This was originally posted as a top 10 on the DMDB Facebook page on 2/21/10 and then expanded to a top 50 on 5/2/2011. This list was determined by an aggregate of more than 30 classical-music-focused, best-of lists combined with the works’ standings in the overall Dave’s Music Database. Here’s the top classical works (which includes operas, symphonies, concertos, etc.) according to the DMDB. Note: most of these are considered “albums” based on their lengths. Those works noted with an asterisk (*) are shorter pieces and not considered album-length works.
Check out other best-of-genre/category lists here.
Composer Name of Work (year composition was finished)
1. George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, & Dubose Heyward Porgy and Bess (1935)
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Don Giovanni (opera, 1787)
3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) (1786)
4. Richard Wagner Der Ring Des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle) (opera, 1848-1874)
5. Claudio Monteverdi L’Orfeo (Orpheus) (opera, 1607)
6. Johann Sebastian Bach Goldberg Variations (1741)
7. Richard Wagner Tristan Und Isolde (opera, 1857-59)
8. Georges Bizet Carmen (opera, 1873-74)
9. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) (1791)
10. Giacomo Puccini Tosca (opera, 1900)
11. Gioacchino Rossini Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) (opera, 1816)
12. Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 (1875)
13. Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons (1725)
14. Henry Purcell Dido and Aeneas (1689)
15. Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonatas (32) (1795-1822)
16. George & Ira Gershwin An American in Paris (classical soundtrack, 1951)
17. Giacomo Puccini La Bohème (The Bohemian Life) (opera, 1896, performed 2/1/1896)
18. Giuseppe Verdi La Traviata (The Fallen Woman) (1853)
19. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 (1808)
20. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 7 (1812)
21. Giacomo Puccini Turandot (1926)
22. George Friedrich Handel Messiah (1741)
23. Giuseppe Verdi Aida (opera, 1871)
24. Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina Missa Papae Marcelli (Pope Marcellus Mass) (1562)
25. Johann Sebastian Bach Cello Suites (1717-23)
26. Ludwig van Beethoven Fidelio (1805)
27. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (1824)
28. Giuseppe Verdi Rigoletto (1851)
29. Modest Mussorgsky Tableaux d'une Exposition (Pictures at an Exhibition) (1874)
30. Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg Concertos (1719-21)
31. Claudio Monteverdi Vespers of the Blessed Virgin (1610)
32. Vincenzo Bellini Norma (1831)
33. Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) (1911)
34. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Cosí Fan Tutte (Thus Do They All) (1790)
35. Alban Berg Wozzeck (1922)
36. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) (1781)
37. Igor Stravinsky Le Sacre Du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) (ballet, 1913)
38. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Requiem Mass in D minor (1791)
39. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concertos (27) (1773-1791)
40. Gaetano Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor (1911)
41. Johann Sebastian Bach Mass in B Minor (1733-1749)
42. Giacomo Puccini Madame Butterfly (Madama Butterfly) (1904)
43. Johann Sebastian Bach St. Matthew Passion (1736)
44. Gaetano Donizetti L’Elisir d’Amore (The Elixir of Love) (1873)
45. Thomas Tallis: “Spem in Alium, Motet for 40 Voices” (1570) *
46. George Friedrich Handel Water Music (1717)
47. Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartets (16) (1798-1826)
48. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 (1785)
49. Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major (1806)
50. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 (1785)
51. Giuseppe Verdi Otello (1887)
52. Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor” (1811)
53. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 6 “Pastorale” (1808)
54. Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin (1879)
55. Richard Wagner Lohengrin (1850)
56. Modest Mussorgsky Boris Godunov (1873)
57. Giuseppi Verdi Il Trovatore (The Troubador) (1853)
58. Richard Wagner Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg (The Master-Singers of Nuremburg) (1868)
59. Johann Pachelbel “Canon in D major” (1694) *
60. Gioacchino Rossini Guillaume Tell (William Tell) (1829)
61. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E-flat “Sinfonia Eroica” (1804)
62. Hector Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique (1830)
63. Claude Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande (1902)
64. Pietro Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) (1890)
65. Giuseppe Verdi Don Carlos (1867)
66. Rugerro Leoncavallo Pagliacci (The Clowns) (1892)
67. Charles Gounod Faust (1859)
68. Johann Sebastian Bach “Toccata and Fugue for Organ in D minor” (1708) *
69. Richard Wagner Der Fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman) (1843)
70. Giusepppe Verdi Falstaff (1893)
71. Giuseppe Verdi Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar) (1842)
72. Richard Wagner Tannhauser (1845)
73. Béla Bartók The String Quartets (1908-39)
74. Jules Massenet Manon (1884)
75. Richard Strauss Salome (1905)
76. Antonin Dvorák Symphony No. 9 in E minor (“From the New World”) (1893)
77. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G minor (1788)
78. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter” (1788)
79. Lord Benjamin Britten Peter Grimes (1945)
80. Kurt Weill Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) (1928)
81. Richard Wagner Parsifal (1882)
82. Franz Liszt Piano Sonata in B Minor (1853)
83. Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 4 (1885)
84. Béla Bartók Concerto for Orchestra (1944)
85. Amilcare Ponchielli La Gioconda (1876)
86. Camille Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila (Samson and Delilah) (1877)
87. Richard Strauss Elektra (1909)
88. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A Major (1791)
89. Johann Strauss II Die Fledermaus (The Bat) (1874)
90. Giuseppe Verdi Messa Da Requiem (Requiem Mass) (1874)
91. Franz Schubert Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished”) (1822)
92. Igor Stravinsky Pétrouchka (aka “Petrushka”) (ballet, 1911)
93. Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra (1896)
94. Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 in B minor (“Pathetique”) (1893)
95. Franz Schubert Piano Quintet in A Major (“Trout”) (1814)
96. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) (1787)
97. Sergei Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor (1901)
98. Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring (ballet, 1944)
99. Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D major (“Titan”) (1884-88)
100. Antonin Dvorák Cello Concerto in B minor (1895)
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First posted 2/21/2010; last updated 1/30/2022. | 
Great top! When I write college essay I always listen to classical music for inspiration. Most of these songs are known to me and many of them are loved.
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