Classical for Children - Move it! Music from the sled to the steam engine

How does a flying bumblebee sound, musically? That's what a Russian composer by the tongue-twisting name of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov imagined. Quite different is the American steam locomotive called Pacific 231. It only gradually gets going, but then it's all the more powerful – that one was composed by Arthur Honegger.

But you can also race forward with your fingers: for example, on the piano. The Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev was a brilliant pianist. With his piano music, you have to be careful that you don’t break your fingers!

After that, the playlist races on: with Robert Schumann on the hobbyhorse and playing a game of tag. With Tchaikovsky again on the railway. With Chopin in a race against the stopwatch – but no one can play the Minute Waltz in a minute. And at the Brazilian Carnival, where everything turns in circles.

And because it's winter at the moment, there are boisterous sleigh rides in between – six altogether. Dingalingaling!

If you’re still able to catch your breath at the end, you can hear something pretty neat. The Greek composer Yannis Xenakis wanted to create music quite different from that of earlier composers. His modern piece "Shaar" sounds like a downright insane swarm of bees, or even like attacking planes. What you hear in it, you can decide individually as a listener – and you can bet that you’ve never heard music like this before!