Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Offenbach: Three fiery composers to get your heart racing

Forget the notion that so-called classical music can ever be boring as you explore these hits of the 1800s

SLOUGH, ENGLAND:

Do you find that Western classical music is a sedative rivalling an economics textbook? Economics textbooks may indeed be monstrous, but in no way does classical music deserve to be tarred with the same brush. Or, if we are being technical, Romantic music, which is music composed between 1820 and the early twentieth century. The Minions navigated a whole aircraft from take-off to landing to the tune of Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube (1866). In Kingsman: The Secret Service, heads literally exploded amid the backdrop of Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance (1901). If the Minions and Eggsy can get up to all kinds of nonsense alongside a dose of Romantic music, what’s stopping you? Without further ado, here are three Romantic scores that, far from doubling as an industrial-strength sedative, act as an intravenous shot of espresso. 

‘William Tell Overture’ (Gioachino Rossini)

Everyone will at some point have come across the finale of Rossini’s iconic William Tell Overture. Having premiered in 1829, the full overture is split into four parts (albeit played without a break) lasting a total of twelve minutes. If you close your eyes, you can almost see it playing out. The opening plunges you into the sun rising over the Swiss Alps before segueing into a storm. As the clashing of cymbals and brass kicks in, you can feel the jagged urgency of the lashing rain. The storm melts away into a brief calm and, almost out of nowhere, explodes into action for a heart-racing finale. If you reach for this instead of that economics textbook during an irritating bout of insomnia, all thoughts of sleep will vaporise.

‘1812 Overture’ (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)

Contrary to the name, Tchaikovsky came up with this piece of fifteen-minute brilliance in 1880, depicting the Russian army’s defence against a Napoleonic invasion. You sense the desperation of the French army as they start to succumb to the brutal Russian winter. Snippets of the French national anthem sneak in as the French soldiers try to regain strength. You can almost hear the spray of firing arrows. And you will definitely feel the blast of cannons in your bones as the overture reaches its explosive fanfare finale, grinding the French to an epic defeat. Why cannons, specifically, by the way? Because Tchaikovsky wrote them in. Actual cannons, that is. Those Romantic composers knew how to make a point.

‘Can-Can – Orpheus in the Underworld’ (Jacques Offenbach)

It would be remiss of me not to include one of music history’s most blood-pumping pieces, the immortal Can-Can. Written in 1868 as part of the comic opera Orpheus and Eurydice, the so-called Can-Can was originally known as The Infernal Galop. Today, it has become synonymous with a dance involving some seriously high kicks reaching up to the stars. After a few seconds of calmness, it snaps into high gear with brass, percussion and strings bellowing away at full volume. There is no way you have never heard it before. Revisit it today. Get that blood pumping, but if you haven’t got headphones on, keep it down. Otherwise, those neighbours will be at your door as if you’ve just been blasting Metallica and make infernal demands about keeping the noise down.

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