About Rob Kapilow’s
What Makes It Great?® CDs

This unique CD series pairs a superb complete performance with conductor, composer and NPR commentator Rob Kapilow’s exhilarating journey of discovery called What Makes It Great?®

Kapilow takes you inside the music. He unravels, slows down, and recomposes key passages and helps you to hear what makes this music so extraordinary. Through engaging commentary and with the help of carefully chosen musical examples performed by the What Makes It Great Players, Kapilow provides a perspective to bring to the rest of the piece when you listen to it here in its entirety. Great music rewards great listeners, and these CDs are about great listening. Experience the music with a new pair of ears, and it becomes deeper and richer every time you hear it.

  • Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata

    What Makes It Great?® BEETHOVEN'S APPASSIONATA SONATA

    What Makes It Great?®
    BEETHOVEN’S APPASSIONATA SONATA
    Released: April 2015
    Label: Roven Records

  • Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony

    What Makes It Great?®
    MOZART’S “JUPITER” SYMPHONY
    (Things Are Not as Simple as They Seem)
    Released: 7/27/04
    Label: Vanguard Everyman Classics
    Catalog: ATM CD 1541
    UPC: 699675154127

  • Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”

    What Makes It Great? Mozart Eine Kleine Nachtmusik CD cover

    What Makes It Great?®
    MOZART’S “EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK”
    (Nice Tunes, Built To Last)
    Released: 7/27/04
    Label: Vanguard Everyman Classics
    Catalog: ATM CD 1542
    UPC: 699675154226

View complete catalog of Rob Kapilow’s compositions

From Summer Sun, Winter Moon

for St. Louis Symphony, a Citypiece written to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Journey.

Listen to Man is Arriving

The People Began

Many of the words are in the Blackfoot language, and the recurring phrase “Man is arriving” is how Native Americans referred to all white men. “Man is arriving” is one of the main themes of the piece. The tenor solo represents Raven, a traditional Native American storyteller.

DC Monuments for the Kennedy Center

Listen to an excerpt from a movement setting Stephen Spender’s poem “The Truly Great”

An instrumental version of the Washington Monument rising higher and higher to its tip.

Composer Rob Kapilow’s music is published by G. Schirmer, Inc. His complete catalog of opera, orchestra, chamber, keyboard, vocal, and choral compositions is available at Schirmer.com.