Mar 9th, 2010 · There's a simple logic behind Samuel Barber's emotional Adagio. It progresses from a single note to high emotional wailing to release to final acceptance. On today's centennial of Barber's birth, take a guided tour of the music with commentator Rob Kapilow.
Mar 2nd, 2010 · 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.
Feb 2nd, 2010 · 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."
Oct 14th, 2009 · 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.
Aug 13th, 2009 · Hear commentator Rob Kapilow demonstrate how Mozart sets up our expectations but takes us in unpredictable directions in the String Quintet in G minor. His music, like a hologram, flashes back and forth between the simple and the complicated.
Jul 1st, 2009 · 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.
May 28th, 2009 · Commentator Rob Kapilow uncovers the genius beneath the layers of Stravinsky's great ballet, Petrushka, and recalls how it inspired him to follow a career in music.
Apr 18th, 2009 · 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."