The origin of What Makes it Great® with Rob Kapilow @theSPCO

Uploaded March 2020 | Updated September 2026, 24 minutes ago

For more than 20 years, Rob Kapilow has been answering the question What Makes it Great?® From Yale to Broadway to hosting an NPR show, he shares the origin story of his series that's all about the difference between hearing and listening.

For the next two weekends, Rob will be demonstrating what makes Beethoven's Seventh Symphony great.

The origin of What Makes it Great® with Rob Kapilow

How are you staying inspired during COVID? | Ask a Musician

Lamentations, Black/Folk Song Suite for Solo Cello | Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson | Excerpts

Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 | Johann Sebastian Bach | Performance Excerpts

Overture in C | Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel | Performance Excerpts

Franz Schubert | Excerpt of Symphony No. 2

Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Zacharias (full-length)

Dreaming a worlds edge, conducted by Pekka Kuusisto | Cindy Cox | Performance Excerpts

Three Romances for Violin and Piano | Clara Schumann (excerpt)

Live Stream Preview: Jeremy Denk Plays Schumann’s Piano Concerto

Liquid Music: Rafiq Bhatia: Breaking English