Classical music: Are you listening, Richard Simmons? Classical music is great for exercising and improves our health. It lowers blood pressure, reduces heart rate, lowers stress and makes us more relaxed. And guess which piece by which composer does all that best? Plus, there is a FREE trombone recital, with two U.S. premieres, at the UW-Madison tonight.

ALERT: TONIGHT at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, guest trombonist Dylan Chmura-Moore (below), who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, will perform a FREE recital fetauring “Subadobe” by Frederik Högberg; “Last Judgment” by Frederic Rzewski; “Saturniana” by Miguel Basim Chuaqui; the U.S. premiere of “BaKaTaKaBaKa” by Daniel Moreira; and the U.S. premiere of “Rouse” by Neal Farwell.

By Jacob Stockinger

Talk about Sweatin’ to the Oldies!!!!

Campy fitness guru Richard Simmons (below) has nothing on Longhairs! And Golden Oldie Hits from the Sixties have nothing on Romantic-era composers from 200 years ago.

Can listening to classical music improve your health? And which part of which piece by which composer might do that the best? Check this out.

According to researchers and experts, it seems that classical music can indeed reduce your blood pressure and heart rate (or pulse).

So you might just want think about bringing some sweatpants, a tank top and workouts shoes to the upcoming concert by the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below) on Feb. 8-10 when the MSO will perform the less frequently heard Fourth Symphony (the annotated fourth and final movement is in a YouTube video at the bottom) by Beethoven as well as Ravel’s “Rhapsodie Espagnole” and Prokofiev’s rarely heard “Sinfonia Concertante” with cello soloist Alban Gerhardt.

Putting the salutary effects of musical beauty aside – and The Ear doesn’t think that any beauty should ever be put aside — you just might ask: Why and how does classical I music improve health?

Go to this link and see what the latest scientific research has to say about classical music and human health – including which pieces by which composers seem the ideal choice, and what criteria you  should use to personalize your choices of classical music to listen to reap health benefits:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2265657/Why-classical-music-inspire-exercise-Relaxing-qualities-reduce-heart-rate-blood-pressure.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

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Posted in Classical music
Tags: Beethoven, classicalmusic, Daniel Moreira, Frederic Rzewski, Health, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Maurice Ravel, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Oldies, Richard Simmons, Romanticism, Sinfonia Concertante, University of Wisconsin–Madison, YouTube