Britain’s Got Talent opera singer performs ‘Caruso’ and moves audience to tears

 24 May 2022, 16:42 | Updated: 25 May 2022, 14:06 

By Savannah Roberts, ClassicFM London

 

Here's the moment a young opera singer delivered a 1986 Italian love song famously performed by the likes of Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli.

Maxwell Thorpe gave a hair-raising performance during his Britain’s Got Talent audition, surprising the crowd with the challenging number written by Lucio Dalla and dedicated to the prolific operatic tenor, Enrico Caruso.

Introducing his performance, the 32-year-old opera singer told the judging panel that he was “very nervous”.

“I’ll have to sing them [my nerves] out,” the northern singer announced to the audience.

Maxwell revealed that he had been busking in Sheffield for 10 years, and that in his experience he is “sometimes singing to people that aren’t listening.”

Read more: Incredible moment when ‘The X Factor’ vocalist sang both parts in soprano and tenor duet

Maxwell Thorpe performed 'Caruso' by Lucio Dalla during his BGT audition. Picture: ITV/YouTube

The judges and audience were left stunned when Thorpe’s shy demeanour dropped, as soon as he began to sing. A moment of silence fell upon the stage as the melancholic melody came to a close, before the theatre responded with a well-earned standing ovation.

Simon Cowell showered the BGT hopeful with praise, saying: “You’re heading for the big time. Maxwell, that was extraordinary. Seriously, you’re so shy and quiet and then that happened.

“I thought that made it incredible,” Simon continued.

The reaction among the panel was unanimous, with Alesha Dixon professing: “Wow, wow, wow! The hairs on my arms stood up, literally as soon as you started.

Read more: When a 13-year-old operatic soprano stormed America’s Got Talent finals, and ignited a huge debate

The Britains Got Talent judges were touched by Maxwell Thorpe's performance. Picture: ITV/YouTube

“It just felt romantic and powerful and meaningful and all the feels.”

Amanda Holden praised the Sheffield singer further, saying: “I hope that going forward you feel more appreciated because these people were on their feet for you. I really hope that reaction has done something for your confidence as you are better than standing on a pavement.”

Maxwell received a yes from all four judges, who turned around in their seats to see an ecstatic audience behind them. Opera on a talent show? We’ve seen it before, but this is up there with the best...

AUDIO JUNKIE: Classical kick, Julio Nakpil style

by Manila Bulletin Entertainment

The music of Julio Nakpil, a Pinoy renaissance man, is the subject of an ongoing retrospective series titled “The Music of Julio Nakpil.”

The series has already released two robust collections namely “The Music of Julio Nakpil (1867-1960) Volume 1 & 2: Works for Piano.”

 

But as music masters go, two albums just won’t cover the works of a prime artist. Hence volumes III and IV: “Works for Voice and Chamber Ensemble” and “Works for Band and Orchestra” respectively.

But who is Julio Nakpil? And why do we care? Well, Nakpil is a composer out of the past. He was a revolutionary, a Katipunero—and a general at that—who fought against the Spanish in the Philippine Revolution of 1896 and has seen firsthand the tumult of the succeeding occupations of the Americans and the Japanese in the first half of the 20th century. But throughout, Nakpil managed to carve a body of work that is still celebrated today, more than a century and a half after his birth. And these collections are standing proof to his massive contribution to Philippine classical music.

Each record focuses on a different aspect of Nakpil’s works. “Volume III” in particular spotlights Nakpil’s “Works for Voice and Chamber Ensemble.”   And “Amor Patrio! Romanza” for voice, oboe and piano” is just the ticket for those who lean toward vocal classical music. This moody piece demonstrates Nakpil’s flair for the dramatic and this century-plus old composition (written in 1893) is brought to life again by soprano Jasmin Salvo, with Mari Angeli Nicholas’ oboe and on piano, Dingdong Fiel.

And while the album opener and the segue piece “Il Ramento (The remembrance)” seem to be serious sonic excursions, the mood eventually lightens starting with the celebratory “Himno (Hymn).” The latter’s intro seems to be a nod to Mozart, but nonetheless stands on its own.

This and hymnals such as “Marangal Dalit bg Katagalugan (Hymno Nacional)” and the kundiman-like “Pag ibig (Love) Habanera” are sonic calling cards for sopranos Jasmin Salvo, tenor Radnel Ofalsa, and the UST choir Coro Tomasino. As the joyful “Luz Poetica de la Aurora” is for Reynato Resurreccion Jr.’s oboe. Volume III hotspot? “Danse Campestre: Habanera para concierto” with its classical romanticism and joyful cadence implied by Dingdong Fiel’s excellent piano work, as Christian Tan’s violin sings on top, easily takes the cake.  

“The Music of Julio Nakpil Volume IV:  Works for Band and Orchestra” meanwhile injects new vigor into the orchestral works of this Filipino music master. With the UST Symphonic Band and the UST Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Herminigildo Ranera breathing life into pieces (ironically) to the funereal “Sueño Eterno, Marcha Funebre” and “Pahimakas! (Last Farewell) Marcha Funebre.” The latter is dedicated to the memory (and last moments) of Rizal.

“Volume IV” is also festive and jovial as heard on “Biak Na Bato: Paso-Doble,” “Expocision Regional” and “Salve Patria! (Hail Motherland) Gran Marcha.” The last one was written by Nakpil to commemorate Rizal’s 8th death anniversary that coincided with the inauguration of the Rizal monument.  

A project of the University of Santo Tomas Research Center for Culture, Arts and Humanities, and produced by Maria Alexandra Iñigo Chua, “The music of Julio Nakpil” is a definitive compendium of the works of a true Filipino music master.

Having said all that, It’s highly recommended to go back to Volumes I & II “Works For Piano” compositions written specially for the keyboard. Master pianist Raul Sunico performs all of Nakpil’s work and it is akin to hearing masters of two different era’s collaborating across time.

Truly world class all of them.  

How Do Musicians Express Their Emotions through Music?

by Frances Wilson, Interlude

Music is a powerful means of communication, by which people share emotions, intentions, and meanings, and our personal engagement with music, whether in a live concert, listening to a CD or via a streaming service, is driven by the medium’s ability to convey and communicate emotion. Music can arouse strong feelings, recall memories; it can promote extreme happiness or engender feelings of deep love or loss…

Like speech, music has an acoustic code for expressing emotion, and even if a piece of music is unfamiliar, we can “decode” its message. Because of this, while musicians perform music according to their own interpretations, we can still understand the basic acoustic code: a crescendo indicates increased intensity or drama; a minor key suggests seriousness or melancholy; pauses create suspense and anticipation.

For the performer, the ability to communicate emotion, or tell a story, in music requires more than the technical facility to process what’s on the score. A good understanding of the structure of the music is important for a convincing, and communicative, musical performance, allowing the musician to respond to aspects such as variations in tempo and dynamics, harmonic and melodic tension and release, phrasing, repetitions, etc. By responding to these elements, the listener is given a set of musical “signposts” which guide them through the music, and bring cohesion, interest and variety to the performance.

A performer must resolve the entire depth of the ideas contained there. How often carefully notated shadings, accents, tempo changes reveal not simply a positive characteristic of sound but rather the untold sides of the author’s concept. How many directions we find in Schumann, Chopin, Scriabin, even Beethoven that a pianist should follow not in a real sound but by addressing the subtlest hints to the imagination of a listener!
– Samuil Feinberg

Communicating emotion is the most elusive aspect of the performer’s skillset, and is the fundamental reason why people – performers and listeners – engage with music. At a basic level, music communicates specific emotions through simple musical devices, for example:

• Happy – fast tempo, running notes, staccato, bright sound, major key
• Sad – very slow tempo, minor key, legato, descending sequences or falling intervals, diminuendo, ritardando

But there is something else which makes a performance particularly rich in expression or communication. Performance is generally regarded as a synthesis of both technical and expressive skills. Technical skills can be taught, while expression is more instinctive: it is of course possible to act upon expression markings in the score, but in order for these to sound convincing and, more importantly, natural, the performer must draw upon other factors, including extra-musical ones.

Many performers create a vivid internal musical and artistic vision of the music they are playing. This may include an aural model; the use of metaphors or adjectives to create a narrative or picture for the music; and personal experience, including extra-musical experiences. A performer’s own emotional experiences may influence the way they convey emotion in the music. This suggests that only a performer who has actually experienced the highs and lows of romantic love can perform, for example, Schumann’s Fantasie in C with the requisite emotional insight. Of course, not every performer will have the life experience, but they can still convey emotion in their performance by awakening their imagination to bring expression and emotional depth to their playing. In addition, in a concert situation, the imagination of the listener is very much at the disposal of the performer, to be shaped and influenced through sound.

We talk about performers “communicating the composer’s intentions” (i.e. paying attention to and acting upon directions in the score such as dynamics, tempo and expression markings, articulation, rests and pauses etc) or “conveying the story of the music“, but fundamentally I think as listeners we crave a performance which touches us personally. Listening to music is a highly subjective and personal experience – we’ve all had those ‘Proustian rush’ moments when a piece of music, or a single movement or even a phrase, provokes an involuntary memory, sometimes with physical side-effects such as goosebumps or shivers (physiologically, this is the result of the release of Dopamine, the brain’s “reward” neurotransmitter). Sometimes we want to feel uplifted or transported by music, taken us out of ourselves and the mundanity of everyday life to another place, to experience something touching the spiritual or transcendent. Such moments, and the memory of them, are very special and individual.

Occasionally one is at a concert where a very palpable sense of collective concentration can be felt in the auditorium. This occurs when the performer creates an intense communication between music and listener. I experienced it, along with the rest of the Wigmore Hall audience, at a performance of Beethoven’s last three sonatas by the Russian pianist Igor Levit in June 2017. The sense of concentrated listening and suspense was extraordinary. How did Levit achieve it? I’m not sure…. a combination of exquisite tone control, musical understanding and the sheer power of the music itself.

Most people like music because it gives them certain emotions such as joy, grief, sadness, and image of nature, a subject for daydreams or – still better – oblivion from “everyday life”. They want a drug – dope -…. Music would not be worth much if it were reduced to such an end. When people have learned to love music for itself, when they listen with other ears, their enjoyment will be of a far higher and more potent order, and they will be able to judge it on a higher plane and realise its intrinsic value.
– Igor Stravinsky

Dining With Music

by Maureen Buja, Interlude

Whim W’Him Contemporary Dance company in La revue du cuisine (2015)

As you peek around the corners of the repertoire, there are a few pieces that reflect the daily concern with Dining. There are works that set recipes, works that show the activities in a kitchen, works that show the procession of the courses, and one that gives you the ambient sound of a large kitchen. Let’s explore!

Martinů’s La revue de cuisine (1927) was still a favourite of its composer some 50 years later. It was a one-act jazz ballet about a love triangle in the kitchen between Pot, Lid, and the adventurous Whisk to which Pot has become enamoured. ‘The forthcoming marriage between Pot (Le chaudron) and Lid (Le couvercle) is jeopardised by the adventurous Whisk (Le moulinet) to whose magic Pot has succumbed. Pot is so captivated that Lid falls off him and rolls into a corner of the kitchen. Now Dishcloth wants to seduce Lid but order loving Broom to challenge Dishcloth to a duel, which delights Whisk. The two irritated combatants fight to the bitter end. Whisk makes eyes at Pot once more but now Pot longs for Lid, but Lid is nowhere to be found. The shadow of an enormous foot appears suddenly and with one kick propels Lid out of his corner. Broom leads him back to Pot, while Whisk and Dishcloth break out into a wild dance of joy.’ Despite this wildly interesting synopsis, the work has rarely been performed as a ballet in its entirety but has had a much more successful life as a suite. One recent version in 2013 moved the scenario to that of a traveling circus. The ballet score was revised and reconstructed by Christopher Hogwood after the full score was found in the Paul Sacher Foundation Archives.

Darius and Madeleine Milhaud on their wedding day, 1925

French composer Darius Milhaud (1895-1974) left France in 1940 when the Germans invaded and took up a post at Mills College in California. One of the changes that the Milhaud family experienced in America was the lack of household help. Cooks and maids were no longer available in war-time America. Milhaud paid tribute to his wife in 1944 in La Muse ménagère (The Household Muse), which recognizes his wife Madeleine’s ingenuity in having to take up household tasks during their time in the United States, where, as Milhaud noted, ‘servants receive higher wages than university professors.’ Her whirlwind kitchen activities are covered in the movement entitled La cuisine.

Jennie Tourel and Leonard Bernstein at a recording session, 1960

A ‘song cycle of recipes’ takes Emile Dumont’s 1899 cookbook La Bonne Cuisine Française (Tout ce qui a rapport à la table, manuel-guide pour la ville et la campagne) (Fine French Cooking “Everything That Has to Do with the Table, Manual Guide for City and Country”) as the text source for Leonard Bernstein’s 1947 work. Written for singer Jennie Tourel, it sets the recipes for Plum Pudding, Ox Tail, a Turkish dish of Tavouk Guenksis, and closes with a recipe for ‘Rabbit at Top Speed.’

Kitchen in Chateau d’Orion

In his 1961 work Grand Concerto Gastronomique for Eater, Waiter, Food and Large Orchestra, Op. 76, English composer Malcolm Arnold wrote a 6-part memorial to a great dinner. Written for the Hoffnung Festival in 1961, the work involved the actions of an off-stage chef and two on-stage actors (the Eater and the Waiter). The Prologue, with its fanfares and ‘comic gestures’ signals the beginning of the action: the Eater and the Waiter enact a ‘ceremonial napkin display’ and the meal is on. The second movement, Soup (Brown Windsor), is both ‘thickly scored and unappealing’, rather like the soup. It is in the third movement, Roast Beef, that the Englishness comes out. The movement may be short, but the performance instructions say that it must be ‘repeated and repeated slower and slower until all is finished’ and the plate of food must be ‘enormous.’ It is the Eater who determines how many repetitions of the march occur – choosing either to gulp everything down as quickly as possible or to savour every morsel, in the manner of Erik Satie’s piano piece Vexations (which 1 page of music is to be played 840 times).

This movement is followed by Cheese, and then the dessert course of Peach Melba and closes with Coffee, Brandy, Epilogue.

English composer Gavin Bryars’ work Cuisine (1993) was written for an installation at Chateau d’Orion, in Orion, France. The music was written to establish the ‘architectural acoustic’ of the space and ‘to animate the spaces in which the music was played.’

We all have our triumphs and failures in the kitchen. Each of these composers has chosen to memorialize something different for their kitchens: love affairs between the implements, the musicality of a recipe, the ceremony of a meal, or just the sound of the space.

Thinking About Returning to the Piano?

by Frances Wilson, Interlude

Here are some tips to help you on your piano journey

It may be two years or twenty since you last touched a piano, but however long the absence, taking the decision to return to playing is exciting, challenging and just a little trepidatious.

Stick with the familiar and play the music you learnt before

To get back in to the habit of playing, start by returning to music you have previously learnt. You may be surprised at how much remains in the fingers and brain, and while facility, nimbleness and technique may be rusty, it shouldn’t take too long to find the music flowing again, especially if you learnt and practised it carefully in the past.

Take time to warm up

You may like to play scales or exercises to warm up, but simple yoga or Pilates-style exercises, done away from the piano, can be very helpful in warming up fingers and arms and getting the blood flowing. This kind of warm up can also be a useful head-clearing exercise to help you focus when you go to the piano.

You don’t have to play scales or exercises!

Some people swear by scales, arpeggios and technical exercises while others run a mile from them. As a returner, you are under no obligation to play scales or exercises. While they may be helpful in improving finger dexterity and velocity, many exercises can be tedious and repetitive. Instead try and create exercises from the music you are playing – it will be far more useful and, importantly, relevant.

Invest in a decent instrument

If you are serious about returning to the piano, a good instrument is essential. It needn’t be an acoustic piano; there are many very high-quality digital instruments to choose from. Select one with a full-size keyboard and properly weighted keys which imitate the action of a real piano. The benefits of a digital instrument are that you can adjust the volume and play with headphones so as not to disturb other members of your household or neighbours, and most digital instruments allow you to record yourself or connect to apps which provide accompaniments or a rhythm section which makes playing even more fun!

Posture is important

You’ve got a good instrument, now invest in a proper adjustable piano stool or bench. Good posture enables you to play better, avoid tiredness and injury.

Little and often

Your new-found enthusiasm for the piano may lead you to play for hours on end over the weekend but hardly at all during the week. Instead of a long practice session, aim for shorter periods at the piano, every day if possible, or at least 5 days out of 7. Routine and regularity of practice are important for progress.

Consider taking lessons

A teacher can be a valuable support, offering advice on technique, productive practising, repertoire, performance practice, and more. Choose carefully: the pupil-teacher relationship is a very special one and a good relationship will foster progress and musical development. Ask for recommendations from other people and take some trial lessons to find the right teacher for you.

Pianists at Finchcocks course

Go on a piano course

Piano courses are a great way to meet other like-minded people – and you’ll be surprised how many returners there are out there! Courses also offer the opportunity to study with different teachers, hear other people playing, get tips on practising, chat to other pianists, and discover repertoire. Many courses in the UK cater for students of all levels, including those at Finchcocks in Kent and Jackdaws in Somerset.

Join a piano club

If you fancy improving your performance skills in a supportive friendly environment, consider joining a piano club. You’ll meet other adult pianists, hear lots of different repertoire, have an opportunity to exchange ideas, and enjoy a social life connected to the piano. Piano clubs offer regular performance opportunities which can help build confidence and fluency in your playing.

Listen widely

Listening, both to CDs or via streaming or going to live concerts, is a great way to discover new repertoire or be inspired by hearing the music you’re learning played by master musicians.

Buy good-quality scores

Cheap, flimsy scores don’t last long and are often littered with editorial inconsistencies. If you’re serious about your music, invest in decent sheet music and where possible buy Urtext scores (e.g. Henle, Barenreiter or Weiner editions) which have useful commentaries, annotations, fingering suggestions and clear typesetting on good-quality paper.

Play the music you want to play

One of the most satisfying aspects of being an adult pianist is that you can choose what repertoire to play. Don’t let people tell you to play certain repertoire because “it’s good for you”! If you don’t enjoy the music, you won’t want to practice. As pianists we are spoilt for choice and there really is music out there to suit every taste.

Above all, enjoy the piano!

Classic FM welcomes thousands of new classical music listeners in 2022, radio figures reveal

Alexander Armstrong, Charlotte Hawkins and Moira Stuart. Picture: Classic FM

By Classic FM

@ClassicFM

 

New audience figures show that in the first three months of 2022, the year we celebrate our 30th birthday, Classic FM welcomed thousands of new listeners.

We have welcomed 100,000 new listeners to Classic FM, according to the latest radio listening figures.

In our 30th birthday year, results by Radio Joint Audience Research (RAJAR) show that 5.2 million people now tune into Classic FM every week.

The overall amount of time the audience tunes in has gone up too. Total listening to Classic FM every week now stands at 44.5 million hours, which is the highest it’s been for 17 years.

The figures, which come from the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK, prove that classical music continues to provide comfort, focus and joy in people’s lives.

We have seen increases in listeners for all daytime programmes beginning with Classic FM’s More Music Breakfast with Tim Lihoreau, which has seen a rise of 87,000 listeners compared to the last three months of 2021, bringing Tim’s audience to a total of 1.7 million.

Alexander Armstrong welcomes 2.4 million listeners from 9am to 12pm on weekdays, a rise of 43,000 listeners compared to the previous quarter.

Classic FM Requests also proves as popular as ever, with an additional 28,000 listeners boosting Anne-Marie Minhall’s afternoon audience to 2.5 million listeners.

Smooth Classics with Margherita Taylor has gained just shy of 100,000 listeners, with 700,000 people now listening to Classic FM from 10pm to 1am on weekdays. Similarly on weekends, Myleene Klass now welcomes 484,000 listeners to her Smooth Classics programmes on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

At the weekend, Alan Titchmarsh and Aled Jones are joined by nearly a million listeners each on Saturday and Sunday mornings, with 964,000 and 998,000 people tuning in respectively.

Source: Ipsos /RAJAR.

Harry Potter’s Tom Felton was ‘desperate’ as a child to become a professional violinist

Tom Felton starred as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter film series. Picture: Alamy/Classic FM

By Sophia Alexandra Hall, ClassicFM

@sophiassocials

 

Tom Felton shot to stardom as a child actor in the Harry Potter film series, but prior to the big screen, he was a violinist and local chorister.

British actor Tom Felton is best known for his portrayal of Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.

The child star made his big screen debut in 1997 as Peagreen Clock in The Borrowers, four years before he joined the cast of the first Harry Potter film, but prior to his first acting gigs, he had another performing arts interest.

In an interview with The Guardian, Felton, 34, revealed that “a few months before acting, I was desperate to be a violinist”.

Abacus Agency represented Felton when he was cast as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, and his agency card included his prowess in both violin playing, and singing.

Though the actor has shared videos of his singing throughout the years, fans are yet to see a video of his violin skills.

Felton picked up the guitar aged 19, and began sharing his own music as a singer-songwriter on YouTube via a channel called ‘Feltbeats’.

In March 2009, Felton was interviewed by ‘Feltbeats.com’ ahead of the release of his six-track album, In Good Hands.

Felton shared that as well as the guitar, he also plays the piano, violin, bass guitar, ukulele, harmonica, and the drums.

Adding to that exhaustive list, he was also in his local church choir for five years and was “actually offered a place in a big cathedral choir.”

 Felton’s Harry Potter co-star Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley, is also a singer, and recorded the track ‘Lightning’ for the 2014 Postman Pat Movie.

Maybe we’ll get a Grint x Felton musical collaboration in the future, and Felton can finally show off his classical violin flair for the fans.

Classical Music Beyond the Concert Stage: Ten Classical Pieces Used in Commercials

by Fanny Po Sim Head, Interlude 

© Contently

Have you ever heard any advertisement music on the radio and TV that sounds familiar to you? A lot of them are excerpts or adaptations from classical music. I am going to share with you ten pieces that have been used in advertisements from all over the world.

William Tell Overture

Guillaume Tell © dinosoria.com

Composed by Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), William Tell Overture is frequently used in advertisements and commercials. It was the last opera that Rossini wrote and perhaps one of the most popular among his 39 operas. It is the overture to the opera Guillaume Tell, and it consists of four continuous movements. The last part of the overture was particularly popular. It was taken as the theme music in a TV drama The Lone Ranger and since then it is always associated with horse-riding. Hong Kong Jockey Club used this theme for quite some years but recently, this theme is featured in a commercial which is unrelated to horse-riding. 

Ride Of The Valkyries

One of the best-known pieces by Richard Wagner (1813-1883), Ride Of The Valkyries is the opening of Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), the second opera of the Ring Cycle. The story of this opera is based on a Norse mythology, and the title character, Valkyrie Brünnhilde, carries some supernatural power. In the opera, “The Ride Of The Valkyries” plays when the Valkyries, warrior maidens ride back from a battle. Play

But here is one of the commercials with the use of this theme:

The Flower Duet

The Flower Duet is a piece in the first act of Léo Delibes‘ opera Lakmé (1883). It is a duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano, and it is sung by Lakmé and her servant Mallika when they are getting some flowers by a river.

This duet is a popular concert piece, and it has been used frequently in advertisements and films.

Léo Delibes (1836-1891) was a French Romantic composer. His best-known works include this opera and his ballets Coppélia (1870) and Sylvia (1876).

Queen of the Night Aria

It is not difficult to find Mozart’s works on TV commercials. This work, Queen of the Night aria, is one of the most famous arias of all time. It is an aria in the second act of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). 

Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra © Rakuten Kobo Inc.

Also Sprach Zarathustra

Another popular repertoire used in TV commercials and TV dramas and films is Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss (1864-1949). This tone poem has nine sections and is based on Friedrich Nietzsche’s novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Each section is named after the title of the selected chapter of the book. While Zarathustra’s philosophical journey in the novel inspired Strauss creating this influential work, this commercial doesn’t seem very philosophical at all:

Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana

Composed by Italian composer Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945), Cavalleria Rusticana is considered one of his masterpieces and classic verismo operas. Mascagni wrote this piece for a competition held by Milanese music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno in 1888. He spent less than two months; he submitted it on the last day of the competition’s deadline, and he won! This opera is based on Giovanna Verga’s novel about a passionate love tragedy. The sentimental melody suits this commercial very well.

Overture from La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie)

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) wrote this two-act opera La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) based on an 1815 comedy La Pie Voleuse by JMT Badouin d’Aubigny and Louis-Charles Caigniez. The story is about discovering a magpie that had been stealing a silver spoon and hiding it in its nest. This overture has been used quite often for television and radio advertisements, including this award-winning one: 

The first page of the oldest surviving copy of Johann Pachelbel’s “Canon and Gigue in D major.”

Canon in D

The popularity of Canon in D has made its frequent use in tv commercials no surprise. Written by the German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706), this piece is part of his Canon and Gigue for three violins and basso continuo. It was written in D major, but it has been transposed to different keys for various occasions. Let’s watch how this music is used in this Thai’s commercial.

Poster for the premiere of Georges Bizet’s Carmen

L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (Habanera) from Carmen

Nicknamed Habanera, L’amour est un oiseau rebelle belongs to the first act of Bizet’s opéra comique Carmen (1875). Georges Bizet (1838-1875) actually did not compose the tune of this aria, but he adapted it from “El Arreglito ou la Promesse de marriage” by the Spanish musician Sebastián Iradier. However, Bizet rewrote it and made it one of the most recognizable arias of all time. The tune has been adapted in popular songs, films, and tv commercials such as this one.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5

A lot of Beethoven‘s music were used frequently in commercials, including his famous Symphony No. 5. 

Classical music has a timeless popularity. It can produce a wide range of emotions and atmospheres that make it perfect for use in all kinds of medias such as video games, movies, tv dramas, podcasts…you name it! While some classical compositions contain their own stories, the imagination is the only true limit to the stories this music can tell.