# Five minutes to make you love classical music



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The premise in the linked NY Times article is very interesting: eighteen classical music experts (composers, performers, critics) were asked which five minutes of music they would play to convince someone to fall in love with classical music. Some choices were to be expected (Beethoven, Ravel, Berlioz), some were surprising. In the latter category, I was delighted to see that one of my favourite contemporary concertos (Unsuk Chin's sheng concerto 'Su') got a mention. Well worth reading and listening to the excerpts if you don't already know them.

Link to the article.


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Interesting.

I would recommend watching _2001_.

Also, since it was the inspiration for _Star Wars_, I would recommend "Mars" from _The Planets_.

I had a friend who liked an atonal work by the American compose Olly Wilson because it sounded like the soundtrack to _Planet of the Apes_.

Finding classical music that sounds like popular movie music may be good choices.


----------



## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

some of the choices are weird. I have friends who do not like classical, but generallly enjoy several pieces - mostly Debussy (Claire de Lune, La Mer etc), Ravel, Pictures at the Exhibition Hall, The Island of the Dead, Dance of the Knights, Má vlast etc. 
I certainly would not start with Mozart, Beethoven or any of the modern styles.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

So... what would you answer if this question was asked of you?

I think picking already well-known pieces is not the way to go - so no Ode to joy, Toccata & Fugue, Adagio for strings etc.

Personally, I might pick the beginning 5 (or more, see article) minutes of Barber's _Knoxville: Summer of 1915_.


----------



## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Art Rock said:


> So... what would you answer if this question was asked of you?


A difficult question unless you know the general musical taste of the person you're trying to convert.

I'd go with Rachmaninov's Prelude no. 5 "Alla marcia" from the op. 23 preludes. It has great power, mystery, tenderness and fantastic melodies.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

4'33", certainly. Think how your friends will love it! It's not quite 5 minutes, but I'm kind of rounding up here.


----------



## Fredx2098 (Jun 24, 2018)

Maybe Chopin's Etude Op. 10 No. 3 in E major, or the first 5 minutes of Brahms' first piano concerto. But it definitely depends on who you're trying to "convince".


----------



## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

Art Rock said:


> In the latter category, I was delighted to see that one of my favourite contemporary concertos (Unsuk Chin's sheng concerto 'Su') got a mention.


I just listened to this piece and liked it a lot.


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

A tougher question and one I would like to see addressed is,

5 Minutes to Make You Love Opera.


----------



## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Nyman's In Re Don Giovanni, hoping it would evoke interest in both Classical and contemporary music (and opera :))





Or


----------



## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

Ignoring the fact that the challenge as posed is probably impossible, I note that many of the selections suggested would more likely have the opposite effect.


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Fritz Kobus said:


> A tougher question and one I would like to see addressed is,
> 
> 5 Minutes to Make You Love Opera.


Definitely tougher. I think some people are wired to like opera and some just plain aren't.


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

JAS said:


> Ignoring the fact that the challenge as posed is probably impossible, I note that many of the selections suggested would more likely have the opposite effect.


I listened to the Messaien, because I can't get into the Vingt Regards. After that five minutes, I still don't love it.


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

The first five minutes of Roger Sessions' "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd."


----------



## Guest (Sep 8, 2018)

Fritz Kobus said:


> A tougher question and one I would like to see addressed is,
> 
> 5 Minutes to Make You Love Opera.


From the 1:20 mark to the 6:25 mark -


----------



## Guest (Sep 8, 2018)

Art Rock;1510039 which five minutes of music they would play to convince someone to fall in love with classical music.[/QUOTE said:


> From the :24 second mark to 5:24...


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Sibelius: _Pohjola's Daughter_. This performance--from 9:00 to the end, a hair over 5 minutes of musical ecstasy......


----------



## Eusebius12 (Mar 22, 2010)

Fritz Kobus said:


> A tougher question and one I would like to see addressed is,
> 
> 5 Minutes to Make You Love Opera.


Soave sia'l vento


----------



## Gallus (Feb 8, 2018)

Incredibly famous piece, but the answer is obvious to me:






Always makes me cry.

For opera, Belllini's A te, o cara.


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Fritz Kobus said:


> A tougher question and one I would like to see addressed is,
> 
> 5 Minutes to Make You Love Opera.


Easy as pie. I am not part of the audience for opera, yet even I succumb to _La Bohème_. And so, I ask myself--Who wouldn't? We all know the several examples within.......


----------



## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

One of the writers chose the work that did it for me - the second movement of Beethoven's Seventh.


----------



## NLAdriaan (Feb 6, 2019)

Rameau: 'Entrée pour les muses, les zéphyrs, les saisons, les heures et les arts' an instrumental piece from 'les Boreades',

Listen to the slow dramatic version conducted by Teodor Currentzis from his Rameau recording 'The sound of light'.

Only stone cold concrete souls will not be taken by this music, especially in this extreme slow and dynamic version, which for sure melted the permafrost in Novosibirsk, where it was recorded on:


----------



## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

The slow movement of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. I know it's a cliche, but anyone who isn't moved by that has a heart of stone. If they're into faster/metal music, I would give them a Bartok quartet or the coda of the Appassionata.


----------



## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Perhaps Couperin's _Domine, salvum fac regem_. It's not even five minutes long, but at least for me it caused a great impression upon first listening:






For opera I'll go with Mozart and his very famous _Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen_ aria, that I love.


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Art Rock said:


> So... what would you answer if this question was asked of you?
> 
> ....


From my personal experience, it was the final five minutes or so of Tchaikovsky's _Capriccio Italien_ (which I heard in a required Music Appreciation class in my junior high days, played from one of those compilation discs like _50 Great Moments in Classical Music_ or some such title) that lit the classical music spark in me. Prior to that moment I had little knowledge of or interest in "Classical" music. The Capriccio changed my life, and it led me to seek out other works by Tchaikovsky, which led me to Brahms, and Mendelssohn and Beethoven and Schubert and … well, to everyone else.

I could likely today name dozens of pieces that would be capable of igniting sparks of interest in classical music, but I'll stick with the _Capriccio Italien_. If it could move a stubborn sensibility like mine, maybe it could well work on others.

I never did learn what conductor or orchestra was playing that version of the Tchaikovsky work that sparked my interest so, but I've since heard several dozen versions of the _Capriccio_, and I love them all.

My pick: the final five minutes of Tchaikovsky's _Capriccio Italien_!


----------



## DaddyGeorge (Mar 16, 2020)

If I have to pick just one then it's "Air" from Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3.


----------



## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)




----------



## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

here are also some pieces that I enjoyed even before I discovered CM (ie when most of my listening was rock and film music). So anyone of those could do. 
*Bach - Toccate and Fugue D minor
Rimsky-Korsakov - Flight of the Bumblebee
Rodrigo - Concierto de Aranjuez
Rachmaninov - Vocalise*


----------



## The3Bs (Apr 1, 2020)

Oh there are so many...

Just listening at this now so I could propose an even shorter piece that will require less focus...

Georges Bizet / Rodion Shchedrin* Carmen-Suite ("The Carmen Ballet"):
(5) Erscheinen Der Carmen Und Habanera (Entry Of Carmen And Habanera) -- only 3 min 22 

Full of witty and catchfull tunes that are culturally recognizable....


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Just to make it more fun, why not make a rule in this thread: you can only post videos that are almost exactly 5 minutes long (± 3 seconds).






















Jorge Bolet plays Liszt 'La Leggierezza', from Trois Etudes de Concert, S.144:


----------



## juliante (Jun 7, 2013)

All of this is of course academic. A music lover, until the age of 40 CM was just not part of my world. Orchestral music seemed inaccessible and boring; chamber music dry, austere and unapproachable; opera merely ridiculous. A chance radio retune whilst driving took me to the cadenza and finale of Mendelsohn's violin concerto...and a portal to an amazing new world. None of my other music loving friends have ever walked through this portal and I have no idea how I could lead them to it.


----------

