Halloween Playlist

There’s a chill in the air…and it’s not just the weather.

It’s Halloween, so what better reason to explore some of the darkest recesses of the classical (and non classical) repertoire?

We asked Philharmonia musicians and staff for their top tracks suitable for Halloween – music to shock, send a shiver down your spine, or conjure up images of ghosts and ghouls…

Listen to the playlist below and read on to find out who chose each track and why.

Solo listening is not advised…

Carl Orff – Carmina Burana
Chosen by: Santuu-Matias Rouvali, Principal Conductor
“somehow it is scary!“

Dimitri Shostakovich – Allegro Molto from the Chamber Symphony
Chosen by: Suzanne Doyle, Director of Concerts & Projects
“I think there’s something super spooky about all the violins playing high on the G string with the thudding bass notes below. It’s terrifying and electric both to listen to and play.”

Anton Bruckner – Symphony No.9, second movement
Chosen by: Eunsley Park, First Violin
“I think it’s the perfect thing to play to someone who thinks classical music is ‘soothing background music’. It shatters that stereotype completely! Bruckner was obsessed with death and this scherzo is demonic, ferocious and super thrilling – a bit Rock n’ roll , truly scary music!!”

Igor Stravinsky – The Sacrificial Dance from The Rite of Spring
Chosen by: Suzanne Doyle, Director of Concerts & Projects
“This is such a visceral work with incredible rhythm and at this particular moment the scene is of a terrifying ancient Pagan ritual where a young girl dances herself to death for the arrival of Spring.”

Dimitri Shostakovich – Symphony No.10, Allegro
Chosen by: William Mendelowitz, Director of Development
“Full of suspense and the only time I’ve been given a scare when we played it live”

Camille Saint-Saens – Danse Macabre
Chosen by: Thorben Dittes, Chief Executive
“Unforgettable memories of a string orchestra dressed as skeletons and witches playing this as part of an outdoor (!) spooktacular in the pouring rain on the Ness Islands in Inverness in November”

Malcolm Arnold – Concerto for 2 Violins, First Movement
Chosen by: Nuno Carapina, Second Violin
“very well written and with incredible atmosphere”

Franz Schubert – Der Dopplegänger
Chosen by: Saamkyu Smart, Marketing Assistant
“Eerie and dramatic – perfect for Halloween! Seeing your own Doppelgänger implies death and you can hear the point in the music when the singer realises what they are looking at.”

Maurice Ravel – La Valse
Chosen by: Simon Bolus, Data and Insight Manager
“La Valse always sounds a bit weird and macabre (to me at least!)”

Leonard Bernstein – Chichester Psalms
Chosen by: Katie Vickers, Senior Marketing Manager
“Genuinely shocking moment (3:23 in this recording) in the gooooorgeous middle movement of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms – the boy treble has been singing Psalm 23, ‘The Lord is my shepherd’, all very lovely, and the choir interrupt with Psalm 2 ‘Why do the nations rage?'”

Edvard Grieg – In The Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt
Chosen by: Marina Vidor, Senior Producer
“It’s terrifying in a cinematic way as it builds up. It gets under your skin and you can really imagine the trolls and other mysterious creatures in the dark. This is the piece that first introduced my toddler to the concept of monsters and she loves it, along with the whole Peer Gynt suite. But this movement gets requested on repeat!”

Georges Bizet – March to the Scaffold from Symphonie Fantastique
Chosen by: Katie Vickers, Senior Marketing Manager
“The idea of a drug-induced nightmare in which you witness your own execution gives me the shivers! Keep listening for the very Halloween-y Witches Sabbath, which is the next movement – not actually as scary in my opinion though, at least until nearer the end – some bits sound like the witches are having quite a lot of fun.”

Thom Yorke – Suspirium
Chosen by: Saamkyu Smart, Marketing Assistant
“The whole soundtrack is great but this one is both beautiful and unnerving”

UNKLE & Thom Yorke – Rabbit in your Headlights
Chosen by: William Norris, Digital Marketing Consultant
“As I’m the one compiling this playlist my choices have ended up being influenced by others. Thom Yorke has a very ‘particular’ voice, one that lends itself to being haunting and melancholy, so we have a second dose of him here, in a track from the album ‘Psyence Fiction’ which is generally pretty unsettling and other-worldy”

Bernd Alois Zimmerman – Tratto from Die Soldaten
Chosen by: William Norris, Digital Marketing Consultant
“A short track from Zimmerman’s nightmarish opera, Die Soldaten. It’s often considered ‘impossible’ to stage, requiring sixteen singing and ten speaking roles, a 100 piece orchestra, scenes that run simultaneously, plus film projections, recordings and sound effects of marching, engines and screams. English National Opera performed it in 1996, and I was both blown away and terrified by it”

Bela Bartók – Music for Strings Percussion and Celeste
Chosen by: William Norris, Digital Marketing Consultant
“Inspired by our last track, this featured on the soundtrack of another famously disturbing film – The Shining – and is appropriately unsettling and eerie.”

Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells
Chosen by: Saamkyu Smart, Marketing Assistant
“it’s iconic for its use in The Exorcist”