This playlist is unusual in that it plays almost exclusively complete pieces. It was put together by my eight-year-old daughter Angelina and admittedly, many of the pieces come from the wonderful iPad app “Orchestra” that Finnish conductor/composer Esa-Pekka Salonen created with the help of the London-based Philharmonia Orchestra.
My main influence on this playlist is the order, rather than the selection of the pieces.
Where to put Swan Lake?
I felt, the biggest challenge was where to put the over two hours’ worth of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. In my opinion, it had to go either at the end or the beginning of the night.
It is now at the end, so you will hear it from about 9.30 to closing time. Maybe, this is a reason for some, to not leave until the last bar is played, as it surely is a crime to interrupt this wonderfully beautiful ballet. I chose the André Previn recording with the London Symphony Orchestra from 1976, which I bought as a teenager, and is one of four sets of records that I still keep from that time. Not that I own a record player anymore…
Haydn’s symphony no. 6 opens the evening,
Each classical cocktails playlist needs to be roughly 6.5 hours long to cover the opening hours of the Light Lounge. To fit Angelina’s choices, we needed to remove the 3rd movement from Berlioz’ piece.