Back to School Quiz

September means a new school year. And for the classical blogosphere it kicks off with a new quiz from "Soho the Dog".

1. What's the best quotation of a piece of music within another piece of music?

Definitely the acidic handling of a Shostakovich's 7th in Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra".

2. Name the best classical crossover album ever made.

Wendy Carlos's Switched-On Bach.

3. Great piece with a terrible title.

Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum

4. If you had to choose: Benjamin Britten or Michael Tippett?

Benjamin Britten. The "Scottish Ballade" alone seals the deal for me.

5. Who's your favorite spouse of a composer/performer? (Besides your own.)

"My father made me neurotic and my husband made me crazy"
- Wanda Toscanini Horowitz

6. Terrible piece with a great title?

Daugherty's "Le tombeau de Liberace"

7. What's the best use of a classical warhorse in a Hollywood movie?

Love the use of the Delibes' "Flower Duet" in Five Corners. Or how about Mahler in Herzog's "Lessons of Darkness"?

There are so many great films with effective use of classical music it's not really possible to pin it down to one.

8. Name the worst classical crossover album ever made.

Has Rufus Wainwright finished his "opera" yet? No? Then put me down for "Saturday Night Fiedler". Why? Four words: "Night on Disco Mountain". Nuf said.

9. If you had to choose: Sam Cooke or Marvin Gaye?

Sam Cooke.

10. Name a creative type in a non-musical medium who would have been a great composer.

Gustave Flaubert.

EXTRA CREDIT:

For opera nerds: If you had to choose:
a) Lawrence Tibbett or Robert Merrill?
b) Amelita Galli-Curci or Lily Pons?

a) Robert Merrill
b) Lily Pons.

For early-music nerds: Name a completely and hopelessly historically uninformed recording that you nevertheless love.

Edwin Fischer's WTC.