Thread: Classical Music for Metalheads - Need Advice

if your metalheads are looking for something comparable close to the vigourous timbre of heavy metal I couldnt do better than to recommend or reinforce the following -

VW - Symphony 4
Shostakovich - Symphony 8 & 11, The execution of Stepan Razin
Bartok - The Miraculous Mandarin, The 9 Enchanted Stags, Music for Strings etc.
Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring, maybe Les Noces
Mahler - Symphony 2 & 3 first movements (followed by the rest of course)
Janacek - Sinfonietta?
Tchaikovsky - Francesca de Rimini, Manfred
Bruckner - Symphony 9
Prokofiev - Scythian Suite, Symphony 3
Schnittke - Faust Cantata
Liszt - Dante Symphony
Rachmaninov - Symphonic Dances
Sibelius - Kullervo
Martinu - Piano Concerto 4 'incantations'

yeah, Paganini violin concerto no.4 already re arranged by Yngwie, for his Far Beyond the Sun. and.. oh, don't forget the Canon in D.

Show them this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UPInNpryaI

:-)

Hello,

I am still here, sorry for answering so late, had computer problems.

Many of your hints are great. You people rock!

I browsed through youtube with your hints and got a couple of further suggestions, as long as the computer still worked fine. Was the some of the best days of my life, so thank you very much.

I also stumbled about a couple of great mixtures of metal and classical music. Seems like metalheads tend to love certain pieces of classical music much more than others. They love it when it gets dramatic or virtuose and does not sound "nice and sweet" and/or you hear the percussion a lot and/or it transports a lot of dynamic and is fast. Very popular were:
- Beethovens fünfte Symphonie (fifth Symphony), - very dramatic and sinister
- Vivaldi Summer III (the tempest), - very dramatic and sinister
- Bach Toccata and fugue in d minor - very cleverly composed and virtuose
- Khachaturian: sabre dance - fast, faster, sabre dance...
- Hall of the mountain King - based on the "Kalinka maya hey" principle, getting faster and faster, what else do you wish for a good metal concert?


If you don't really hate metal, watch out for youtube videos of Apocalyptica and Ankh, they mix up classical music with metal well and are a good start for "classicalheads" to get into metal. Or Yngwie Malstreams "Arpeggios from Hell" if you like Paganini (thanks for the hint! Did not know that guy before, very interesting music.

I will come to the single postings right soon, then to my final choice of music. You gave me a lot of inspiration. Thank you very much!

Wait - just because a band uses symphonic instruments, it doesn't mean that they mix up "classical music" with whatever they're playing. There's generally much more associated with that term, one involving structure, instrumentation, stylistic techniques, etc etc that you generally don't find in other genres...unless you're referring to the specific period.

So nope, just because My Dying Bride uses a violin - not classical. Just because Lacrimosa hired the LSO for a CD - not classical. Just because Therion uses strings/chorus - not classical.

Tchaikovsky!
I'm a pretty big metal head myself, but some of my favourites are Chopin, Debussy, and Tchaikovsky.
Also Ponce!

What metalheads want to hear is music with balls. Beethoven that is!

Some pieces that have caught a few of my Metalhead friends attention:

Ravel: La Valse/Piano Concerto for Left Hand
Ginastera: Estancia
Wagner: Siegfried's Funeral Music
Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances (especially the third movement)
Shostakovich: Symphonies #5/#11
Prokoviev: Alexander Nevsky/Sycthian Suite
Brahms: Piano Concerto #1 (yes. REALLY!)
Beethoven: Symphony #7
Orff: Carmina Burana (especially O Fortuna and In Taberna Quando Sumus)
Walton: Belshazzar's Feast/Crown Imperial
Elgar: March of the Moguls from "Crown Of India" suite
Khatchaturian: Piano Concerto/Gayne and Spartacus ballet suites

Tom

For opera can I suggest Don Giovanni?Rape,sex,murder,violence,hellfire, what more could you want?

I've been a fan of lots of metal music for a long time. It seems to me that listening to metal gave me a different mentality when it comes to music. I wasn't much into classical music until after I started listening to metal. Now I love classical music. Funny how that worked.

Anyways, here are some suggestions:
- Beethoven - Eroica Symphony 1st movement
- JS Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No.3
- Mozart - Symphony No.36 1st movement
- Rachmaninov - Trio Elegiaque No.1 in G minor

It's been suggested many times in this thread but the Allegro (The 9th of January) from Shostakovich Symphony No 11 as an amazing marshal section portraying the massacre of protesters in the abortive revolution of 1905. It's hard to think of a more terrifyingly exciting moment

Lots of Wagner - I'd add the Parsifal Prelude and Transformation Music.

Perhaps also Bartok - The Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. The Adagio is a very disturbing piece.
Also by Bartok, Duke Bluebeards castle, where the music builds to a climax at the line "Now behold my vast kingdom. Gaze ye down the dwindling vistas" - it's incredible.

Also Tapiola by Sibelius, another truly thrilling piece

Originally Posted by jives11

It's been suggested many times in this thread but the Allegro (The 9th of January) from Shostakovich Symphony No 11 as an amazing marshal section portraying the massacre of protesters in the abortive revolution of 1905. It's hard to think of a more terrifyingly exciting moment

thats the one

Originally Posted by jurianbai

yeah, Paganini violin concerto no.4 already re arranged by Yngwie, for his Far Beyond the Sun. and.. oh, don't forget the Canon in D.

I have Paganini violin concertos 2 and 4 and have listened to them a couple of times but I still can't figure out which pieces were re-arranged for Far Beyond the Sun.

Guess it's just me then...

Oh btw, what does it really mean by 're-arranged'?

For this thread, I'd recommend Paganini Cappricio no. 5, 16 and 24, or just get the whole 24 Capprices and enjoy.

If solo piano music is welcome too, it always seemed to me that Rachmaninov's g-minor prelude (no. 5 from op. 23) is a piece that many guys who wouldn't normally listen to classical think is "kinda cool" when they hear it. I've had that experience a couple of times. More of those "rough" Rachmaninov pieces kind be found here and there throughout the two collections of Preludes and Etudes-Tableaux (op. 23, 32, 33 and 39).

Adding on to piano music, how about some Heavy-Metal piano by Prokofiev? He's excellent at that, believe me.

Suggestions:
5 Sarcasms for Piano
Diabolical Suggestion
Piano Sonatas 5, 6, and particularly 7, with its "Precipitato" 3rd movement.
Piano Concerto no. 3, particularly 1st movement.