- "Classical music is so calming and relaxing!" - Ahhhhhh!!!
"I use it when I'm studying for my exams!"
"What's that? Mozart?"
"Brahms? Huh? Tchaikovsky? Huh?"
Today we're going to debunk the stereotype that
classical music is always calm and relaxing music,
"to study to", or "for people with insomnia"!
Sure, a lot of classical music can be calming,
but, we have 10 pieces today that are not calming and relaxing at all.
Be ready to be not relaxed and calm.
Otherwise known as...
If you headbanged, you just proved our point that
classical music can be pretty energising.
First one on the list, the Rite of Spring by Stravinsky.
- (Brett) Haha. - That's right.
If you've been watching our channel, you probably know this piece,
but if not, let us introduce you to the ballet
that caused a riot, when it premiered in the 1900s.
People were booing and attacking,
I don't know if they were attacking.
They were throwing things on stage.
Let's have a listen.
Dude, it's so intense.
Dude, my neck...
...needs a massage from all the headbanging!
Yeah, that's not calming at all, I don't...
If you're ever calm to this, I don't know what's wrong with you.
Later in the piece there's so many meter changes,
so the pulse is always changing, and uh,
if you know the ballet story as well,
it's about sacrificing a girl for pagan rituals.
- So, nothing relaxing about it at all. - It's pretty...pretty dark!
- Yeah! - It's a sacrificial kid!
Moving on!
This is the 3rd movement to Prokofiev Piano Sonata no. 7.
I actually found out about this piece playing Gran Turismo,
this racing game on my PlayStation, back in the day.
You open it in the game, and it's like Prokofiev piano music.
- But it works, because it gets your heart racing, - Yeah.
and, who better to listen to than Yuja Wang,
who will probably play it faster than everyone as well.
- Yep, just because it's Yuja. - 'Cause she's...a beast.
Here we go.
- Dude, actually pretty cool! It's like, changing gears... - Yeah, can you imagine—
Yeah.
-This is so rhythmic. - Yeah.
Yeah, don't listen to this while driving,
you might end up going past the speed limit.
You'll start drifting out of nowhere in the mountain ranges.
- Yeah. - Or like some German on the Autobahns...
Yeah like, " Ohh! Ja! Ja! Ja!"
Alright, for the next one, we have...
Boom!
Cannons!
Not the Canon in D!
You're gonna get blasted away by the sound!
Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture!
Wait, was that the audience cheering?
Or was it the musicians?
- That would be so epic to be in the orchestra, and just be like, - Yeah.
(both) "Whoaaaaaaaaa!!!"
- I mean, it fits the spirit. - Yeah, I played this piece before,
but I don't recall like, "Whoaaaaaa!!!"
Did you play it with the cannons, though?
- Yes, there was cannons, and I forgot... - Real cannons?!
...I forgot to put [the] earplug in.
Wait, they had a real cannon?
- Yeah. - Some people don't bother with the real cannon,
they just play like the sound.
I mean, they didn't blast anything out, obviously.
I mean, we haven't got into the cannon bit,
- maybe we let...let's get there first. - Yeah, let's hear the cannon bit first.
Everyone's just...
I love how everyone's cheering and she's like...
...focusing on, "Don't hit the wrong bell."
And the whole hall's like, "Yeah, here we go! Woo!"
It's like everyone's hyping up for the cannon,
- that's like why you play this piece, you want to use the cannon. - Yeah!
Boom!
You want to hear the cannon.
Whoaaaaaaaaa!
Bro! There's even like the...
- Flash like, bang! - Dude, what...what are they flashing?
I want to see what it is!
Whoa!
Yeah! Oh...!
- Okay. Dude...! - Bro!
- They added like smoke machines...! - Explosives and stuff!
Dude, that's sick, it's like fireworks.
Can you imagine being right next to it though?
- Ohh... - You need earplugs.
- That'd be so scary. - Yeah it'd be scary.
Imagine just turn the angle, bang!
Your instrument's gone, you are gone too.
- You turn around like, the scroll of your cello's just like... - It's like...
Can you imagine back in the day though,
like I...I don't know how cannons work,
I only watched like Looney Tunes.
But you know how you have to light...
- You gotta time it, right? Yeah! - Yeah!
I don't know how you would time, you're like,
"Now, it's gone!" Bang!
Oh my god.
- Well there you go, 1812. - Yeah it's exciting to play,
when you play you can't hear yourself.
I can imagine this would've been like,
- the 1800 version of like, um... - Banger.
Yeah, like you know how people these days
- got like EDM rave festivals? - Yeah, this would be—nah, this would be the...
- Yeah, it'll be "Whoaaaaaa!" - Yeah, it will be "Whooooooa!!"
- Everyone, and then the audience. "Whoooooooooa!!!" - (Eddy) Yeah...!
- Next one! - Alright!
- Ohh!!! Ohhhhh! - Oh, I wish I was wearing my Mars hoodie!
Holst!
The Bringer of War!
- Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun dun-dun-dun! - Yeah, you can't be relaxed here, guys.
Yeah bro, the God of War is coming to your doorstep.
Oh, what?
John Williams Star Wars, what?
- Nah, Holst! - Holst, bro! Holst!
Yeah, try studying to this.
- Yeah, you can't! Yeah! - You're gonna get anxiety, you're like...
Y equals negative b plus minus...
Here we go!
Whoa!!!!
Dude, that was so epic.
- I can't not get hyped listening to this. - Yeah, it's just epic!
And can I just say that like,
this conductor is so hyped, like I love her presence,
and then on the climax...
- I mean, he's making an excellent sound, he's just focused, - (Brett) To be fair, yeah, yeah.
but he's just like,
(Eddy) "I gotta stay calm."
- Brass player, big part, huge part. It's all about the brass players here. - Oh, yeah.
- This is one of the few pieces that I wish I was a brass player. - Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. One of the few.
What's the next one?
Dvořák Symphony no. 9!
- Oh, like our paintings! - Mmm!
Okay, we all know what you're thinking now,
it's not the movie.
- Jaws, step back down. - No, no, no, no, no, no.
Swim back out.
This is where the music really came from.
I mean, dude, like, look at how fast their bows are moving,
it's already blurring the freaking camera, like...
- (Eddy) Whoa! - (Brett) Yeah the camera was like, "Whoa!!!"
- "60 frames is not enough!" - Yeah!
Okay, like...
- They have this in One Piece. Yeah, in the anime. - Oh, really?
- Oh... - "I will become Pirate King!"
And they're fighting like, freaking Whitebeard.
- This is a headbanger. It's not relaxing at all. - Yeah.
Oh, okay!
- Mmm, Valkyries! - Mr. Wagner!
Just reading a book.
Don't know where the image is from,
but I remember seeing as a kid, some...
Cartoon or movie, like old movie, where it's just like...
- War planes. And it's like... - Oh yeah, I can see that!
Yeah yeah yeah, I can...
I don't know about you, but for every piece so far
I've been trying to imagine myself studying, it's not working.
- Oh! Alright, so this next one, um... - Ooh la la.
It's like, his most famous string quartet, right?
Okay, can I just say, I've never seen Janine go like...
What the hell?
That was so intense!
- She's so... like, powerful! - Powerful! Like...
That sound!
Three other players, and she's playing as if
she has like, a full orchestra behind her!
- I want to see that again. That blew my mind! - That's pretty epic.
- Dude, so much sound! - How?!
You can tell through the mics, that the sound will be traveling all away.
I don't understand.
Like, if I tried to do that, it would just sound like...
My wood would be touching the string,
and then no sound would be coming out.
- And then my hand would be so tight after like, two seconds. - That's some pressed... Yeah.
Actually, this was kind of a suicide note for Shostakovich.
For those of you that came to our show,
you'll know that he struggled his whole life dealing with
like, censorship from the government.
This came shortly after a moment where he accepted to...
...kind of take on a position for the government, actually.
Then the government used his name to say a lot of things
that didn't actually come from him.
And he hated that.
And he just felt, like, disgusted with himself.
Apparently he just got super depressed,
and then wrote this in like, three days.
On one hand I feel really bad for him,
but on the other hand I'm like...
- I'm glad he wrote this piece. You know? Like... - Yeah...!
I would've just been like, oh.
That's some dark stuff.
- And you can hear it straightaway. - Kind of... Yeah.
The first movement is like, raw depression.
The second movement is like, raw kind of like, angst.
- Anyway! Wouldn't recommend studying to it. - Yeah. Don't relax to it.
- This one might come as a surprise. - Yes.
You might know this, if you're new to our channel.
If you're old to our channel, you probably will know this too.
That G string went, boom!
- That color change was really epic! - Yeah!
It actually made Winter like, sound interesting.
I'm joking.
- I mean, it's like, usually the buildup is just one buildup. - Yeah.
- But she had like, something interesting there. - Yeah.
Cool thing, by the way, for non-string players.
They achieve that kind of icy sound
by playing almost on top of the bridge.
- Sul pont. - It's called sul ponticello, yeah.
Alright! Two last ones.
Bro!
- I got goosebumps from that. - Yeah...!
- Brooo! - You actually got goosebumps from that!
You know what I just thought?
When that choir came in?
I was like, "Oh, the final boss."
- That was like, a god just came out. - Yeah.
- Like... Yeah! - It's like, "I hope I trained enough for this."
The orchestra sounds so good.
It's not easy to get this together.
So much like...
- Like, fast... - Yeah. And plus the choir, and...
It's pretty epic.
Oh, can I also say...
Later in this piece, he uses the Dies Irae tune.
Which is like, a death tune since medieval times, you know?
Wouldn't recommend studying to like, death tunes.
- Alright! - Last one!
The third movement.
All the piano gang know this.
Everyone else in the world probably know the first movement,
might have heard the third movement before,
but not know it's the same sonata.
But did you know that Beethoven wrote this
while he was getting deaf?
- Mm-hmm. - It was around the same time that he wrote the famous letter,
where he talks about how he's on the brink of ending it all.
- Yes. - But then he had a revelation.
So this was before then.
- You can imagine the headspace he was in, right? - It's such a...
- ...tormenting headspace. - Mmm.
Dude, I have nothing to say. That was an amazing performance.
Yeah, that was awesome.
- Guys, go listen to the recording. - Yeah.
- There's 55 million views. Well deserved! - Yeah, nice.
Thanks for watching!
Guys, Brett's been playing his Mendelssohn and practicing.
It's gonna go stale if we don't hit 4 mil subs quick.
He's gonna over-practice it, and he's gonna be like,
"Time to move onto Brahms, I guess."
I'm just gonna move on.
Make sure to accent the like button,
legato the subscribe button.
And, uh... If we hit 4 mil before June,
Brett says he'll throw in Last Rose of Summer,
- the most difficult violin piece ever. - Oh yeah... no yeah, yeah!
Last Rose of Summer. Yeah, that'll be my last rose of summer!
It would be the last summer I see! Yeah.
Bye!