Gareth Malone - Gareth Malone’s Guide to Classical Music - The Perfect Introduction to Classical Music

Or you could go to a shop. Retro. If you can find one …

Classical big hitters

Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana : This has seeped into our popular culture; ‘O Fortuna’ in particular has powered along behind adverts for Guinness, Old Spice, Reebok and Spicy Pringles, opened Ozzy Osbourne’s stage show, and was used on Michael Jackson’s ‘Dangerous’ tour. Recently it accompanied the entrance of Simon Cowell and the other judges on ITV’s X Factor. Carmina Burana has been used in many films, including, to name just a few:

Excalibur , 1981

Glory , 1989

Hunt for Red October , 1990

The Doors , 1991

Natural Born Killers , 1994

The Bachelor , 1999

Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik : This piece is constantly in use on film and TV, in everything from The Simpsons to X-Men 2, Batman and Alien, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective … The list goes on.

Ravel’s Boléro : Torvill and Dean, of course, made this the piece to ice skate to, but Futurama, Dr Who and Dudley Moore (in the film Ten ) have also been accompanied by its motoric, repeated theme.

Prokofiev’s ‘Dance of the Knights’ from Romeo and Juliet : Given that contestants have to be polite to each other even though they’d probably like to kill one another, the use of this courtly dance with murderous undertones from Romeo and Juliet seems an entirely appropriate choice as the theme for The Apprentice .

Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95, From the New World , Largo: Even though that small child stopped peddling up Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset, some time in the 1970s; even though he was accompanied by a brass band who were presumably (and incongruously) from the north of England; and even though they were playing music by a Czech composer who was writing while on tour in America, this piece is one of Britain’s favourites. Multiple Oscar winner Ridley Scott directed this piece of ersatz nostalgia for a Hovis bread commercial and through what might have been a total mess brought the piece to the attention of the wider public.

Other pieces you may already know – or which

won’t cause you much trouble if you don’t

Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites , ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’/‘Solveig’s Song’/‘Morning’

Grieg: Lyric Pieces , ‘Wedding Day at Troldhaugen’

Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture

Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries

Pachelbel: Canon in D Major

Rimsky-Korsakov, arranged by Rachmaninov: ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’

Barber: Adagio for Strings, Op. 11

Bizet: ‘Au Fond du Temple Saint’ from The Pearl Fishers

Massenet: ‘ Meditation’ from Thaïs

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125, ‘Choral’, Ode an die Freude (final movement)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67, first movement

Verdi: ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves’ (‘Va’, Pensiero, Sull’ali Dorate’) from Nabucco

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor, Op. 23

Berlioz: ‘March to the Scaffold’ from Symphonie Fantastique

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue , Andante (or the whole piece if you’ve time)

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13 (‘Pathétique’)

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons , Op. 8, ‘Spring’, Allegro

Boccherini: String Quintet in E Major, Op. 11, No. 5

Verdi: Messa da Requiem , Dies Irae – Tuba Mirum (only if you are a Take That fan – it’s the beginning of ‘Never Forget’ … only it doesn’t have Robbie Williams in Verdi’s version)

Hopefully you’ve found something which you recognise on this list. Familiarity is a useful tool with all music and I advise giving new pieces a couple of listens before giving up on them. For some more starting points for broadening your listening from the mainstream classical repertoire, see Appendix I. 5