Top ten classical works used in the movies
Barber's Adagio, heard in 'Platoon' and here played by the LA Phil
Classical music has a long relationship with the movies: Brief Encounter (1945), for example, made Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto a popular classic. Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra – or rather its first two minutes! – conjures up images of space travel or rockets rising majestically into the sky (thanks to Stanley Kubrick).
Or the music can be used ironically – Barber’s intense and passionate Adagio juxtaposed with the horrors of combat in Vietnam – or to add a sonic dimension of napalming the jungle in Apocalypse Now; helicopters taking the place of Wagner’s Valkyries.
(All of these recordings are available to stream via Spotify, as well as purchase on Amazon)
Barber Adagio ('Platoon') Los Angeles PO / Leonard Bernstein (DG) CD from Amazon / Download from Amazon
Wagner Ride of the Valkyries ('Apocalypse Now') LPO / Sir Mark Elder (CfP) CD from Amazon / Download from Amazon
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2 ('Brief Encounter') Leif Ove Andsnes; BPO / Antonio Pappano (EMI) CD from Amazon / Download from Amazon
Rimsky-Korsakov Flight of the Bumble Bee ('Shine') Academy of St Martin in the Fields / Sir Neville Marriner (CfP) Download from Amazon
R Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra ('2001: A Space Odyssey') BPO / Herbert von Karajan (DG) CD from Amazon / Download from Amazon
Mahler Symphony No 5 – Adagietto ('Death in Venice') New Philharmonia / Sir John Barbirolli (EMI) CD from Amazon / Download from Amazon
Mascagni Cavalleria rusticana – Intermezzo ('Godfather 3') Philharmonia / Giuseppe Sinopoli (DG) CD from Amazon / Download from Amazon
Verdi La forza del destino Overture ('Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources') BPO / Herbert von Karajan (DG) CD from Amazon / Download from Amazon
Vivaldi Four Seasons ('Kramer v Kramer’) Giuliano Carmignola; Venice Baroque Orch / Andrea Marcon (Sony Classical) CD from Amazon / Download from Amazon
Pachelbel Canon ('Ordinary People') The English Concert / Trevor Pinnock (Archiv) Download from Amazon
What recordings would appear in your Top 10? Why not add to our list by posting a comment below. (You need to be registered – which is free – and logged in).
Comments
RE: Top ten classical works used in the movies
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RE: Top 10 in the movies
Fitzcarraldo -- i Puritani, Bellini
RE: Top ten classical works used in the movies
The French film "Diva" with the Aria from Catalani's La Waly
RE: Top ten classical works used in the movies
I cannot picture Pines of Rome without whales and Shostakovich Piano 2 without toy heroism
RE: Top ten classical works used in the movies
Lots of fun, this discussion. I have musical associations with many films, but two that stand out right now: Louis Malle's use of the erotic yearning in the Brahms sextet in B flat major, in his film Les Amants; and David Lynch's use of the orchestral overture to the Strauss song Im Abendrot (Four Last Songs) in Wild at GHeart, in which it segues into Nicholas Cage singing Love Me Tender. Ripe stuff.
RE: Top ten classical works used in the movies
Oh! And after watching Fanny and Alexander, one will never be averse to associating Schumann's Eb quintet with the beautiful opening scene!
RE: Top ten classical works used in the movies
The Intermezzo from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana was actually used 10 years earlier in Scorsese's Raging Bull.
RE: Top ten classical works used in the movies
Die Hard 2 / Sibelius: Finlandia. LOOOOVE IT!
RE: Top ten classical works used in the movies
The film which gave rise to an unofficial 'naming' of a Mozart piano concerto is 'Elvira Madigan', the 1967 film directed by Bo Widerberg. This tag is still used with Piano Concerto No. 21 after over 40 years.
In 'Pretty Woman' Verdi's 'La Traviata' is used.
Perhaps the largest amount of Classical music in a film must be Walt Disney's 'Fantasia', including Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, Dukas 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' and Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours fom 'La Gioconda'. Looking at the track timings of those works there must have been some editing of the works involved!
RE: Top ten classical works used in the movies
My favourite Ingmar Bergman's movie is "Cries and Whispers". And the way he uses the Sarabande (4 mvt.) from the Suite No. 5 for solo Cello in C Minor by Bach is simply unforgettable.
RE: Top ten classical works used in the movies
i don't want to disagree with the list , i just want to mention other classical music references to other movies.
in "X2" ( the 2nd movie from the X men film series ) : Romanze from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - Mozart
in " Dracula, dead and loving it " : Hungarian Dance no5 - Brahms
in "The Karate Kid " (2010 movie) : Nocturne Piano No. 20 in C Sharp Minor - Chopin
RE: Top ten classical works used in the movies
Not sure about this list. I agree with the Barber, Wagner, Mahler, Strauss, Mascagni and Verdi. But I do not think of Flight of the Bumble Bee when I think of Shine. I either think of the Rach 3 or Vivaldi "nulla in mundo pax sincera" and trampolines. I try not to think about Kramer v Kramer at all (dreadful film) but I don't think that the Vivaldi was especially pertinent to it. Ordinary People is a similarly dreadful film but I accept that the Pachebel was central to conjuring up the melancholy of Timothy Hutton's character.
I propose the following pieces of classical music which are integral to the films in which they are used. (1) Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue in Woody Allen's Manhattan - it basicaly scored the opening 10 minutes. (2) Casta Diva from Norma used in Louis Malle's Atlantic City (using a recording I have yet to find commercially with the great Elisabeth Harwood!!) - does Casta Diva conjure up images of lemons and Susan Sarandon to other readers?. (3) The Flower Duet from Lakme, by Delibes was used by Tony Scott to great effect in both True Romance (underscoring a menacing scene with Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper but not integral) and The Hunger (with Catherine Deneuve where it was more central). (4) Beethoven's 9th in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. (5) Dukas The Sorcerers Apprentice in Fantasia - does anyone hear this without thinking of Mickey Mouse.
Finally, not a film but I must celebrate What's Opera Doc? (http://youtu.be/MQlmXU1zqfc) with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd condensing the whole of Wagner's output in under 7 mins. To the tune of Ride of the Valkyries "Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit..."
RE: Top ten classical works used in the movies
2nd movement of Beethoven's 7th symhony (in various films), Ligeti and Penderecki in works of Kubrick and jazz in works of Woody Allen!