Millennial listens to Beethoven for the VERY FIRST time (and it blows his mind)
18 October 2017, 17:28 | Updated: 18 October 2017, 17:38
Hard as it may be to believe, this 22-year-old had NEVER listened to Beethoven, Verdi or Rachmaninov. So we decided it was high time to put that right.
Meet Ryan
Ryan is 22. He talks to his mates via Instagram direct message, worships his Stan Smiths and wouldn’t dream of listening to anything outside the Top 40.
But that’s all about to change.
We decided to kidnap him* and introduce him to the greatest, biggest, grandest and most epic classical music ever written.
*in a really nice way
First up: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
We played him the last movement, to which he responded: “I feel like I should be sat at the very back of a big room, eating some popcorn, naffing people off because I'm a bit tuned out to what's going on onstage.”
K, not the best start. But then, we told him that Beethoven was deaf. This was big news.
Next: Verdi’s Requiem
“I'm hearing Star Wars, I'm hearing lightsabers,” said Ryan, enthused by Verdi’s dramatic vocal lines. “This is real head-liner stuff, isn’t it? Pyramid stage level.”
We couldn't have put it better ourselves.
What will Ryan think of Rachmaninov?
“This sounds like someone has had a TERRIBLE day at work.” Good start.
However, Ryan admitted: “I liked it more than the Requiem. I could maybe put it on in the background, and do a bit of work or something.” That's more like it!
And no listening test is complete without…
A bit of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring
Ryan really connected with this. “I feel like a little lost lamb, running through a dark forest, being chased by a fox,” he said, engrossed in the music.
“You could easily put this over the shower scene in Psycho. SPLATTERED BLOOD. Raising the knife...”
*rapturous applause from Ryan*
Which was his favourite?
Or, as he puts it, which could he “have a bit of a head-bob to”?
AND NOW THE BIG QUESTION
Will he be interspersing his top 40 playlists with a bit of Mozart?
“I know it sounds like The X factor, but we went on a rollercoaster of emotions, we really did. I might dabble in it a bit more now, every now and again.”
We’ll take that.
