Since March, my preferred form of exercise (swimming) has been mostly unavailable. Between March and July, I sampled a different celebrity exercise video from Youtube, every Sunday. My rule was that the celebrity had to be famous for doing something other than exercise videos (so no Joe Wicks or Rosemary Conley).

However there is always an exception to the rule: Mr Motivator. After I ran out of celebs in July, I found myself returning to his mini-aerobic workout, ‘A Touch of Motivation’ as a perky alternative to my 10 minutes of morning yoga.

Mr Motivator - A Touch of Motivation

Look at that bumbag. Incredible.

I assume the title is a riff on Walter Murphy’s amazing disco banger “A Fifth of Beethoven”, because the soundtrack to this is Hooked on Classics, a 10 minute megamix of classical hits with a thumping beat over the top. I cannot lie that this is a big factor in my repeat viewing.

It’s also useful revision for the University Challenge music round! My heart sinks when Paxo says “you’re going to hear a piece of classical music” but if Mr Motivator can help me at least get the basics right, I can narrow down my wild guesses to something in the right ballpark, then ignore all logic and yell “Berlioz??” at the telly.

Motivational tunes I can confidently identify

I would buzz in for the starter question on these:

  • Rimsky-Korsakov - Flight of the Bumblebee
  • Beethoven - Fifth Symphony
  • Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
  • Beethoven - Ode To Joy
  • Rossini - William Tell Overture
  • Handel - Hallelujah Chorus (it is Handel, right? Gah, maybe I wouldn’t buzz on this one)

Then there’s a bunch of Tchaikovsky bankers:

  • 1812 Overture
  • Swan Lake
  • Romeo and Juliet (not a Dire Straits cover)
  • Various Nutcracker stuff I recognise from Fantasia, but couldn’t tell you whether it was the dancing mushrooms or the spinny flowers

Must try harder

Tunes I would hazard a guess at:

  • Trumpet Voluntary by…. Purcell?? (Nope - it’s Clarke. I think I learned this on the recorder in primary school)
  • Let’s call this “Dramatic Piano Music No. 1 by Rachmaninov” (haha oops, apparently this is Grieg)

I gave up and looked up the rest of them. I really should have got Bach’s Toccata in D minor as that was in Fantasia as well (my notes say ‘Tetris B music’, hmm).

I recognised the music for the following, but never knew who they were by or what they were called:

  • Bizet - March of the Toreadors (I thought this was a different bit of the 1812 Overture)
  • Mozart - some random symphony number 23874682746, he’s got way too many of them

Absolutely no chance of getting:

  • Mozart - Marriage of Figaro. Snoozefest.
  • Sibelius - Karelia Suite. Mr M was shouting too loud for me to hear this one, but I don’t think I would have got it anyway.

In summary

I would like to see Mr Motivator do a routine to The Rite of Spring next please.