Although by the mid '60s the use of pre-existing classical music in films had already been deployed with sensitivity and humour by such directors as Alexander Mackendrick, Jean-Luc Godard, Pier-Paolo Pasolini, Glauber Rocha, Richard Lester, Ken Russell and Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick was the first to give it a central role in an entire film. 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange used swathes of Also Spake Zarahustra, The Blue Danube Waltz, Ligeti's Lux Aeterna and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to famous dramatic effect, with Kubrick explaining, "Unless you want a pop score, I don't see any reason not to avail yourself of the great orchestral music of the past and present". Coming into vogue after Kubrick, the system offered the director flexibility and control. It was a valid, stylish way of clarifying the underlying emotion of a scene or establish mood; a way to compliment the film narratively, theatrically, structurally and conceptually.
Instrumental classical works or traditional song are featured in A Hard Day's Night, Help!, Privilege, Head, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Lisztomania and Absolute Beginners, and all say something of pop's relationship with the classics. Bowie actually performed the Holst piece live in 1966. Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition was the subject of an adaptation by Emerson Lake and Palmer and was showcased in a fascinating live performance film of the group shot at the Lyceum Ballroom in 1970 (though the film was not given a cinematic release until 1973). ELP's contemporaries, Yes, drew inspiration from Igor Stravinsky and paid homage by using the final movement from The Firebird as introductory music at their concerts from 1972 and for decades on.
During The Beatles' Help! Paul McCartney is miniaturised to the strains of Wagner, while in a dank Chiswick pub cellar, the singing of Beethoven's Ode to Joy saves Ringo from an escaped tiger. In Hal Ashby's black comedy Harold & Maude, Harold is obsessed by death, and likes to stage elaborate fake suicides to get the attention of his distracted mother, including an attempted drowning to Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. During The Godfather, the baptism sequence, interspersed with scenes of the brutal assassinations of the heads of the five families opposing the Corleones is underscored by the intensity of Bach's organ work Passacaglia in C Minor. On a lighter, note, Michael Caine's Harry Palmer during the Ipcress File chooses Mozart to cook by, a musical enthusiasm shared by Jean Seberg, immortalised by Godard in Breathless. These are but a few of the indelible scenes complemented by the classical music featured in this presentation.
Disc 1
1. Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) (1960)-Clarinet Concerto K 622 - Rondo Allegro - W.A. Mozart
2. Billy Liar (1963)-Song of the Clyde - Kenneth McKellar
3. Concerto Symphonique No. 4, Op. 102 - Henry Litolff
4. A Hard Day's Night (1964)=A Nation Once Again - John McCormack
5. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)=Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001: I. Praludium - Bach
6. Black God, White Devil (Deus E O Diabo Na Terra Do Sol) (1964)
7. Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5: Aria (Cantilena) (Bidu Sayao: Soprano) - Heitor Villa-Lobos
8. The Ipcress File (1965)-Serenade No. 13 for Strings in G Major, K. 525 "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik": II. Romance - Mozart
9. The Debussy Film (1965)-Danse Profane - Claude Debussy
10. Help! (1965)-Lohengrin (Prelude to Act III) - Richard Wagner
11. 1812 Overture, Op. 49 (Excerpt) - Tchaikovsky
12. Symphony 9 (Ode to Joy) (Excerpt) - Beethoven
13. Barber of Seville - Overture (Excerpt) - Rossini -
14. Persona (1966)
15. Adagio from Concerto No. 2 in E Major for Violin, Strings and Continuo, BWV 1042 - Bach
16. Seconds (1966)
17. That Old Black Magic - Andre Previn
18. Wrong Box (1966)-Minuet in G - Beethoven
19. Georgy Girl (1966)-Vibration - Tom Dissevelt & Kid Baltan
20. Weekend (1967)-Allegro from Piano Sonata No.18 in D Major, K576 'Hunt' - Mozart
Disc 2
1. Privilege (1967)-Messiah - Handel
2. Interlude (1968)
3. Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 - 3rd Movement (Excerpt) - Rachmaninoff
4. Toby Dammit (1968)-Ruby - Ray Charles
5. The Immortal Story (1968)
6. Gnossiennes No 3 Lent - Erik Satie
7. Trois Morceaux en Forme de Poire No. 6 - Erik Satie
8. Gymnopedies No 2 Lent & Triste - Erik Satie
9. Delius - a Song of Summer (1968)
10. A Song of Summer - Delius
11. Rosemary's Baby (1968)-FUR Elise - Beethoven
12. Head (1968)-Kunstlerleben (Artist's Life), Op.316 - Johann Strauss II
13. The Italian Job (1969)-The British Grenadiers - Wally Stott
14. Midnight Cowboy (1969)-The Last Round-Up - Norman Luboff Choir
15. Tristana (1970)-Etude No 12 in C Minor, Op 10 'Revolutionary' - Chopin
16. Five Easy Pieces (1970)-Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue - Bach
17. Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue - Bach
18. Straw Dogs (1971)-Caro Nome from Rigoletto - Verdi
19. Solaris (1971)
20. Prelude BWV639 'Ich Ruf' Zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ' - Bach
21. Well Tempered Clavier - Book II : Prelude & Fugue No. 12 in F Minor - Bach
Disc 3
1. A Clockwork Orange (1971)-Symphony No. 9 - Second Movement - Ludwig Van Beethoven
2. Harold & Maude (1971)-Piano Concerto No. 1 (Excerpt) - Tchaikovsky
3. The Godfather (1972)-Passacaglia in C Minor, BMV 582 - Bach
4. Pictures at An Exhibition (Modest Mussorgsky) (1970-1973)
5. Promenade - Mussorgsky
6. Gnomus- Mussorgsky
7. The Hut on Fowl's Legs (The Hut of Baba Yaga) - Mussorgsky
8. Yes - Yes Songs (1973)
9. The Firebird - Collapse of Kashchei's Palace and Dissolution of All Enchantments / Reanimation of the Petrified Prisoners / General Rejoicing - Igor Stravinsky
10. The Man Who Fell to Earth (1975)-Planets : Mars - Holst
11. Lisztomania (1975)-Harmonie Poetiques Et Religieuses: No. 7, Funerailles - Liszt
12. Annie Hall (1977)-Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K551 'Jupiter' - Molto Allegro - Mozart
13. Pink Floyd : The Wall (1982)-The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot - Vera Lynn
14. Absolute Beginners (1986)-The Sleepy Lagoon - Eric Coates
15. Withnail & I (1987)-Piano Sonata No. 21 in B Flat Major, D960 - Third Movement - Schubert
16. Topsy Turvy (1999)-Three Little Maids from School Are We (From the Mikado) - Gilbert & Sullivan
17. Peter Warlock - Some Little Joy (2005)
18. Sweet and Twenty - Peter Warlock
19. Rest Sweet Nymphs - Peter Warlock
20. Sleep - Peter Warlock
21. Lambert & Stamp (2014)-Dance for the Followers of Leo (From Horoscope Ballet Suite) - Constant Lambert
