At my ripe old age, I am finally beginning to develop an appreciation for classical music. Those of you ahead of me on this particular path, what do you consider to be the essential pieces out there?
What do I need to know to consider my education complete?
See The Essential Music Library: Classical
and perhaps also The Essential Music Library: Contemporary Classical
and The Essential Music Library: Opera/Choral music
Brahms, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Mozart, Bach. Although I favor the latter three, being piano-oriented.
Do you favor orchestral pieces or smaller things like string quartets or piano solo?
Well, for the heck of it I came up with the following list. It’s by no means complete, there’s stuff in there that might not belong and pieces I surely forgot. I started with the baroque era and went until the early 20th century. That’s rather arbitrary. I tried, for the most part, to pick pieces that are both famous and imho excellent. I left out some of my favourites because they were too obscure. However, it’s still a fairly personal list. Some of the items correspond to single works, sometimes fairly short works, other to whole series of pieces. Again, that’s fairly arbitrary, but some of these pieces are better taken as a group – again imho.
So, here’s the list, in very rough chronological order:
Monterverdi – L’Orfeo
Gregorio Allegri – Miserere mei, Deus
Arcangelo Corelli – Variations on La Folia
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi – Stabat Mater
Jean-Philippe Rameau – * Pièces de clavecin en concert*
Domenico Scarlatti – Keyboard Sonatas
Georg Philipp Telemann – Tafelmusik
George Frideric Handel – The Messiah
George Frideric Handel – Water Music
Antonio Vivaldi – The Four Seasons
Antonio Vivaldi – Stabat Mater
Johann Sebastian Bach – Brandenburg Concertos
Johann Sebastian Bach – Goldberg Variations
Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin
Johann Sebastian Bach – Cello suites
Johann Sebastian Bach – The Well-Tempered Clavier
Johann Sebastian Bach – St. Matthew’s Passion
Joseph Haydn – Symphony #45 “Farewell”
Joseph Haydn – String Quartet #61 “Fifths”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony #41 “Jupiter”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Piano Concerto #20
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Great Mass #17 in C minor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Requiem Mass in D minor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Le nozze di Figaro
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Die Zauberflöte
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Piano Sonatas (A lot of music but I just can’t pick one.)
Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony #3 “Eroica”
Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony #5 “Fate”
Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony #6 “Pastorale”
Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony #9
Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano Concerto #5 “Emperor”
Ludwig van Beethoven – Grosse Fugue
Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano Sonata #8 “Pathétique”
Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano Sonata #14 “Moonlight”
Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano Sonata #23 “Appasionata”
Ludwig van Beethoven – Romance for violin and orchestra
Franz Schubert – Winterreise
Franz Schubert – Symphony #9
Franz Schubert – Piano impromptus
Frédéric Chopin – Polonaises
Frédéric Chopin – Nocturnes
Frédéric Chopin – Preludes
Frédéric Chopin – Waltzes
Gabriel Fauré – Pavane
Gabriel Fauré – Masques et Bergamasques
Felix Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto
Felix Mendelssohn – Songs without words
Niccolò Paganini – 24 caprices for violin
Giacomo Puccini – La Bohème
Giacomo Puccini – La Tosca
Sergei Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto #3
Sergei Rachmaninoff – Piano Sonata #2
Ottorino Respighi – The Pines of Rome
Gioachino Rossini – The Barber of Seville
Gioachino Rossini – William Tell
Camille Saint-Saëns – Symphony #3
Camille Saint-Saëns – The Carnival of the Animals
Robert Schumann – Kinderszenen
Robert Schumann – Kreisleriana
Bedřich Smetana – * The Moldau*
Johann Strauss II – Waltzes
Hector Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique
Franz Liszt – Years of Pilgrimage
Franz Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsodies
Franz Liszt – Symphonic Poems
Richard Strauss – * Also sprach Zarathustra*
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Swan Lake
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony #6 “Pathetique”
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto #1
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – *Violin Concerto *
Edvard Grieg – Peer Gynt
Richard Wagner – Tristan and Isolde
Richard Wagner – The Ring of the Nibelung
Claude Debussy – La Mer
Claude Debussy – Images
Claude Debussy – Preludes for piano
Claude Debussy – Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Maurice Ravel – Gaspard de la nuit
Maurice Ravel – Jeux d’eau
Maurice Ravel – La Valse
Maurice Ravel – Bolero
Maurice Ravel – Piano concerto for the left hand
Maurice Ravel – Piano concerto in G
Béla Bartók – String Quartets
Béla Bartók – Cantata Profana
Arnold Schoenberg – Verklärte Nacht
Gustav Mahler – Symphony #1
Gustav Mahler – Symphony #8
Gustav Mahler – Das Lied von der Erde
Sergei Prokofiev – Piano Concerto #3
Sergei Prokofiev – Toccata in D minor
Modest Mussorgsky/Maurice Ravel – Pictures at an Exhibition
Igor Stravinsky – Firebird
Igor Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring
Igor Stravinsky – Pulcinella
Alexander Scriabin – Piano Sonatas
Gustav Holst – The Planets
I came in to suggest this. The Planets is a great place to dive into classical music because: 1) it’s relatively recent as compared with stuff like Mozart and the like, and thus feels a tad more similar to modern symphonic music; 2) speaking of which, if you are a fan of movies and have ever found yourself digging some of the more “epic” scores, you’ll hear some influences for those in The Planets, particularly WRT some of John Williams’ scores; 3) it’s a good collection of different moods and rhythms, so it never gets boring.
Also - I might get flamed for this but whatev - you might consider getting a hold of the soundtrack to either Fantasia or its sequel Fantasia 2000. A lot of classical music experts despise the Fantasias because they find the arrangements used to be bastardizations of the represented pieces, but they’re still pretty good samplers of various styles and eras of orchestral music. If you like any of the works, you can always track down full versions of them elsewhere.
If I was pressed to suggest one “starter” piece of classical music to a neophyte… Dvorák’s Symphony no. 9 “From The New World”
Classical proportions and structure; Romantic depth, power and emotions… and one great tune after another.
Depending on how much of yourself you want to invest in this, it may be important to research a little to help insure that you are getting the right exposure to the music as well. Let’s take Vivaldi (one of my personal favorites–and Bach’s inspiration as well) for example. The Four Seasons is a fabulous work that despite having a small to medium musician count requirement to play it (and no purcussionist), is an enormously powerful experience It really isn’t enough that someone recommends The Four Seasons to you. It would benefit you a great deal to get a recording that represents the work as accurately as possible.
With so many recordings of this work, the odds of you getting a good example of it are slim if you just walk into a music store and pick up the first CD you find. Many composers imbue so much of themselves in the work, that the true nature of the piece can easily get distorted (I’m looking at Bernstein’s Mahler as a good example) with two different recordings of the same work being a very likely outcome. For The Four Seasons, I find that more often than not, a bad harpsichord player is what ruins most recordings I’ve heard. After that, the performance of the soloist is typically rushed beyond his/her ability to control their instrument and the solo parts are without texture and weak.
For me, Ozawa’s Four Seasons with Joseph Silverstein on the Telarc label is about as definitive as there is ever going to be. Silverstein’s playing is almost without flaw and the Ozawa combination with the Boston Symphony backing their play makes for a wonderful finished work. I have yet to find a better performance at such high quality. Silverstein’s 1742 Guarneri del Gesù violin is fifth gear, and pops with plenty of texture.
I also like Anne-Sophie Mutter’s version on the EMI label. Very controlled performance by a young Mutter who only struggles briefly to keep from being overcome by the orchestra.
Hell, I even like Nigel Kennedy’s version (I know I’ll get called on this one). He plays it fast, but he never loses control of it and he truly is a talanted musician.
At any rate, you should ask around or research comments on various sites before investing yourself too deeply into a single artist. You might find that there is more there to be discovered than can be found in just a single interpretation and that is part of what makes classical music so wonderful.
For organ works that span the spectrum: Peter Hurford “Toccata & Fugue”. (I can’t bring up an Amazon link at the moment.) To blow your mind and speakers: Ein Straussfest.
Man, I hate it when people have to empy their whole CD collection into these kinds of threads.
I’ll suggest the 3rd and 6th Brandenburg concerto, JS Bach, as being essential to me
All of the above, & might I suggest one or two others? (1) Rimsky-Korsakov’s Schererazade. Another personal favorite is Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Spring. The latter is by an American and is from the 20th century. One other favorite of mine is Dvorak’s New World Symphony.
One last suggestion: Gershwin’s Symphony in Blue. Wonderful Stuff
Love, Phil
That’s only a small sample of my CD collection (and truth be told, I don’t have CDs of some of the stuff on that list.) The thing, though, is that we’re talking about 300 years worth of music. The question was what are the “essential” pieces. I suppose I could make an effort and remove a few items, but in my opinion you simply need that many pieces to provide a representative sample of what’s out there.
yeah, and a year to give your list a proper evaluation, not to mention the cost. Not really helpful in my opinion
IIRC that music was used for the introduction to a French animation series I watched as a kid, it stuck with me from an early age.
But neither is just giving a single piece. Say I only gave Bach’s Chaconne. What if one doesn’t like baroque music? Or Bach in particular? Or violin?
A smaller list? Believe it or not, I tried to make mine as small as possible. I actually put more time and thought in it than I should have. There are some choices I can’t defend (why did I leave out Beethoven’s 7th?) but for the most part every item is there for a reason. It’s meant to start the discussion. A few posters felt Dvorak’s New World Symphony should be in there, for instance.
It would actually take more than a year to evaluate the list in-depth, taking various performers into consideration. However, it’s fairly easy to check out individual pieces rapidly to make sure it’s in one’s taste. If you can’t stand classical singing, or harpsichord or bombastic orchestral fanfares, you can easily rapidly cull a lot.
Furthermore, you don’t need to spend a fortune to investigate the music. For instance, for 15$ you can subscribe to the Naxos Music Library for one month and have access to their entire catalogue. Everything on my list is in there. There is also a surprisingly large amount of stuff on Youtube. Here’s the list again, with minor culling, and links (to keep everyone busy for a while):
Monterverdi – *L’Orfeo*
Gregorio Allegri – *Miserere mei, Deus*
Arcangelo Corelli – *Variations on La Folia*
Jean-Philippe Rameau – * Pièces de clavecin en concert*
Domenico Scarlatti – *Keyboard Sonatas*
Georg Philipp Telemann – *Tafelmusik*
George Frideric Handel – *The Messiah*
George Frideric Handel – *Water Music*
Antonio Vivaldi – *The Four Seasons*
Antonio Vivaldi – *Stabat Mater*
Johann Sebastian Bach – *Brandenburg Concertos*
Johann Sebastian Bach – *Goldberg Variations*
Johann Sebastian Bach – *Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin*
Johann Sebastian Bach – *St. Matthew’s Passion*
Joseph Haydn – *String Quartet #61 “Fifths”*
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – *Symphony #41 “Jupiter”*
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – *Piano Concerto #20*
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – *Requiem Mass in D minor*
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – *Die Zauberflöte*
Ludwig van Beethoven – *Symphony #5 “Fate”*
Ludwig van Beethoven – *Symphony #6 “Pastorale”*
Ludwig van Beethoven – *Symphony #9*
Ludwig van Beethoven – *Piano Concerto #5 “Emperor”*
Ludwig van Beethoven – *Piano Sonata #8 “Pathétique”*
Ludwig van Beethoven – *Piano Sonata #14 “Moonlight”*
Ludwig van Beethoven – *Romance for violin and orchestra*
Franz Schubert – *Winterreise*
Franz Schubert – *Piano impromptus*
Frédéric Chopin – *Polonaises*
Frédéric Chopin – *Preludes*
Gabriel Fauré – *Pavane*
Felix Mendelssohn – *Violin Concerto*
Niccolò Paganini – *24 caprices for violin*
Giacomo Puccini – *La Tosca*
Sergei Rachmaninoff – *Piano Concerto #3*
Sergei Rachmaninoff – *Piano Sonata #2*
Gioachino Rossini – *The Barber of Seville*
Gioachino Rossini – *William Tell*
Camille Saint-Saëns – *The Carnival of the Animals*
Robert Schumann – *Kinderszenen*
Robert Schumann – *Kreisleriana*
Bedřich Smetana – * The Moldau*
Johann Strauss II – *Waltzes*
Franz Liszt – *Hungarian Rhapsodies*
Richard Strauss – *Also sprach Zarathustra*
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – *Swan Lake*
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – *The Nutcracker*
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – *Piano Concerto #1*
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – *Violin Concerto*
Edvard Grieg – *Peer Gynt*
Antonin Dvorak – New World Symphony
Richard Wagner – *The Ring of the Nibelung*
Claude Debussy – *La Mer*
Claude Debussy – *Preludes for piano*
Claude Debussy – *Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune*
Maurice Ravel – *Jeux d’eau*
Maurice Ravel – *La Valse*
Maurice Ravel – *Bolero*
Maurice Ravel – *Piano concerto for the left hand*
Arnold Schoenberg – *Verklärte Nacht*
Gustav Mahler – *Symphony #1*
Gustav Mahler – *Das Lied von der Erde*
Sergei Prokofiev – *Piano Concerto #2* (Which is the one I meant.)
Sergei Prokofiev – *Toccata in D minor*
Modest Mussorgsky/Maurice Ravel – *Pictures at an Exhibition*
Igor Stravinsky – *The Rite of Spring*
Gustav Holst – *The Planets*
I also came in to recommend Dvořák’s ‘New World’. Also, you should give Eric Satie a try as well as Górecki’s ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’. Górecki is more of a modern classic, though, quite recent, and also REALLY FUCKING DEPRESSING. Only to be played when absolutely NOT suicidal. But beautiful, nonetheless. So thanks for starting this thread, and jovan thanks for listing all those things, I’m definitely going to try some of those links!
In your opinion, does this really make such a difference? I always sort of thought that that was more pompousness than actually different levels of quality. But I’m definitely willing to have this view corrected if needs be.
In my opinion, hell yeah.
Sometimes, it’s a subtle and hard to define difference. One version might seems to lack, or have, an elusive “something”. Other times, it’s almost day and night. In the extreme case, instrumentation might actually be different. Baroque music played on period instruments and modern ones sounds very different. Sometimes some instruments are substituted for others, most often piano for harpsichord. Tempo often makes an easily noticeable difference. Mostly, though, it’s the myriad of choices a performer has to make that makes or breaks an interpretation. Anyone who’s played an instrument knows it’s essentially impossible to play exactly the same way twice.
Let’s compare Chopin’s Polonaise #6 “Heroic” played by three of the best pianists ever:
Vladimir Horowitz
Arthur Rubinstein
Martha Argerich
I honestly don’t know about you but to me, these versions sound markedly different with Horowitz’ being the most eccentric. They’re all very good, though.
I found this pretty good video also:
A Comparison of Four Interpretations of Bach’s BWV 871a
I’m glad to see Scriabin’s disappeared from Jovan’s mostly-agreeable list 
…I feel that there’s just a few essential ones which have been omitted:
I strongly feel the list should begin a little earlier, at least with Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli.
Sibelius: probably the second symphony is the best starter with him. (While on the topic of symphonies, Tchaikovsky should surely be represented with one rather than two ballets?)
Other 20th-century must-hears are Britten’s War Requiem and Shostakovich’s fifth symphony and eighth string quartet.
And SURELY the Beethoven violin concerto rather than the romance?!?!
A great introduction to much of this music is these BBC radio programmes.
Don’t forget “Danse Macabre” by Saint-Saens.
I don’t know if we want to “classify” P.A. Grainger in here—Irish folk stuff for winds.
Elgar’s Enigma variations (esp Nimrod IX).
Richard Wagner…lots, like Valkyrie for starters.
Brahms…Academic Fest Ovt
Grieg…Hall of the Mtn King
Beethoven’s 9th (ode to joy)
Bach/Toccata and Fugue in Dm
Pachelbel/Canon in D
(Someone correct me on composers)
Puccini/Cuando m’en vo soletta per la via (sp?)
Bizet/March of the Toreadors
Tarantella
Hard to say what OP’s tastes will run toward.
ETA Tchaikovsky Nutcracker, of course.
Hey, I actually like Scriabin, but in retrospect, I had doubts about his place in the canon. I suppose since late Russian romantics are already well represented he’s not necessarily essential.
When I said I surely forgot someone, I probably meant Palestrina. You’re right he should be in there. So should Sibelius, probably. In this case, the omission was intentional: I’m not familiar enough with his oeuvre to choose pieces of his.
I had big problems drawing the 20th-century line. If we’re to exclude modernists than Stravinsky probably shouldn’t be in there also. After all, if The Rite of Spring is in why not Varèse’s Amériques?
No, the Romance. Why? Because I don’t like Beethoven’s violin concerto. :eek: De gustibus…
I’d also like to change Beethoven’s 3rd to his 7th, the first is somewhat more famous but the second is actually my favourite.
As for Tchaikovsky’s ballets, I feel both are famous enough that they belong. I didn’t mean to remove the symphony from the second list, I just didn’t bother looking for a sample.