Right then, enough of this rock and/or roll! It's time to listen to some
proper music! Seriously, classical music paved the way for everything ---
everything --- we listen to today, and there are some amazing compositions to be heard, if you just take the time to appreciate them. In this section I'm constantly trying to educate people to the beauty that lies within so much classical music, and even though everyone will have heard “Largo” or “O fortuna” via advertisements, films or TV series, or even “mashed-up” in some godawful mix, not everyone knows the rich variety and talent that is out there, just waiting to be discovered. So let me be your guide. Again.
This is one of my all-time favourites, from Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), a beautiful piece that crops up all over the place, probably one of the most relaxing piano concertos I've ever heard. This is his piano concerto no. 2 in C Minor.
One of the most famous composers of all time, and one of the “three Bs” --- with Bach and Beethoven --- Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) is recognised as a master of his craft, and he's one of those faces you'll see when those advertisements for collections of classical music
(“On nine CDs! NOT available in the shops!”), as he is one of the most recognisable, along with Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. This is his double concerto for violin and cello.
On the heavier side of things we have Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883) --- usually referred to as just Richard Wagner --- who composed dark, dramatic German operas based on the Ring Cycle legends of his people; the tales of Sigurd and Siegfried, and the Twilight of the Gods, known in Norse legend as Ragnarok. We will return to Wagner later in the year, but for now here's one you surely have heard at some point, used as it has been in most military or just action movies, or when high drama and a sense of tension, excitement and courage is called for. From that four-cycle opera, “Der ring des nibelungen”, this is taken from “Die walkure”, the most well-known piece from it, “The ride of the Valkyries”.
And if you think you've heard this before, you're right. Richard Strauss (1864-1949) composed many operas and orchestral works during his life, but his legacy outside of classical connoisseurs is this one, from the opera “Also sprach Zarathusthra”, which you'll recognise as the epic theme to the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”. It's the introduction, called “Sunrise”.
Finally, we have Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881), who's known principally for his work “Pictures at an exhibition”, but also for this one, “Night on Bald Mountain”. Again, you'll recognise parts of it.
