9.8/108 votesLoading...#1 - Dean of American Music
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 4/29/2022
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.9/1025 votesLoading...#2 - Something Completely Different
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/2019
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.
Director: N/A
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8.9/1022 votesLoading...#3 - The Riddle of Bach
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/2019
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.9/1021 votesLoading...#4 - Man Out of Time
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/4/2019
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.
Director: N/A
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8.7/1017 votesLoading...#5 - Italian Style
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/2019
Before becoming London’s most famous composer, Handel did his ‘graduate school’ in Italy. Scott traces his footsteps and his inspirations – not just music, but art, architecture, fashion, food and wine – to understand how Italy shaped this German composer for the rest of his life.
Director: N/A
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8.7/106 votesLoading...#6 - Florence Price and the American Migration
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 4/15/2022
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.
Director: N/A
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8.5/1016 votesLoading...#7 - Becoming Mozart
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 10/2/2020
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.
Director: N/A
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8.5/1013 votesLoading...#8 - Beethoven's Ghost
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 10/9/2021
Scott makes a landmark recording, centered around Beethoven's famous Ghost Trio. This summons the ghost of Beethoven, trailed by Sigmund Freud who’s intent on analyzing him, in this eccentric mix of documentary and ghost story.
Director: N/A
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8.4/1016 votesLoading...#9 - The King of Strings
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/18/2020
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/1015 votesLoading...#10 - The Schubert Generation
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 9/25/2020
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/107 votesLoading...#11 - Genius and Madness
Season 4 Episode 2 - Aired 4/21/2023
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.8/108 votesLoading...#12 - Amy Beach, American Romantic
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 4/8/2022
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#13 - New American Voices
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 5/6/2022
Scott meets and plays with modern masters: Sergio Assad shows him how Brazilian music inspires his work, now staples of the classical canon. Reena Esmail draws from traditional Indian rhythms and scales to create her signature sound.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#14 - Piazzolla’s History with Tango
Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 4/14/2023
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Now Hear This
Every episode of Now Hear This ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Now Hear This!
Now Hear This is a primetime PBS miniseries now filming its 5th season that brings the greatest music ever written to millions of viewers, with...
Genre:Documentary
Network:PBS
Best Episodes Summary
"Dean of American Music" is the best rated episode of "Now Hear This". It scored 9.8/10 based on 8 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 4/29/2022. This episode scored 0.9 points higher than the second highest rated, "Something Completely Different".