If you think you don't like classical music, read on to discover the 7 works that will help you to change your mind...
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto
I’ve had personal experiences of playing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto a lot in big outdoor settings; I’ve played it in Central Park twice and I think it’s a piece that shows everything classical music has to offer. It has lyricism, it has incredible excitement, it has this great sense of pageantry in the orchestration, it has melodies, it has virtuosity, it has great orchestral sections where everyone’s blasting away, and it has the soloist as hero. Overall, I think it’s the type of piece from which people walk away whistling the tunes and remembering them.
Sergei Rachmaninov – Prelude Op. 32, No. 10
Despite there being a lot of classical hits by Rachmaninov, this is a piece that people outside the classical world might not know. And if they listen and still think, ‘Well I just don’t like classical music,’ then there’s not much else we can do about that. You know how you see these pianos in tube stations? Well, if someone sat down at one and played this piece, I could imagine the entire building coming to a stop. It’s not that it’s particularly flashy – it’s just extremely beautiful, starting slowly then building up to what is probably Rachmaninov at his most hypnotic and poignant.
Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 10 – Allegro
Some assume that classical music is the kind of thing you have playing really softly in the dentist’s office: dry and evocative of something old fashioned or high class. But I don’t think anyone could think that of the second movement of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, which is just about the most head-banging piece of classical music we’ve got. I guess I can picture people saying, ‘Well, I don’t like it.’ But I think everyone would get something out of it, and I can see it changing a lot of people’s understanding of the kind of power and ferocity that one can experience in orchestral music.
Think you don't lie classical music? Prepare to change your mind...
Richard Strauss – Also sprach Zarathustra
Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra is one of those pieces that often appears on lists of ‘100 Favourite Classical Tunes’. But most people only know the first minute-and-a-half, which is a shame because the piece as a whole demonstrates how classical music can have this incredible sense of arc and narrative. And the ending is so wonderfully ambiguous. For someone used to classical music in elevators, it would be amazing to listen to the whole piece and to finish on this unanswered question. It would be hard to find that kind of emotional outcome in music of any other genre.
Sergei Prokofiev – Romeo and Juliet
Anyone whose perception of classical music is people in powdered wigs playing music in the corner of a party would be astonished to know that music can be as descriptive as Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet – a piece that tells the story with so much detail and drama, and yet no words, that listening to it is like watching a movie. I had a crazy experience a long time ago, when I was jetlagged almost to the point of hallucination, and I listened to the entire ballet straight through. It was like watching a movie in my head and it was wild.
Think you don't lie classical music? Prepare to change your mind...
Ottorino Respighi – Pines of Rome
I think everyone should have the experience of attending a live performance of Respighi's Pines of Rome. It’s so colourful, so exciting, so loud, so beautiful and so evocative. It blurs the lines harmonically between what we think of as classical music and what we think of as cinematic and popular music. And it’s such a spectacle, featuring a huge number of trumpets as well as the organ. Overall, it’s the kind of piece where, if you found yourself looking around at the end of the concert, you’d see everybody looking happy. And that can only be a good thing.
Gabriel Fauré – Requiem – ‘In Paradisum’
A teacher of mine once said that the most incredible thing about Bach was that every note sounds inevitable. And yet, if you listen to Bach’s music, then stop the recording and see if you can figure out what comes next: you’ll always be wrong. The same is true of Fauré's Requiem: it sounds so deceptively simple, like something that has always existed. And I can’t think of any piece more beautiful than this one. If I gave it to someone who insisted they didn’t like classical music, and they said, ‘No, that’s not for me,’ I’d have to say, ‘Well I gave it my best shot.
Who is James Ehnes?
Hailing from Canada, James Ehnes is one of the world’s most renowned violinists, and has performed with orchestras all over the globe. A devoted chamber musician, he leads the Ehnes Quartet and is artistic director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society. He is also a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London and, since August 2024, a member of the faculty at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. His recording of Bach’s Complete Violin Concertos with the National Arts Centre Orchestra is out now on the Analekta label.