enjoyable. His explanations are good.

Which character – as performed by Professor Robert Greenberg – was your favorite?

N/A

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Symphonies of Beethoven?

N/A

Any additional comments?

A great caveat is that Audible does not offer the word scores Prof. Greenberg uses heavily in this course and which are described in the very beginning as of great importance to understand the course. Not only that, but the professor skips some parts, due to lack of time, instructing the listeners to read those parts in the word scores!

When I complained, Audible said that 'The Great Courses company said the word scores are not important' and 'you can return the book if you didn't like it', which doesn't work for me because there is information in it that I need, but I also need the rest of it. When I contacted The Great Courses company they offered to sell me the hard copy of the word scores!

The question now is: Why doesn't Audible mention clearly that these courses come without the word scores that are given great importance by the instructor? And why doesn't it strike a deal with that company to sell the word scores and add their prices to the books'?

112 people found this helpful

Truly the course materials MUST be made available.

Would you listen to The Symphonies of Beethoven again? Why?

Yes, because being new to music theory I didn't absorb it all the first time, but would very much like to.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Symphonies of Beethoven?

Beethoven's letter to everyone for when he died was particularly poignant, abs the explanation for the last movement of the Second Symphony was priceless.

What about Professor Robert Greenberg’s performance did you like?

He's very animated and clearly knows his material.

Any additional comments?

Smart people work at The Teaching Company and Audible. Please figure out how to make the course materials available. They are critical despite your protestations to the contrary.

47 people found this helpful

THE STUDY GUIDE IS NOW AVAILABLE!

Any additional comments?

A fantastic course is now even more wonderful now that the in-depth Study Guide is included. Thanks Audible!

28 people found this helpful

Where is the course outlines?

Any additional comments?

The Great Courses series is a wonderful new addition and I am really delighted to get all these wonderful courses at such an affordable price (if you pay for credits), but oddly enough, unlike other audio courses such as the Modern Scholar series, the outlines are not included. This is a major disappointment thus 3 stars for overall. I hope Audible will correct this defect.

27 people found this helpful

"And his nine symphonies are among the greatest..

"And his nine symphonies are among the greatest achievements of the human spirit."
32 lectures | 45 minutes each

1-4 Beethoven and the Heroic Style

5-6 Symphony No.1- Beethoven as Classicist

7-8 Symphony No.2-Beethoven at the Edge

9-12 Symphony No.3- The New Path

13-16 Symphony No.4-Consolidation of the new Aesthetic

17-19 Symphony No.5-The Expressive Ideal Fully Formed

20-22 Symphony No.6-The Symphony as Program

23-24 Symphony No.7-The Symphony as Dance

25-27 Symphony No.8-Homage to Classicism

28-32 Symphony No.9-The Symphony as the World

This is one of my favorite courses yet from the Great Courses Company and especially Professor Robert Greenberg of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. I have heard some of the music before such as the great 5th Symphony, but I can’t say I understood it at all.

This course helps you to understand what you are listening to and why it was written in this particular way. It also shows you how Beethoven took music from its beginnings and stretched it to its limits. The Professor felt that if Beethoven lived today, he would have loved Jazz music and even Rock and Roll. (Of course, he probably would have lost his hearing even quicker now.)

Of all the music I listened to in this course, I loved the 6th Symphony the best. It spoke to me of nature and the people and their relationship with the earth.

The Professor also fills us in on Beethoven’s private life. We learn who his “Immortal Beloved” was and his strange relationship with his brothers and sisters-in-law. He was a genius but also a very weird personality.

Along with these lectures comes a book written by Dr. Greenberg to help you listen to the complete symphonies by yourself. Now Amazon Prime has Leonard Bernstein’s collector’s edition of all of Beethoven’s Symphonies for Prime members.

I loved this course and highly recommend. I received this course as an anniversary pick from Audible. It was well worth any price.

17 people found this helpful

Nine Great Reasons to Listen

Beethoven's nine symphonies are amazing works of art, and this course helps bring them to life. My personal knowledge of orchestral music was incredibly limited until I began listening to Professor Greenberg's series of courses on music appreciation. This is the fourth of his courses that I've completed, and it is as outstanding as the others. As an initial comment, unless you are experienced with orchestral music, I recommend taking Professor Greenberg's How to Listen to and Understand Great Music before tackling this course. His introductory course provides a great deal of important contextual information that made this course easier to understand.

My one caveat to this course is that there are several parts—perhaps too many—where Professor Greenberg gets very technical on musical theory. I have no ability to interpret pitches, harmonies, etc…, though the professor spends considerable time talking about how Beethoven used different musical elements like pitches in the symphonies. I will freely admit that the professor lost me almost completely when he began those discussions. A listener with a good understanding of musical theory would probably love those parts of the course, but for me it is something to endure. It is, however, worth enduring to get to the parts where the professor discusses elements of the works such as Beethoven's life experiences that influenced the music and the meaning that Beethoven was trying to express in certain passages. Professor Greenberg does a fantastic job opening up Beethoven's nine symphonies to an amateur such as myself. The course is both fun and enlightening.

9 people found this helpful

Unbelievably thorough

What does Professor Robert Greenberg bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His enthusiasm is so engaging and his depth of knowledge is astounding!

Any additional comments?

While the word score would be nice, I bought this to listen to in the car and it not only entertains, but gives so much information that I was enraptured throughout. I bought all 9 symphonies so I can listen to them and go back and re-listen to the lectures on each symphony to deepen my understanding. I will definitely be buying more of The Great Courses.

4 people found this helpful

Another fabulous class

Professor Greenberg has a deep love for music, and a great way of communicating his enthusiasm for why works like Beethoven’s symphonies are beautiful, important and worth studying. Great fun and time well spent.

1 person found this helpful

Spectacular guided tour of all nine symphonies

Dive onto it, even if it's a once in a lifetime incursion into these fascinating symphonies. It is well worth your time.

Excellent

A deep dive into the nine symphonies and a crash course in music theory, this is both a great listen and an educational one. My only minor reservation is that Professor Greenberg can be a bit over the top in his presentation. Despite this, I learned an incredible amount of material. A wonderful course.