Louis Rosen

 In the Classroom

 

SPECIAL LECTURES at 92Y 

Since 2013

(2 hours in length)

2013

Introducing Bach, Part I: Preludes and Fugues (2013)

Introducing Bach, Part II: Suites and Partitas (2013)

The New Tango of Astor Piazzola (2013)

W. S. Gilbert, The First Lyricist (2013)

Kern and Hammerstein's Showboat (2013) 

Music for Shakespeare: Mendelssohn, Ellington, Rosen (2013)

 

2014

Felix Mendelssohn: The Romantic Classicist and the String Quartet (2014) 

Mozart: Chamber Composer to the Emperor (2014)

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel (2014)

West Side Story (2014)

The Fred Astaire Songbook (2014)

Robert Schumann, 1830's Modernist: Carnaval (2014)

 

2015

Beethoven: The Hammerklavier Piano Sonata (2015)

Leonard Bernstein & Jerome Robbins: On the Town and Fancy Free (2015)

Leonard Bernstein: Candide (2015)

Ellington Uptown: Harlem and Beyond (2015)

The Genius of Louis Armstrong (2015) 

Jelly Roll Morton and the New Orleans Style (2015)

Introducing Charles Ives (2015)

 

2015 - 2016 GERSHWIN LECTURE SERIES

1. Gershwin at the Piano 

2. The Story of Rhapsody in Blue 

3. Concerto in F 

4. An American in Paris

5. Hollywood and Havana (The Second Rhapsody and Cuban Overture)

6. The Political Operettas: Strike Up the Band; Of Thee I Sing; Let 'Em Eat Cake

7. Porgy and Bess

8. Last Songs: Hollywood, 1936 - 37

 

2016

Beethoven and the Sonata as Fantasia (2016): Op. 27, Nos. 1 & 2

Haydn and the String Quartet (2016): Op. 33, No. 2, "The Joke"

The Genius of Miles Davis (2016)

Harold Arlen and the Blues (2016)

Stride: The Great Harlem Pianists (2016)

Take the "A" Train: Billy Strayhorn at 100 (2016)

Introducing J. S. Bach: The Two-Part Inventions (2016) 

Mozart at the Keyboard (2016)

 

2016 COPLAND LECTURE SERIES

1. Aaron Copland and the Jazz Age

2. Aaron Copland and the Great Depression

3. Aaron Copland and the Sound of America

4. Aaron Copland at the Pinnacle: Appalachian Spring

 

2017

Harold Arlen: The Early Years -- from Harlem to Hollywood (2017)

Mussorgsky and Pictures at an Exhibition (2017)

Cole Porter: Easy to Love (2017)

Beethoven's Grosse Fuge (2017)

Bach's Cello Suites: An Introduction (2017)

Lerner & Loewe: The Making of My Fair Lady (2017)

Frank Loesser: Heart and Soul (2017)

Music for Piano: Brahms and Ravel (2017) 

Mozart's "Dissonance" Quartet (2017) 

Beethoven: The First Song Cycle and Piano Sonata, Op. 109 (2017)

 

2017 ELLINGTON LECTURE SERIES

1. Introducing Ellington: The 1920's

2. It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing: Ellington in the 1930's

3. Making Ellington Masterpieces

4. Ellington, Black, Brown and Beige: Composing for the Concert Hall

5. Ellington and Shakespeare: Such Sweet Thunder

6. Ellington, The Queen and Tchaikovsky (The Queen's Suite and Nutcracker Suite)

7. Ellington and the Far East 

 

2017 - 2018 BERNSTEIN LECTURE SERIES

1. Beginnings: Two Ballets

2. Bernstein on Conducting 

 3. Leonard Bernstein & Elia Kazan: Music for On the Waterfront

4. The Making of West Side Story

5. Trouble in Tahiti and Wonderful Town: The Musical Theater of Leonard Bernstein, Part 1

6. Candide: The Musical Theater of Leonard Bernstein, Part II

7. West Side Story, Part II: Inside the Music

8. Mass: The Musical Theater of Leonard Bernstein, Part IV

 

 2018

Winterreise (2018)

The Goldberg Variations (2018)

Bernstein and Song (2018)

Irving Berlin, America's Songwriter (2018)

The Making of an Album, Part I: Louis Rosen's Dust to Dust Blues (2018)

The Making of an Album, Part II: Louis Rosen's Act One: Piano Music from the Theater (2018)

Introducing Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II (2018)

The Making of an Album, Part III: Louis Rosen's Phenomenal Woman - The Maya Angelou Songs (2018)

Mozart's Late Piano Music (2018)

 

2018 - 2019 STEPHEN SONDHEIM: AMERICAN MODERNIST

Lecture Series, Part I

(Each lecture was offered twice to accommodate demand)

 

1. Beginnings: West Side Story, Gypsy and Forum (or Broadway Experiments, Part 1)  

2. Company & Follies – Sondheim, Prince and the Plotless Musical (or Broadway Experiments, Part II)

3. A Little Night Music – Sondheim, the Romantic Classicist 

4. Pacific Overtures – Sondheim, Weidman and the Political Musical, Part I (or Broadway Experiments, Part III)

 5. Finishing the Hat — The Craft of Writing Lyrics

6. Sweeney Todd – Sondheim and the Opera Impulse

7. Sunday in the Park With George — Sondheim, Lapine, and the Off-Broadway Experiment, or The End of Broadway 

 8. Into the Woods – Sondheim & Lapine, Broadway Experimentalists

9. Assassins – Sondheim, Weidman and a Modern Masterpiece

 

2019

Music from Brazil: The Rise of Bossa Nova (2019) 

Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Op. 120 (2019) 

 

2020 

2019 - 2020 STEPHEN SONDHEIM: AMERICAN MODERNIST

Lecture Series, Part II

10. Frogs, 1974: The First Foray into Regional Theater 

11. Sweeney Todd, Part II —Sondheim and the Opera Impulse

12. Merrily We Roll Along and the Last of Broadway

13. Songs That Didn't Make It to Opening Night

14. Sunday in the Park With George, Act Two—Sondheim, Lapine, and the Off-Broadway Experiment, or The End of Broadway, Part II

15. Stephen Sondheim: Music for Film and Television

 16. Road Show and Bounce: Sondheim, Weidman and the Principle of Persistence

 17. Follies - Complete: A 90th Birthday Celebration

18. Collaborating With Sondheim I: A Conversation With John Weidman on Assassins (with Stephen Sondheim making a guest appearance)

 19. Passion : Sondheim, Lapine and the Opera Impulse Revisited

 

2020 - 2021 STEPHEN SONDHEIM: AMERICAN MODERNIST 

Lecture Series, Part III

20. Stephen Sondheim: Musical Theater Meets Classical Form

21. Company: The Complete Score

 22. A Little Night Music – Music, Lyrics and the Art of Adaptation

23. Collaborating With Sondheim I: A Conversation With John Weidman on Pacific Overtures

24. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Sondheim in the Realm of Farce (2021) 

25. Bernstein, Sondheim, Robbins & Laurents: The Making of West Side Story, Revisited

 

2020

Beethoven's Grosse Fuge (2020)   

Mozart: The 40th Symphony in G minor - An In-Depth Look (2020)  

Bob Dylan: Oh, Mercy (2020)  

Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor - An In-Depth Look (2020)  

Aaron Copland and the Sound of America, Part I: Billy the Kid and Of Mice and Men (2020)  

Aaron Copland and the Sound of America, Part II: Quiet City and Rodeo (2020)  

Aaron Copland: The Third Symphony and the Populist Style (2020)  

The Making of an Album, Part IV: Louis Rosen's I Don't Know Anything - An Album in Three Acts (2020)  

Stevie Wonder: Innervisions (2020)  

Blue: Joni Mitchell and Artistic  Breakthrough: (2020)  

John Coltrane on the Rise: Giant Steps and My Favorite Things (2020)  

Court and Spark: Joni Mitchell and Art in the Marketplace (2020)  

Revolver: The Beatles and Musical Innovation (2020)  

Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C Major (Jupiter) -- Transcendent Perfection   

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58 (2020)  

John Lennon 80th Birthday Celebration (2020)  

John Coltrane – A Love Supreme (2020)  

Aaron Copland at Mid-Century: Concerto for Clarinet and Old American Songs (2020)  

 

2021-2022 THE BEATLES AND BOB DYLAN  

Lecture Series

A MUSICAL REVOLUTION 

1. The Beatles: Roots and Beginnings through With the Beatles

2. Bob Dylan: Freewheelin' and Early Songs

3. The Beatles: Beatlemania, Part I - A Hard Day's Night 

4. Bob Dylan: The Times They Are A-Changin' and The Politics of Song

5. Bob Dylan: Bringing it All Back Home -- Another Side 

6. The Beatles: Beatlemania, Part II -- Help!

7. Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited -- Blues, Poetry and Electricity

8. The Beatles: Rubber Soul -- Album as Art

9. Bob Dylan: Blonde On Blonde 

10. The Beatles: Revolver and Musical Innovation

11. The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band

12. Bob Dylan: The Basement Tapes

13. The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour - a Psychedelic Odyssey

14. Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding to New Morning

15. The Beatles: The White Album - Complete

16. Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks

17. The Beatles: The Making of Let it Be 

18. The Beatles: Abbey Road - A Farewell for the Ages

19. After the Beatles - George, 1970: All Things Must Pass

20. Paul McCartney: 80th Birthday Celebration

21. After the Beatles - John, 1970: Plastic Ono Band

 

2021

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" - A Musical Revolution (2021)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 (2021)

Beethoven: Ode to Joy and Symphony No. 9 (2021)

Bernstein on Broadway at the Bicentiennial: The White House Cantata (2021)

Miles Davis and Gil Evans: Sketches of Spain (2021)

The Symphony After Beethoven: Schubert - Symphony No. 9, The "Great", in C major (2021)

The Symphony After Beethoven: Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique (2021)

Bernstein, Sondheim, Robbins & Laurents: The Making of West Side Story Revisited (2021)

 

2022

Petrushka: Stravinsky and the Ballet Russe - A Modernist Explosion (Part One of a Two-Part Series - 2022) 

The Rite of Spring: Stravinsky and the Ballet Russe - A Modernist Explosion (Part Two of a Two-Part Series - 2022) 

Bach: Goldberg Variations (2022)

Carole King: An 80th Birthday Tribute (2022)

Aretha Franklin: 80th Birthday Celebration (2022)

Bob Dylan: Oh, Mercy Revisited (2022)

Beethoven: String Quartet as Symphony - Op. 59, No. 1 (2022)

Leonard Cohen: Tower of Song (2022)

Introducing Mahler, Part 1 - Song and Symphony (2022)

 

2022-2023: PAUL SIMON & STEPHEN SONDHEIM - MADE IN NEW YORK 

Lecture Series 

1. Stephen Sondheim: Gypsy

2. Paul Simon: Beginnings - Sounds of Silence and Scarborough Fair

3. Stephen Sondheim: Songs That Were Cut Before Opening Night

4. Paul Simon: Bridge Over Troubled Water & Bookends

5. Stephen Sondheim: Frogs - 1974 - A Break from Broadway

6. Paul Simon: Going Solo - Paul Simon and There Goes Rhymin' Simon

7. Stephen Sondheim: Songs of Politics and Philosophy

8. Paul Simon: Still Crazy & Hearts and Bones

9. Stephen Sondheim: Music for Film and Television

10. Paul Simon: Music for Film and Theater - One Trick Pony & Capeman

11. Stephen Sondheim: At the Peak - Sweeney Todd 

12. Paul Simon: Celebrating Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints

 

2023

Stravinsky & Milhaud, 1923 - Two Masterpieces Turn 100: Stravinsky’s Octet and Milhaud’s The Creation of the World (2023)

George Harrison 80th Birthday Celebration (2023)

Bob Dylan: Time Out of Mind (2023)

 

2023: WAYNE SHORTER – COMPOSER, SAXOPHONIST, GENIUS - a Two-Part Series

1. Wayne Shorter – Solo Albums, Part 1, 1964 to 1966: “Juju,” “Speak No Evil” and “Adam’s Apple” 

2. Wayne Shorter - Collaborations: Miles, Milton Nascimento, Weather Report and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra