About this item
Almost from the moment it was first set to paper, the music of Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) - technically superb, rich in quality, and widely imitated - has exemplified the Classical style, creating not only the Classical-era symphony but setting the standard, through his own 68 string quartets, against which that form has ever after been judged. And yet Haydn, despite the influence left by more than 1,000 works, seems to no longer get his due, often thought of as an aged figure surpassed and overshadowed by Beethoven and Mozart, who actually credited Haydn, the only contemporary he admired, and with whom he formed a lasting and artistically fruitful friendship, with teaching him how to write string quartets. Even Beethoven, whose relationship with his compositional teacher was troubled and stormy, would never have been able to write his triumphant Ninth Symphony without the influence of Haydn's crowning achievement, the towering 1798 oratorio, Creation.
About the Author
Robert Greenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1954, and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1978. Greenberg received a BA in music, magna cum laude, from Princeton University in 1976. His principal teachers at Princeton were Edward Cone, Daniel Werts, and Carlton Gamer in composition, Claudio Spies and Paul Lansky in analysis, and Jerry Kuderna in piano. In 1984, Greenberg received a Ph.D. in music composition, With Distinction, from the University of California, Berkeley, where his principal teachers were Andrew Imbrie and Olly Wilson in composition and Richard Felciano in analysis.Greenberg has composed over fifty works for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles. Performances of his works have taken place in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, England, Ireland, Greece, Italy and The Netherlands, where his Child's Play for String Quartet was performed at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam. Greenberg has received numerous commissions and awards. His music is published by Sheet Music Plus, Fallen Leaf Press and CPP/Belwin, and has been recorded on the Innova label. A number of his recent works can be seen/heard on his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/robertgreenbergmusic.Greenberg has performed, taught and lectured extensively across North America and Europe. He is currently music historian-in-residence with San Francisco Performances, where he has lectured and performed since 1994. For fifteen years Greenberg was the resident composer and music historian to National Public Radio's "Weekend All Things Considered" and "Weekend Edition, Sunday" with Liane Hansen.Since 1993, Greenberg has recorded nearly 650 lectures on subjects musical for The Great Courses, formerly The Teaching Company. Available on both CD and DVD formats and in book form, the courses have garnered wide praise. His webTV show, "Scandalous Overtures", can be seen on Ora.TV. Greenberg's book, How to Listen to Great Music, was published by Plume, a division of Penguin Books, in April, 2011. His webcourses "Mozart in Vienna" (16 lectures) and "The Music of the Twentieth Century" (18 lecturers) can be sampled and purchased on his website at RobertGreenbergMusic.com.In February 2003, The Bangor Daily News (Maine) referred to Greenberg as being the Elvis of music appreciation, an appraisal that has given more pleasure than any other.Robert Greenberg is a Steinway Artist.For more information (as if this wasn't enough!) , or to read my weekly blog "Music History Monday", or to sample my webcourses please visit my website at RobertGreenbergMusic.com.
