The Chamber Music of Mozart

Nowhere is Mozart's maturity and mastery more apparent than in the chamber music he wrote during the last 10 years of his life. These 16 lectures take you deep inside the structure of Mozart's chamber masterworks to reveal his hand at work. This is an amazing opportunity to hear, study, and enjoy a selection of immortal musical compositions that Professor Greenberg calls "a blessing of inconceivable richness".

You will learn the basic "language" that all 18th-century composers used to write Classical music. You'll also explore the subtleties of Mozart's technique as a composer: his ability to make art "artless" - music that is enormously complex and sophisticated but which sounds simple and effortless - and to know how and when to bend or break the rules of composition.

Professor Greenberg teaches you about the three different "generic types" of chamber music that Mozart composed: string quartets, works for piano and another instrument or instruments, and combinations that employ neither a string quartet nor a piano. The centerpiece of these works, drawn primarily from Mozart's "golden years" in Vienna, 1781-1791, is the set of six Haydn string quartets that Mozart dedicated to his friend Joseph Haydn.

With a delightful blend of music analysis and appreciation and biographical narration, Professor Greenberg paints a detailed and compelling portrait of Mozart as man who commanded seemingly superhuman musical ability but could be all too human. You'll come away with a solid grasp of Mozart's profound impact as a composer and an improved understanding of what it takes to compose great music.