The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works

by Robert Greenberg

This course identifies and celebrates 30 of the greatest orchestral works in the concert repertoire. Each lecture presents learners with a historical and biographical context for each work via a guided tour of the work itself. These musical tours include both piano demonstrations of the piece's compositional structure and selected excerpts drawn from recordings. The course is designed to serve learners as a series of expanded program notes that explores a broad range of orchestral music composed over the last 300 years: from the baroque era, the classical era, the romantic era, and the 20th century. The works featured in the course include some of the most well-known, best-loved, and most frequently performed pieces in the standard repertoire in the forms of symphonies, concertos, tone poems, symphonic poems, and suites

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Audiobook, History, Art, Education, Reference

6 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Robert M. Greenberg is an American composer, pianist and musicologist. He has composed more than 50 works for a variety of instruments and voices, and has recorded a number of lecture series on music history and music appreciation for The Teaching Company.

Greenberg earned a B.A. in music, magna cum laude, from Princeton University and received a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of California, Berkeley. He has served on the faculties of UC Berkeley, Californiz State University, East Bay, and the San Franciso Conservatory of Music, where he was chairman of the Department of Music History and Literature as well as Director of the Adult Extension Division. Dr. Greenberg is currently Music Historian-in-residence with San Francisco Performances.

Reviews

[Alissa McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolute delight!! It was an Audible lecture series published by a company called The Great Courses. Thirty minute lectures, each on a different piece of music which included a discussion of the composer and his life and times in order to set the context, as well as the structure of the piece itself. It was such fun and I was sad to reach the end. It expanded my knowledge of those works I know, and left me with a new appreciation for some composers with whom I was less familiar. I would highly recommend this series and this company. They publish some amazing things!

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn’t really a book but part of the Great Courses. The professor covers thirty orchestral works with an additional introductory lecture and a closing lecture. To qualify, a piece must be written for a full orchestra with multiple movements, and no composer gets more than two slots even if they wrote fifty masterpiece symphonies. Each lecture contains a bio of the composer, and then the professor points out interesting things about the piece: how it was innovative, how key and time signatures were used, how the instruments work together, and so on. It assumes you know some very basic music terms but you don’t have to know much about music theory to understand the lectures.

One fascinating thing I learned was that in Saint-Saens’s “Danse Macabre,” the solo violin’s E string is tuned to E flat so that the violinist can play an A-E flat double stop on two open strings. It didn’t even occur to me that you can do that. Now I want to know if the violinist’s music is written with the actual pitches or what the pitches would be if tuned to an E.

Each lecture begins and ends with applause. After a little while, I realized it’s the exact same applause recording every time. It’s kind of hard to listen to these lectures back to back, so I liked to spread them out and listen in between audiobooks.

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[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic offering from Greenberg. Each 45-minute lecture covers a specific classical work. He describes what makes each piece great and plays excerpts while pointing out the themes, explaining the meanings, and providing fascinating and memorable biographical details about each composer along the way.

All 32 lectures are available on Audible for a single credit. The audio format is perfect for learning this material, and frankly it’s hard to imagine how this could be any better. The only quibble some listeners may have is that the 30 selections do not match up with what they might list as their 30 favorites. Of course Greenberg realizes that it’s impossible to agree on a Top 30 List, but his list seems quite reasonable once he clarifies that he excluded famous works that he has already covered in previous lectures.

Here’s the list of works he discusses:

LECTURE 1
Game Plan and Preliminaries.
LECTURE 2
Vivaldi-The Four Seasons.
LECTURE 3
Bach-Brandenburg Concerto No. 2
LECTURE 4
Bach-Violin Concerto in E Major
LECTURE 5
Haydn-Symphony No. 104
LECTURE 6
Mozart-Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor
LECTURE 7
Mozart-Symphony in C Major, "Jupiter"
LECTURE 8
Beethoven-Symphony No. 3.
LECTURE 9
Beethoven--Piano Concerto No. 4
LECTURE 10
Beethoven-Symphony No. 9
LECTURE 11
Schubert-Symphony No. 9
LECTURE 12
Mendelssohn-"Italian" Symphony
LECTURE 13
Schumann--Symphony No. 3
LECTURE 14
Brahms-Symphony No. 4
LECTURE 15
Brahms-Violin Concerto
LECTURE 16
Tchaikovsky-Symphony No. 4
LECTURE 17
Tchaikovsky-Violin Concerto
LECTURE 18
Bedrich Smetana--Má Vlast
LECTURE 19
Dvorák-Symphony No. 8
LECTURE 20
Dvorák-Concerto for Cello
LECTURE 21
Rimsky-Korsakov-Scheherazade
LECTURE 22
Richard Strauss-Thus Spoke Zarathustra
LECTURE 23
Mahler-Symphony No. 5
LECTURE 24
Rachmaninoff-Symphony No. 2
LECTURE 25
Debussy--La Mer
LECTURE 26
Stravinsky--The Rite of Spring
LECTURE 27
Saint-Saens-Symphony No. 3
LECTURE 28
Holst-The Planets
LECTURE 29
Copland--Appalachian Spring
LECTURE 30
Shostakovich-Symphony No. 5
LECTURE 31
Shostakovich-Symphony No. 10
LECTURE 32
The Ones That Got Away

I would have loved to have a complete written transcript of the lectures to use as a reference, and there is a .pdf file that is included with the Audible audiobook, but unfortunately it’s an abridgment. I suppose it’s better than nothing. It does feature a glossary of musical terms which is a plus.

Nevertheless, I would highly recommend this to any musical novice who, like myself, enjoys classical music to some degree but believes that with a little help they might appreciate it even more. And btw, Greenberg’s How to Listen to and Understand Great Music is also excellent in this regard.

I was going to say that the lecture on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is alone worth the price of the audiobook, but since this one was free with my Audible subscription that comment would seem to be damning with faint praise.

[Shana Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

This set of lectures by Professor Greenberg ably and amusingly introduce (or more deeply acquaint) the listener/student with some of the greatest orchestral works in the repertoire. Greenberg's love of music, sense of humor, and passion all shine through as he offers lectures that are equal parts musical excerpts, discussions of form and theory, and historical perspective. Most of the greats are touched upon, some with more than work being showcased -- from Mozart and Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, Shostakovich and Stravinsky, to name a few. Greenberg avoided works he had covered in other Great Courses lectures in order to highlight as many works as possible. And in his final lecture, he not only gives recognition to some of the works that just missed the cut (sometimes due to particularly rigid copyright), but also makes a heartfelt plea for new music, support of orchestras, and how fresh compositions should be the lifeblood of performance in order enable the continued existence of regional orchestras. An excellent set of lectures for the experienced listener and novice, alike.

[Jul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Earlier this year, I decided to try out The Great Courses via Audible. (It almost feels like auditing a college course, which my brain desperately needs after hanging out with little kids all day.)

The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works was my first choice since I've always wanted to learn more about classical music and, well, I certainly learned a lot. Of course, I've been gradually listening to this 30+ hour course over the past several months so I can hardly remember the beginning of it at all; I just recall it was very informative. The lecturer does a fantastic job and his enthusiasm is contagious.

[Darcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have listened to a few of Dr. Robert Greenberg's lectures through the Great Courses company and his light hearted informative style keeps me coming back for more. He earned his PHD in music from the University of California, Berkeley, and has served on a variety of faculties since then. A winner of numerous awards he has lectured for various organizations including The Great Courses.

The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works is comprised of 32 lectures which allow Dr. Greenberg to provide a brief biography of the composer, accompanied by some highlights which serve to illustrate their character while also placing them in the context of the period and, in some cases, the political climate they found themselves in. The sets the scene and aids the listener in understanding the motivations behind the incredible music that is played. While there is not room in this course to feature the entire work referenced, there are frequent extended sections provided that nicely illustrate Dr. Greenberg's points.

After an introduction, we launch into Vivaldi's The Four Seasons where the sonnets, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter are examined and explained with wit and with insight. From there Dr. Greenberg takes us through:

Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #2 and his Violin Concerto in E Major.

Hayden's Symphony #104.

Mozart's Piano Concerto in C Minor, where the lecturer states, "He was, in my humble opinion, the greatest opera compositionist that ever lived." Additionally, "He was also the greatest composer of Concerto that ever lived." He then discusses Mozart's Symphony in C Major - Jupiter.

Beethoven's Symphony #3 is next. This work the one originally written in celebration of Napoleon. However, once Bonaparte declared himself Emperor, Beethoven saw him for what he was his name was expunged from the score. Dr. Greenberg then moves on to Beethoven Piano Concerto #4, which is also famously known as the last performance He gave as a soloist. His final Beethoven work is his Symphony #9. This includes Ode to Joy which set the musical world on its head as he had the radical idea of including voices in a Symphony! To illustrate how unconventional this was, Dr. Greenberg compares it to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing a melody of Gangsta hits.

Schubert: Symphony #9

Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony. This chapter stood out as Dr. Greenberg provides an hilarious rant on child prodigies.

Schumann: Symphony #3

Brahms's Symphony #4 and his Violin Concerto

Tchaikovsky: Symphony #4 and his Violin Concerto

Smetana: Ma Vlast

Dvorak: Symphony #8. Also known as the New World Symphony which Neil Armstrong took with him to the moon! Dr. Greenberg then discusses Dvorak's Concerto for Cello which includes a terrific story about the composer's ability to hold alcohol!

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra, an excerpt of which was made famous through it's association with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Mahler: Symphony #5

Rachmaninoff: Symphony #2

Debussy: La Mer

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Saint-Saens: Symphony #3

Holst: The Planets

Copeland: Appalachian Spring

Shostakovich: Symphony#5. The background given here is a stark realization of what it was to live under Stalin's reign of terror. Almost a truth is stranger than fiction story, we realize what it must have been like to have the leader of the Soviet Union write about a performance he did not enjoy and to conclude with a warning to the composer that, "this is a game that may end very badly." However, Shostakovich got the last laugh with his Symphony #10.

The lectures conclude with some honorable mentions.

Witty, current, revealing and a pleasure to listen to continue to be the bywords for Dr. Greenberg's courses. For aficionados or newcomers, this is well worth your time and rewards the listen.

[Tracy Rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been kind of a rough end of the year, and my reading has slowed down as the Swedish Death Cleaning has speeded up. But audiobooks are great companions while I'm cleaning, and Robert Greenberg has carried me through some onerous tasks, especially this month. I chose it because I simply wasn't up to Roxane Gay or Ta-Nehisi Coates, or in fact anything that would make me feel sad or guilty or furious.

I chose well because this course of lectures shed light on a great many pieces of music that I'm already familiar with, giving me a deeper appreciation of the works and their composers.  As I've said in other reviews, Professor Greenberg's understanding of music history and history in general, is deep, and he uses it to give context to the works he's discussing. He cites Beethoven's terrible, horrible, very bad, no good year as the impetus behind some of his greatest works, and puts Shostakovich's work in the context of Stalinism where composing the wrong thing could earn you a meat axe to the back of the head.

Beyond that, he shows us much of the technique behind the works, which is a way of understanding the history of music itself, of the compositional standards and how they were changed as composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms found them either too restrictive or simply outmoded.

I had a moment of serendipity with the lecture on Gustav Mahler's 5th symphony. As the lecture wound down, I found myself wanting to listen to the whole thing. But it was late and I didn't feel like hunting it down on Spotify.  A few minutes later, I turned on the radio and found myself listening to Mahler's 5th, and thinking about what Professor Greenberg had said about it as I lay in bed, finding it a deeper experience for having just heard the lecture.

If you listen to classical music this lecture series, like Greenberg's other series on music, can greatly enrich your listening. I always come away from one of his series with a new appreciation for a composer or a work I'd never given much thought to. 

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap...

I am so glad I undertook to listen to this. I hoped to become a more knowledgeable consumer of classical music and perhaps I have in ways I didn't anticipate and don't yet appreciate. I still don't know what Dr. Greenberg is talking about when he mentions how a composer uses a rising half tonal third fifth in the upper C major-minor chord. Sometimes it sounds like a weather report.

BUT, let me quickly remind you that a five-star rating is reserved (in my rating scheme) for books that will change me - and this book will have changed me. I always want to know at least a little bit about most everything, and the content of this title has given me a foundation for understanding how these works are not just a collection of sounds that might please one ear and offend another. They are the expression of the composer's circumstances, attitudes, and aspirations - I will appreciate that to a greater degree now, whether or not I think I can rightly ascertain what those circumstances, attitudes, and aspirations might be.

Perhaps the most surprising discovery in this experience is how completely delightful a writer and narrator Dr. Greenberg is. The book is filled with his "fourth wall" breaking side comments and interjections, some of which are laugh-out-loud hilarious and some are in-your-face honest expressions of exasperation and aggravation.

The two rants he includes in Chapter 32 are worth the price of admission alone!

I cannot recommend this work too highly and, while I'm not certain that I'll rush right out to secure another title by Dr. Greenberg, choosing not to do so immediately is a matter of a pre-existing lengthy list of topics to explore. You can bet, however, when I return to the topic of classical music, I will begin that search with him as the preferred resource as ahighest priority. He was terrific.

So, again I stand and say CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP...

[Piotr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Greenberg is a treasure and his classical music courses a pure delight. I've listened to maybe half a dozen of them in The Great Courses series. Each one has been full of new discoveries, new perspectives and new understanding even for someone like me who has been listening to classical music for decades.

Professor Greenberg - an American musicologist and composer - is enthusiastic, funny (in a goofy kind of way), and very knowledgeable. His courses are full of insights into the structure of the pieces he talks about, their meaning and historical context, as well as stories about composers and the environments in which they worked.

This course is lighter in tone and less deep than some of his other, more focused ones, but no less informative or entertaining. It is a survey of 30 orchestral works chosen for their popularity, significance or sheer beauty, from Vivaldi and Bach to Copland and Shostakovich. (Some are now my new favourites.) Music examples fill maybe 10-15 min of each 45-min lecture.

This course does not require good knowledge of classical music, but if you're a newbie, Greenberg's "How to Listen to and Understand Great Music" might be a better start.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Greenberg has outdone himself. In all his Great Courses productions he is a superb lecturer -- learned; witty; blending music theory with history; delivering scholarship in a thoroughly popular, interesting, accessible way. Here he surpasses even his past excellence, with a survey of music that is truly outstanding and wide-ranging, but with the unifying theme of orchestral work and development. Listening to the lectures, and deftly interwoven musical interludes and snippets, I appreciated the works with even more richness and context. Prof. Greenberg's political and historic insights are especially brilliant, not just as scene-setting but as illuminating and informing the music itself. For instance, his two lectures on Shostakovitch encapsulate the history and psychology of ingrained totalitarian terror, and how it emerges in and shapes musical compositions. Prof. Greenberg's forays into music-theory and note-analysis are useful and informative even to this somewhat tin-eared amateur. This is one of the finest audio-books I have encountered, and I fervently recommend it.

[Jeff Keehr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the music appreciation course I never took in college. It was very interesting to hear the commentary about movements in a work that I had always assumed in the past had no intelligible meaning at all. I have always assumed that music is about emotions, but Greenberg traces the origins of certain motives and themes to the author's biography. I don't know that I completely buy into his ideas but they certainly make sense. I especially considered his theory -- and some of this appears to come from the composer himself -- that Shostakovich battled Stalin with his music and won. How can a party stooge derive meaning from a piece of music? It gives me a new appreciation for the power of music to convey meaning. Mr. Greenberg is an outspoken critic of music critics and that is another thing I like about him. The older I get the less I appreciate criticism: most of it is the whimsical jottings of frustrated people.

[Roo Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction into orchestral music and the most famous composers that made it. Each of the 30 lectures gives a fun biographical sketch, and introduction into one of their major compositions, and a bit of technical details that explain why it is distinguished. The narrator/professor of this great course is fantastic. You can pick and choose which lecture you want to hear out of order, they don't really build on each other apart from chronologically. I will say that there were many parts of many lectures that I would skip past because it got into the technicalities of the composition more than I was interested. Another difficulty was figuring out the right speed to listen. I ended up at 1.4x, which made for a long listen, but you couldn't speed up the narrator without also speeding up the music.

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this series. Greenberg discusses each piece in isolation, which means you occasionally hear the same anecdote twice, but for the purpose of allowing you to listen in any order. This is also helpful for reinforcement for the casual listener, because he repeats definitions like those of musical forms. There's a fair bit of biographical and contemporary context included with each piece, which I rather enjoyed. I appreciated his analysis and suggestions for keeping modern orchestras and compositions relevant in the final lecture. The first lecture has a good introduction to terms covered throughout.

This opened my ears to many delightful works, several of which are being performed by my local symphony in the upcoming season. Great timing!

[Michael]

My second Greenberg course, and another winner. Obviously he can't go as deep with each of these pieces as he did in the Symphonies of Beethoven course, where each symphony got 3-4 lectures apiece. Each 45-minute lecture here is about 40% historical/composer background, 60% musical discussion with excerpts. Greenberg is a passionate, witty lecturer, with some hokey quirks you'll grow to embrace. He's just about the best guide you could have if you're a classical newbie like me.

My favorite pieces covered here:
Mozart, Symphony No. 41
Brahms, Symphony No. 4
Smetana, Ma Vlast
Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade
Strauss, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Debussy, La Mer
Copland, Appalachian Spring

[Ashley 🫧✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing. Greenberg is am amazing lecturer, amusing, informative, and genuinely engaging. His passion for music is palpable. This is truly the audiobook format used to its best advantage. Chalked full of music, interesting facts, historical background, and brimming with personality. Greenberg both samples the music, and breaks it down for his listeners making it extremely easy to follow along and understand. I will be working my way through the entirety of Greenberg's works. I highly recommend this work to anyone and everyone.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been exposed to classical music since I was a kid. My dad had hundreds of albums (vinyl) of most of the composers in this course as well as a lot more. That and Looney Tunes were my sole education on these types of works.

Greenberg has an approach to his teaching that is both really interesting and off putting. He has a harsh voice. All of that said, I never understood classical music until listening to this Great Course. The education is details and holistic.

I have a much greater appreciation of this type of music than I ever had before.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this and finally a book on music that takes advantage of this format - it includes the audio passages of the music piece under discussion. Spectaculare! and Prof Greenberg is funny too.

Vivaldi's 4 Seasons - il Prieto Rosso, the Red Priest (red hair!)
Bach - Brandenburg Concerto
Haydn - Symphony 104
After Beethoven, Composers increasingly wrote music that expressed themselves (not just ecclesiastical works)
so many more, but I wasn't taking notes during reading, on the next listen , I will!

[Caleb Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really helpful to see how the 30 greatest orchestral works. This has caused many discussions in our house. His lectures on Schostakovitch, Dvorak, Brahms, and Mendelssohn were especially intriguing. I wish he had included more classical and Baroque composers like Handel, Telemann, and Van Hal. That said, it was still a great course. Even the works I did not enjoy listening to like Debussy, Mahler, and Stravinsky were still very helpful lecture.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

In general I loved this course. I have a much better understanding of symphonies after having listened to this series. Each piece Dr. Greenberg chose was wonderful and I look forward to listening to them in their entirety. The only downside was there were, I think, two cases where he felt the need to speak over the music to count time and it was really annoying.

[Snooty1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could there ever be a better instructor than Robert Greenberg?
I mean the man, LOVES music...but not only that he lives and breathes music and the artists that produce the beautiful notes that stay with us forever.
My favorite parts are not when he breaks apart the pieces and explains their genius, but rather the parts about the artist's lives. The deep underbelly of the composer. I love feeling that I can connect with the music on a "personal" level knowing what the composer was going through in their lives.

[Yaaresse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really loving Robert Greenberg's music courses. Not only is he an entertaining and informative lecturer, but he manages to explain music theory to non-musicians without being condescending.
While I had heard (many times, even) 80% of the orchestral pieces covered in this course, I doubt I've ever listened to them with the attention Greenberg encourages and invites.

[DAER · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prof Greenberg offers some of the best great courses ever. He is so knowledgable and entertaining. I highly recommend all of his courses. You will want to listen to them again and again. Actually, he made me regret that I didn't study music at uni or continue to play cello. I wish I had a music teacher like him. His students are the luckiest.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading and listening to several of Robert Greenberg's courses I have yet to be disappointed and this course was no exception, in fact it was fantastic. I loved the historical background about each composer and the development of their master works. Now I have a back story so I can better appreciate the music when I listen to them.

[Lynnaurya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Greenberg is the kind of professor I would have absolutely loved to have learned from in school. He takes what many would consider drab or boring and turns it into something exciting and amusing! His dramatic flair and his use of 'modern day' phrases or language engages the listener to want to learn more. Listening to music is easy, but understanding how it came to be, what it represents and how to actually listen to music like this is not always easy. However, Robert does a fantastic job of breaking down the information into formats and explainations so that the listener doesn't get lost. Many of the pieces listed in this lecture are ones incredibly well known throughout the world but some, I had never heard before which was fascinating.
After listening to this lecture, I will be looking forward to other lectures Robert teaches and eager to learn more about the world of music.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened during outdoor walks, and the music was too low volume to hear a bit too often. Still, good selections, and though the emphasis was more on lecture than music there was enough of the latter to get the gist of what he was trying to highlight.

[Vojtech · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is massive and an absolutely great resource, which helped me find new appreciation for classical orchestral music. I find Robert Greenberg rather on the witty and knowledgeable side, so it's a joy to learn with him.

[Lotzastitches · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audible.

[Tamminh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvelous music, made even more marvelous when accompanied by the entertaining and clear explanations from Prof. Greenberg. What not to love!

[Selene Peck · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word: Fantastic!

[Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The great variety of music makes this my favorite of the Robert Greenberg Series, as featured in the Great Courses.