Best Classical Composition

Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor, WoO 59, commonly known as "Für Elise," is a solo piano piece composed by Ludwig van Beethoven around 1810. The music is structured in a rondo form and is immediately recognized by its recurring, rolling right-hand motif. It was not published until 1867, decades after the...

Alfred Schnittke's Violin Concerto No. 4 is a large-scale concerto for solo violin and orchestra, completed in 1984 and first performed in 1985 by its dedicatee, violinist Gidon Kremer. The work uses Schnittke's polystylistic language, placing tonal references, dissonant writing, theatrical contrast...

Song for Athene is a choral elegy by British composer John Tavener, written in 1993 in memory of Athene Hariades. It combines words drawn from Shakespeare's Hamlet with phrases from the Orthodox funeral service, assembled by Mother Thekla, and is typically performed by an unaccompanied choir over a...

Per Nørgård's Symphony No. 3 is a two-movement work for orchestra with chorus and solo voices, composed between 1972 and 1975. Its musical organization draws extensively on Nørgård's infinity series, a self-generating sequence that produces related melodic patterns across multiple levels, while the...

Michael Tippett's Symphony No. 2 is a four-movement orchestral work completed in the 1950s and first performed in 1957. It combines sharply profiled rhythms, contrapuntal writing, lyrical passages, and a formal design that draws on established symphonic and concerto-like procedures without simply re...

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13, is commonly known by the subtitle Winter Dreams. He began writing it in 1866, soon after moving to Moscow, and revised it before later performances; the first version was premiered in Moscow in 1868. The four-movement work uses recurring...

"Maskarade" is a comic opera in three acts composed by the Danish composer Carl Nielsen, with a premiere in 1906. The libretto, based on a comedy by Ludvig Holberg, is written in Danish and follows the romantic and comedic exploits of young lovers in 18th-century Copenhagen. The work is distinguishe...

The "Dolly Suite," Op. 56, is a collection of six short pieces for piano four hands composed by Gabriel Fauré between 1893 and 1896. Fauré wrote the pieces for Hélène Bardac, the young daughter of his future wife, and they depict various childhood events and toys. The suite is notable for its gentle...

Amy Beach's Symphony in E minor, Op. 32, commonly called the Gaelic Symphony, is a four-movement orchestral work completed in the 1890s and premiered in Boston in 1896. Beach incorporated melodies influenced by Irish musical traditions within a late Romantic symphonic structure. It is widely identif...

Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches, Op. 39, are a set of five orchestral marches composed between 1901 and 1930; a sixth march was later completed from Elgar's surviving sketches. The first march contains the broad trio melody later fitted with words as "Land of Hope and Glory." In the Uni...

Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Mandolins in G major, RV 532, is an Italian Baroque double concerto that prominently features paired mandolins or guitars as soloists. The piece follows the standard three-movement fast-slow-fast structure, allowing the soloists to engage in contrapuntal dialogue a...

Hans Werner Henze composed his Symphony No. 7 in 1983-84, creating a work that exemplifies his mature orchestral style. Premiered in Berlin under the composer's direction, the three-movement symphony demonstrates Henze's blending of classical forms with modernist techniques, including lyrical approa...

Franz Schubert composed "Ave Maria, D. 839" in 1825 as part of his opus 52, a setting of seven songs based on Walter Scott's epic poem "The Lady of the Lake." Originally titled "Ellen's Third Song," the piece features a German translation of Scott's text about Ellen Douglas. The opening words and re...

"Ave Maria" is a vocal work composed by the French Romantic composer Charles Gounod in the 1850s. Gounod created the piece by superimposing an original lyrical melody and the Latin text of the Hail Mary prayer over Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C major from "The Well-Tempered Clavier." Th...

Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17, is a Romantic orchestral work commonly known by the nickname Little Russian. Tchaikovsky completed the original version in 1872 and later revised the symphony, incorporating Ukrainian folk melodies into several movements. The nickname reflects the wor...

The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace is a major choral work composed by Welsh musician Karl Jenkins, premiered in 2000 as a millennium commission. The composition structurally follows the traditional Catholic mass format but uniquely integrates texts from multiple global religious and historical sources....

Magnus Lindberg's Clarinet Concerto is a contemporary Finnish orchestral work premiered in 2002 by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen. The piece was written specifically for clarinetist Kari Kriikku and is known for its virtuosic demands, rhythmic vitality, and intric...

"Glassworks" is a chamber music album composed by Philip Glass and released in 1982. It was specifically produced to introduce Glass's signature minimalist structures to a broader, mainstream audience. The album consists of six tracks, including "Opening," "Floe," "Facades," and "Closing," performed...

Composed by Ethel Smyth, The Wreckers is an English opera set on the rugged coast of Cornwall, exploring themes of morality and plunder among shipwreckers. Premiering in 1906, it is widely recognized as a significant contribution to early 20th-century British classical music. The opera is particular...

Mourned by the Wind is a 1989 composition for viola and orchestra by Georgian composer Giya Kancheli. Subtitled as a "Liturgy," the piece is an elegiac work that highlights the viola's deeply resonant and mournful capabilities against a slow-moving, cinematic orchestral backdrop. The composition is...

Three Screaming Popes is an orchestral work composed in 1989 by the British contemporary composer Mark-Anthony Turnage. The piece was directly inspired by the series of scream-filled pope portraits painted by 20th-century Irish artist Francis Bacon. The music combines modernist orchestral writing wi...

Philip Glass composed his Symphony No. 3 in 1995 specifically for the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. The work is scored exclusively for a string orchestra, treating the ensemble as a collection of individual, interweaving voices rather than traditional sections. This approach allows the piece to explo...

Pachelbel's Canon and Gigue in D major (P. 37) is a Baroque chamber composition by German composer Johann Pachelbel. The piece consists of two parts: a canon for three violins over a repeating ground bass (the canon), followed by a lively gigue in imitative counterpoint. Composed around 1680-1690, t...

The Triple Concerto in C major, Op. 56, is a composition for violin, cello, piano, and orchestra by Ludwig van Beethoven, completed in 1804. It stands out as the only concerto Beethoven ever composed for multiple solo instruments. The work was dedicated to his patron and student, Archduke Rudolf of...

Gabriel Fauré's Pavane in F-sharp minor, Op. 50, is a short orchestral composition written in 1887 and later arranged with an optional chorus. Named after a slow Renaissance court dance, it unfolds through a restrained recurring melody supported by light, transparent orchestration rather than dramat...

Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7, is a Romantic concerto for solo piano and orchestra composed while she was still a teenager. She began the work in 1833, initially treating its finale as an independent concert piece, and later expanded it into a three-movement concerto. The movemen...

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 3 in D major, Op. 29, was written in 1875. It is the only one of his numbered symphonies in a major key and the only one structured in five movements rather than four. The work's posthumous nickname, Polish, refers to the polonaise character of its finale, not...

Albinoni: Adagio in G minor is the common title of a 1958 composition by Italian musicologist Remo Giazotto for strings and organ. Giazotto presented it as having been developed from a fragment associated with the Venetian composer Tomaso Albinoni, but the alleged manuscript fragment has not been pr...

Adagio in G minor is a 1958 composition for strings and organ published by the Italian musicologist and composer Remo Giazotto. It became associated with the Venetian Baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni because Giazotto presented it as an elaboration of a supposed fragment of an Albinoni work, but the...

Pachelbel's Canon in D major is a Baroque canon by the German composer Johann Pachelbel, probably written around 1690. The original work is scored for three violins and basso continuo, with the instrumental lines entering one after another above a repeating bass pattern and harmonic sequence. It is...