Hard Rock A La Mozart

Posted: 10/28/2017

If you grew up on Hard Rock a la Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple and so many other bands you might be forgiven when you sneered at classic music of which you knew little back then.

However, I never forgot that Deep Purple and other hard rock stars also produced albums with classical music using even entire orchestras. Or that the unforgettable lead singer of Queen, Freddy Mercury, was capable of singing like an opera singer and who e.g. was accompanied by a Spanish soprano singer on his Barcelona album.

Then there was the earworm hit song by Chuck Berry “Roll over Beethoven” (1956). The Electric Light Orchestra in 1973 remixed this song by including movements from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.

Beethoven certainly did not roll over. When you hear e.g. the opening of Mozart’s 29th Symphony or Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 26 you realize that young Amadeus was a hard rock star as well.