LibGuides: Classical Music: Video, Audio, etc.

Audio Lectures

How to Listen to and Understand Great Music by Robert Greenberg
Call Number: CD GENERAL GREENBERG (48 discs)
Part I : Sources : The Ancient World through Early Baroque
Part II : The High Baroque
Part III The Classical Era
Part IV : The Classical Era and the Age of Revolution...Beethoven
Part V : Nineteenth-Century Romanticism
Part VI : From Romanticism to Modernism, 1848 to 1913

Leonard Bernstein: Young People's Concerts

Anatomy of a Symphony Orchestra The roles of various sections of an orchestra are revealed through a performance of Respighi's The Pines of Rome. Leonard Bernstein analyzes each of the work's four movements and conducts the piece in its entirety.
Farewell to Nationalism Berstein discusses the difference between national styles and international style, giving many examples of both. The orchestra performs pieces in national styles, including Glière's Russian Sailors' Dance, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody, No. 2, de Falla's Three Cornered Hat, Ives' The Fourth of July, and more. Examples of international style performed include Bach's Sonata in G Minor for Flute and Harpsichord, and Vivaldi's Concerto in G Minor for Flute, Bassoon, Violin, and Bass.
Overtures and Preludes Bernstein says that part of the excitement of an overture is the theatrical element. An overture is an opening piece designed to be played in a musical theater before the curtain goes up. A prelude is usually shorter than an overture, and usually doesn't have different parts. It is played all in the same tempo. After defining the terms, Bernstein analyzes and conducts the overture to the opera Semiramide by Rossini and then the Leonore Overture No. 3 by Beethoven. To illustrate a prelude, he conducts Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. The program closes with a performance of the overture to Bernstein's Candide.
The Sounds of a Hall Bernstein discusses accoustics, and the accoustic properties of a Philharmonic Concert Hall are demonstrated as the orchestra performs pieces by Berlioz, Copland, Vivaldi, Walton, and Tchaikovsky. Pieces featured are Overture: The Roman Carnival (Berlioz),, The Little Horses (Copland), Concerto for Four Violins (Vivaldi), Façade: Tango (Walton), and Overture 1812 (Tchaikovsky).
Unusual Instruments Bernstein discusses the development of instruments from their earlier forms. The concert begins with Little Train by Heitor Villa-Lobos, followed by a discussion of South American percussion instruments. Compositions By Giovanni Gabrieli and Johan Sebastian Bach are used to illustrate the emergence of new orchestral instruments. Finally, Luening and Ussachevsky's Concerto for Tape Recorder and Orchestra and Bucci's Concerto for Kazoo with Anita Darian on kazoo are heard.