Here’s The Music That Won A Gold Medal In Our Classical Winter Games
The results are in, and the medal winners have been selected!
We asked our listeners to vote for their favorite music this month as part of our inaugural Classical Winter Games. Hundreds of people responded -- and told us which pieces deserved to win this set of eight unique musical competitions.
Listeners picked the most sweeping Olympic fanfare, the fastest music in honor of speed skating and the most stunning figure-skating music. We'll salute the winners in a daylong "medal ceremony" on CPR Classical this Friday.
See which pieces earned a medal in each category, and relive the music from our Classical Winter Games with the Spotify playlist at the bottom of this post.
Olympic Fanfare (best fanfare)
- Gold: "Summon the Heroes" (John Williams)
- Silver: "The Olympic Spirit" (John Williams)
- Bronze: "Parade of Charioteers" from "Ben Hur" (Miklos Rozsa)
Ski Jump (best use of silence)
- Gold: Adagio For Strings (Samuel Barber)
- Silver: Fifth Symphony, Third Movement (Jean Sibelius)
- Bronze: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Claude Debussy)
Speed Skating (fastest piece)
- Gold: Flight of the Bumblebee (Rimsky-Korsakov)
- Silver: Overture from "Russlan and Ludmilla" (Mikhail Glinka)
- Bronze: Galop from "The Comedians" Suite (Dmitry Kabalevsky)
Skiing (best run)
- Gold: "The Snow Maiden: Dance of the Tumblers" (Rimsky-Korsakov)
- Silver: "Slalom" (Carter Pann)
- Bronze: "Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto," Second Movement (He Zhanhao, Chen Gang)
Bobsled (best of The Three B's)
- Gold: Fifth Symphony, First Movement (Ludwig van Beethoven)
- Silver: Toccata and Fugue in D minor (J.S. Bach)
- Bronze: Brahms' Lullaby
Snowboarding (best musical stunts)
- Gold: "Queen of the Night" Aria (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
- Silver: Tarantella (Franz Liszt)
- Bronze: Scherzo-Tarantelle (Wieniawski)
Ice Hockey (battle on ice)
- Gold: "Mars" from "The Planets" (Gustav Holst)
- Silver: "O Fortuna" from "Carmina Burana" (Carl Orff)
- Bronze: "Sabre Dance" (Khachaturian)
Figure Skating (poetry on ice)
- Gold: "The Swan" from "Carnival of the Animals" (Saint-Saens)
- Silver: "Habanera" from "Carmen" (Georges Bizet)
- Bronze: "Daphnis and Chloe" Suite No. 2 (Maurice Ravel)
