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Robert Kapilow

Robert Schumann's Childhood Dreams

Robert Schumann's music evokes the image of a child's dreams. iStock hide caption

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What Makes It Great

Robert Schumann's Childhood Dreams

To mark the 200th anniversary of Robert Schumann's birth, commentator Rob Kapilow takes a look at "Träumerei,"one of Schumann's most quiet, introspective pieces.

Hear What Makes Schumann's 'Traumerei' So Great

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Barber's 'Adagio': Naked Expression Of Emotion

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What Makes It Great

Barber's 'Adagio': Naked Expression Of Emotion

From sorrow, the music builds to a climax of intensity, and finally reaches serene acceptance. Commentator Rob Kapilow conducts a guided tour of Barber's best-known piece.

Hear What Makes Barber's 'Adagio For Strings' So Great

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A World Of Expression In A Tiny Chopin Mazurka

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Chopin At 200

A World Of Expression In A Tiny Chopin Mazurka

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Chopin had the courage to believe that the expression contained in a three-minute Mazurka for solo piano could be as powerful as the expression in an entire four-hour Wagner opera. Hear pianist and composer Rob Kapilow, and radio host Fred Child, explain what makes Chopin great.

Chopin: Mazurka in A minor Op. 17, No. 4.

'Cheek To Cheek': The Melody Lingers On

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What Makes It Great

'Cheek To Cheek': The Melody Lingers On

Top Hat, from 1935, featured Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. But commentator Rob Kapilow says the real star of the movie is Irving Berlin's classic song, "Cheek to Cheek."

Hear What Makes Berlin's 'Cheek To Cheek' So Great

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Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata Connections
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What Makes It Great

Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata Connections

Beethoven whittles the world down to its essence in his "Kreutzer" Sonata for violin and piano. Commentator Rob Kapilow demonstrates how, with just two little notes, Beethoven connects an entire universe.

Hear What Makes Beethoven's 'Kreutzer' Sonata So Great

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Janacek's Love Letters, With Strings Attached

Czech composer Leos Janacek sent a non-stop stream of more than 700 love letters to a much younger, married woman; she inspired many of his best works. iStock hide caption

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What Makes It Great

Janacek's Love Letters, With Strings Attached

Leos Janacek's personal and powerful String Quartet No. 2 was inspired by the unrequited love he held for a much younger, married woman — and by the 700 letters he wrote to her.

Hear What Makes Janacek's String Quartet No. 2 So Great

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Aaron Copland's American Vision

Aaron Copland captured the sound of America's wide open spaces with surprisingly simple techniques. iStock hide caption

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What Makes It Great

Aaron Copland's American Vision

Commentator Rob Kapilow explains how Copland's pure, American sound springs from two simple chords that open the ballet Appalachian Spring. Stacked upon each other, the chords reveal a sound like all of America, like the purest values, and like Shaker simplicity.

Hear What Makes 'Appalachian Spring' So Great

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Steve Reich: Minimalism In The Mainstream

Composer Steve Reich's Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ has a percussive motor that never stops. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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What Makes It Great

Steve Reich: Minimalism In The Mainstream

Commentator Rob Kapilow takes the motor-like rhythms of minimalism out for a test drive. He explains that the music is "about making us alive to the differences that are everywhere beneath the surface, if we only listen closely enough."

Hear What Makes Steve Reich's Music So Great

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Stephen Sondheim's Clever 'Clowns'
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What Makes It Great

Stephen Sondheim's Clever 'Clowns'

While discussing Sondheim's quintessential song "Send in the Clowns," commentator Rob Kapilow reveals that, like other great song composers, Sondheim doesn't really set words to music. Instead, he focuses on the emotion behind the words.

Hear What Makes 'Send In The Clowns' So Great

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Bold Beginnings: The Art Of The Opening Notes

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What Makes It Great

Bold Beginnings: The Art Of The Opening Notes

You never get a second chance at a first impression, the old adage goes. At the start of the new year, Rob Kapilow describes how it works for composers, who want to set a certain tone from the very opening notes of their works.

Hear What Makes A Great Musical Opening

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Verdi's Brilliantly Inauthentic 'Ave Maria'

Verdi trumps Shakespeare by inserting a hauntingly beautiful "Ave Maria" into his operatic version of Othello. Universal Classics hide caption

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What Makes It Great

Verdi's Brilliantly Inauthentic 'Ave Maria'

When Verdi set out to make Othello into an opera, he didn't worry about getting Shakespeare absolutely right. Rob Kapilow unveils Verdi's inappropriate yet vividly dramatic makeover of one seemingly innocent scene.

Hear What Makes 'Ave Maria' From Verdi's 'Otello' Great

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The Power Behind 'America The Beautiful'

America's amber waves of grain inspired teacher Katharine Lee Bates to write the poem later used in the song "America the Beautiful." Wikimedia Commons hide caption

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What Makes It Great

The Power Behind 'America The Beautiful'

Pianist, composer and conductor Robert Kapilow joins Fred Child to explore why the simple and direct song "America the Beautiful" has the ability to touch listeners so deeply. Election Day is a fine time to explore its timeless pull on America's heartstrings.

Hear What Makes 'America the Beautiful' So Great

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'Over The Rainbow,' From Kansas To Oz

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What Makes It Great

'Over The Rainbow,' From Kansas To Oz

In the first entry of the series What Makes It Great, pianist and composer Rob Kapilow uncovers the secret to the success of "Over the Rainbow."

Hear 'Over the Rainbow' And What Makes It So Great

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Music

Concerto in Rhythm with Tap-Dance Revival

A newly composed concerto for orchestra and tap dancer showcases the beauty of tap, which is enjoying a bit of a revival. Composer Rob Kapilow wrote the part of the dancer like a drum solo, without really knowing what the steps might be.

Concerto in Rhythm with Tap-Dance Revival

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From The Heartland: Dvorak's 'American' Quartet

Czech Composer Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904). Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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What Makes It Great

From The Heartland: Dvorak's 'American' Quartet

Commentator Rob Kapilow offers a guide through Antonin Dvorak's "American" quartet, written by the Czech composer during the summer of 1893 when he stayed in the Czech expatriate community of Spillville, Iowa.

From The Heartland: Dvorak's 'American' Quartet

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