Robert Greenberg
Historian, Composer, Pianist, Speaker, Author
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Music History Monday: Firsts!
Jacopo Peri, costumed as Arion in a production of La Pellegrina (1589) There are “firsts” and then there are firsts. The first person to eat sliced bread? No big deal. But the first person to eat an artichoke (which is, let’s be honest, a giant freaking thorn)? That took guts; that’s a first. The first person to…
Looking back on the first edition of “How To Listen to and Understand Great Music”
Now available in the 3rd Edition I have managed to dig up and digitize a television advertisement for the first edition of my Teaching Company/The Great Courses survey “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music” from 1993. It’s a bit painful for me to watch: I weighed 30 pounds less than I do now;…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major D960
Earlier this week, my patron Renato inquired: “So, what is Dr. Bob’s prescription for Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major D960 (I listen to Richter’s in Praga 1972) and for Debussy’s Prelude Book I (Michelangeli DG is my choice)? Thanks a lot. Cheers.” These works were featured in my absurdly entitled but well-intentioned Great Courses survey…
Music History Monday: My Favorite Things!
A little inside information about me. Since I was a kid, I have loved architecture and home design magazines: house porn, to be honest. The one constant in my reading has been Architectural Digest, to which I’ve been addicted since I was a teenager. Other mags have floated in and out of my consciousness over…