There are lots of classical music pieces that are shorter than five minutes, but what about under three minutes? If you, or one of the, um, younger people you know, has a short attention span, you’re going to love this mixtape. It features six pieces, from Baroque dances to Romantic piano miniatures, to short symphonic movements, some of which are even shorter — under two minutes long.
- Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky/ Ravel)
- “Fammi una canzonetta capricciosa” (Orazio Vecchi) Ellen Hargis, Paul O’Dette, and The King’s Noyse
“Write me a funny song that no one knows how to sing, but you can dance to,” runs the lyric to this song from the late 1500s. It’s performed by one of my favorite (now sadly broken up) period-instrument groups, The King’s Noyse, off a marvelous album titled Canzonetta: 16th-century canzoni and instrumental dances (Harmonia Mundi, 1994). Come on guys, get the band back together. - Prelude from Le tombeau de Couperin (Ravel) Ensemble Berlin
This wonderful piece goes three seconds over three minutes. Sorry. - “My Lord of Oxenford’s Mask" (William Byrd), from The First Book of Consort Lessons, by Thomas Morley; The Baltimore Consort
More 16th-century dance music? Yes, please. - “Frolicsome Finale”, movement 4 from A Simple Symphony (Benjamin Britten)
Who says symphonies have to be big and dramatic? - No. 3 (Allegro grazioso) from Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet (Gyorgy Ligeti)
- Prelude in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (Bach), András Schiff, piano
One of the greatest, most beloved pieces of classical music. Here, “tempered” means “tuned” and “klavier” means “keyboard instrument." - Gymnopedie No.2 (Erik Satie), Pascal Rogé, piano.
- No. 11 of Two Part Inventions (Bach), Bela Fleck, mandolin, Evelyn Glennie, vibraphone
The inventions are teaching pieces: studies in two independent parts for aspiring, amateur keyboardists. With two different instruments, though, you can more easily hear how the parts fit together. - “Revolutionary” Etude, No. 12 of Etudes, Op. 10 (Chopin), Maurizio Pollini, piano
- March from The Love for Three Oranges (Prokofiev), Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Charles Dutoit
This hilarious, loveable opera doesn’t get staged nearly enough (in my opinion), but the march has escaped the score as a famous excerpt. - No. 3 of Three Preludes (Gershwin) Yo-Yo Ma, cello, Jeffrey Kahane, piano
George Gershwin’s three piano preludes were first transcribed for the famous violinist Jascha Heifetz. Here, the arrangement is played by an equally famous cellist. - Bagpipers (movement 1) from Sonatina (Bela Bartók)
Bagpiping is not just confined to Scotland. Bartók’s bagpipers were Romanian.