Now Hear This

Scott Yoo investigates the story behind Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – and discovers a new Vivaldi work, his connection to Stradivarius, a treasure trove of original manuscripts, and that Vivaldi himself was almost lost to history.

In Germany, Scott discovers a riddle that Bach left in his only official portrait. In trying to solve it, he and his wife Alice Dade, also a star musician, discover Bach’s true personality and his surprising influences, leading them to a spectuacular finale in Paris.

Scott goes on the trail of Domenico Scarlatti, the most influential composer you’ve never heard of. From Italian, Spanish, Moorish, Jewish, Gypsy, dance and guitaristic roots, Scarlatti created a new musical language, more relevant today than in his own time.

Scott discovers how Joseph Hadyn combined folk music from across Europe with his own unique style and belief system to create the string quartet, influencing all composers after him.

Scott meets some of today’s leading young musicians, none older than Franz Schubert during his career, to gain a deeper appreciation for the composer’s brilliant work and tragically short life.

Scott teaches pianist Stewart Goodyear to conduct, so he can lead the orchestra through Mozart’s titanic 20th piano concerto — while improvising the solos — just as Mozart would have done.

At his music festival, Scott plays America’s greatest Romantic composer, Amy Beach. In New England, he explores her roots and career. At a time when society looked down on women composers, Beach worked to invent a new American music.

Scott explores the newly rediscovered music of Florence Price, to understand how African-American spirituals — a mixture of West African songs and European hymns — influenced her work and nearly all of American popular music.

Scott spends a month each year teaching students, just as Aaron Copland did during his career. Together they’ll play Copland’s music to learn how he drew from his roots and American folk songs to invent the American sound.

Scott and Alice travel to Buenos Aires to discover the music of Astor Piazzolla, who fell in love with tango. Then fell out of love. Then tango fell out of love with him. Scott and Alice play with Argentina’s greatest musicians and dancers, to find out if Piazzolla and tango could reconcile.

Scott goes to Scotland, Germany and France, with leading musicians, psychiatrists and scholars, to try to understand the connection between mental health and creativity in the work of Robert Schumann and other great artists. Featuring the great cellist Bion Tsang.

Scott follows modern composer, steel pan virtuoso and video artist Andy Akiho through his neighborhoods of New York, to figure out how this unassuming musical visionary has combined Caribbean, Asian and jazz influences to become one of today’s most in-demand composers.

Follow Scott Yoo and pianist Jan Lisiecki as they explore Chopin’s life, his Polish roots, and his journey to Paris taking a closer look at the composer's musical evolution and his deep connection to his homeland while living in France.

Join Scott Yoo and musicians on a night tour of Madrid to uncover Boccherini’s deep love for the city and learn how his iconic "Night Music of the Streets of Madrid" was inspired by his time in Spain, blending history and the pulse of the streets.

Follow Rachmaninoff’s journey from a Russian aristocrat to an American artist after the Bolshevik revolution. Forced to rebuild at 44, he embraced modern technology, toured extensively and reinvented his career while longing for his lost homeland.

Johannes Brahms was a quiet, private person, but he lived a life worthy of a novel. Scott Yoo crosses Germany with pianist Elisabeth Brauss and cellists Johannes Moser and Max Hornung to find a window into Brahms' secret past and unrequited love, and discover how Brahms reached a turning point to become one of the greatest composers ever known.