On Music The Road to Utopia:
The Creation and Legacy of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
Fred Plotkin, lecturer
The final symphony of Ludwig von Beethoven is, arguably, the most famous piece of classical music and might even be the most famous music of all. The composer, deaf and ill, labored mightily to bring this work to life. Fred Plotkin will discuss the genesis of this masterpiece and how it has changed the world.
This presentation is part of Fred Plotkin's On Music series.
Image: Hugo Hagen. Ludwig van Beethoven - studied from the death mask [i.e. life mask], c. 1892. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.
Fred Plotkin
Fred Plotkin
Fred Plotkin is one of the world’s leading experts on opera, food and wine and everything Italian. He is the author of Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera (the standard text in America for opera education); Classical Music 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Classical Music; and six definitive books on Italian food. He has worked for many opera companies, including La Scala (as a Fulbright Scholar) and the Metropolitan Opera. He lectures regularly at the Smithsonian Institution, NYU and the University of Oxford. In 2010, he was named America’s wine journalist of the year. He organized and led food and opera trips for The New York Times Journeys before the program ended in 2021. In 2015, he was made a Cavaliere della Stella d’Italia, the Italian equivalent of a knighthood and an honor rarely accorded to foreigners.
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