Classical Works: Top 100

Classical Works: Top 100

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. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 (1808) 2. Richard Wagner The Ring Cycle (Der Ring Des Nibelungen) (opera, 1848-1874) 3. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 7 (1812) 4. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (1824) 5. Antonin Dvorák Symphony No. 9 in E minor (From the New World) (1893) 6. Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons (1725) 7. Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 (1875) 8. George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, & Dubose Heyward Porgy and Bess (1935) 9. Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 in B Minor (“Pathétique”) (1893) 10. Georges Bizet Carmen (opera, 1873-74) 11. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) (1786) 12. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 6 “Pastorale” (1808) 13. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E-flat “Sinfonia Eroica” (1804) 14. Hector Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique (1830) 15. Johann Sebastian Bach Goldberg Variations (1741) 16. Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 4 (1885) 17. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Don Giovanni (opera, 1787) 18. Richard Wagner Tristan Und Isolde (opera, 1857-59) 19. Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg Concertos (1719-21) 20. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G minor (1788) 21. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) (1791) 22. Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor” (1811) 23. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 (1785) 24. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 (1785) 25. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter” (1788) 26. Johann Sebastian Bach Cello Suites (1717-23) 27. Giacomo Puccini La Bohème (The Bohemian Life) (opera, 1896) 28. Giacomo Puccini Tosca (opera, 1900) 29. Gioacchino Rossini Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) (opera, 1816) 30. Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major (1806) 31. George Friedrich Handel Messiah (1741) 32. Franz Schubert Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished”) (1822) 33. Giuseppe Verdi La Traviata (The Fallen Woman) (1853) 34. Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor (1904) 35. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A Major (1791) 36. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Requiem Mass in D minor (1791) 37. Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 in D minor (1937) 38. Franz Schubert Piano Quintet in A Major (“Trout”) (1814) 39. Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 2 in C minor “Resurrection” (1894) 40. Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre Du Printemps) (ballet, 1913) 41. Claudio Monteverdi L’Orfeo (Orpheus) (opera, 1607) 42. Sergei Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor (1901) 43. Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor (1876) 44. Béla Bartók Concerto for Orchestra (1944) 45. Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet No. 14 (1826) 46. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor (1786) 47. Giacomo Puccini Turandot (1926) 48. Giuseppe Verdi Rigoletto (1851) 49. Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet No. 13 (1826) 50. Giuseppe Verdi Aida (opera, 1871) 51. George & Ira Gershwin An American in Paris (classical soundtrack, 1951) 52. Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D major (“Titan”) (1884-88) 53. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in C minor (1786) 54. Franz Schubert Symphony No. 9 in C major (1828) 55. Henry Purcell Dido and Aeneas (1689) 56. Claudio Monteverdi Vespers of the Blessed Virgin (1610) 57. Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet No. 15 (1826) 58. Ludwig van Beethoven Fidelio (1805) 59. Modest Mussorgsky Tableaux d'une Exposition (Pictures at an Exhibition) (1874) 60. Johannes Brahms Violin Concerto in D major (1879) 61. Felix Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor (1845) 62. Edvard Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor (1868) 63. Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina Missa Papae Marcelli (Pope Marcellus Mass) (1562) 64. Johann Sebastian Bach Mass in B Minor (1749) 65. Giacomo Puccini Madame Butterfly (Madama Butterfly) (1904) 66. Antonin Dvorák Cello Concerto in B minor (1895) 67. Vincenzo Bellini Norma (1831) 68. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 38 in D major (1787) 69. Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) (1911) 70. George Friedrich Handel Water Music (1717) 71. Sergei Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor (1909) 72. Franz Josef Haydn String Quartet No. 5 in D major (Largo) (1797) 73. Franz Josef Haydn String Quartet No. 3 in C major (Emperor) (1797) 74. Johann Sebastian Bach St. Matthew Passion (1736) 75. Felix Mendelssohn Octet for Strings in E flat major (1825) 76. Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonatas (32) (1795-1822) 77. Claudio Monteverdi L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppaea) (1642) 78. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 8 in F major (1812) 79. Franz Josef Haydn Symphony No. 104 in D major (1795) 80. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major (1791) 81. Alban Berg Wozzeck (1922) 82. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A major (Stadler) (1789) 83. Johann Sebastian Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Violin (1720) 84. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 39 in E flat major (1788) 85. George Friedrich Händel Julius Caesar in Egypt (Giulio Cesare in Egitto) (1724) 86. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 35 in D major (1782) 87. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 4 in B flat major (1806) 88. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat major (1784) 89. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major (1786) 90. Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 9 in D major “Farewell” (1912) 91. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major (1784) 92. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major (1777) 93. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major (1784) 94. Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major (1806) 95. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Cosí Fan Tutte (Thus Do They All) (1790) 96. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) (1781) 97. Johann Sebastian Bach Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major (1723) 98. Claudio Monteverdi Madrigals of Love and War (Madrigali Guerrieri ed Amorosi) (1638) 99. Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor (1800) 100. Luciano Pavarotti/Placido Domingo/Jose Carreras The Three Tenors in Concert/Mehta (1990) Resources and Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: Chamber Music: Top 25 Dave’s Music Database: Concertos: Top 25 Dave’s Music Database: Operas: Top 50 Dave’s Music Database: Symphonies: Top 25 Dave’s Music Database: other best-of-genre lists First posted 2/21/2010; last updated 2/27/2026.

Today in Music (1955): Glenn Gould finished his famous recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations

Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9) Johann Sebastian Bach (composer)

Published: 1741 Recorded by Glenn Gould: June 10-16, 1955 Charted: -- Peak: -- Sales (in millions): 2.0 US Genre: classical > baroque > solo piano

Parts/Movements: Aria Variatio 1. a 1 Clav. Variatio 2. a 1 Clav. Variatio 3. Canone all’Unisono. a 1 Clav. Variatio 4. a 1 Clav. Variatio 5. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav. Variatio 6. Canone alla Seconda. a 1 Clav. Variatio 7. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav. al tempo di Giga Variatio 8. a 2 Clav. Variatio 9. Canone alla Terza. a 1 Clav. Variatio 10. Fughetta. a 1 Clav. Variatio 11. a 2 Clav. Variatio 12. a 1 Clav. Canone alla Quarta in moto contrario Variatio 13. a 2 Clav. Variatio 14. a 2 Clav. Variatio 15. Canone alla Quinta. a 1 Clav.: Andante Variatio 16. Ouverture. a 1 Clav. Variatio 17. a 2 Clav. Variatio 18. Canone alla Sesta. a 1 Clav. Variatio 19. a 1 Clav. Variatio 20. a 2 Clav. Variatio 21. Canone alla Settima Variatio 22. a 1 Clav. alla breve Variatio 23. a 2 Clav. Variatio 24. Canone all'Ottava. a 1 Clav. Variatio 25. a 2 Clav.: Adagio Variatio 26. a 2 Clav. Variatio 27. Canone alla Nona. a 2 Clav. Variatio 28. a 2 Clav. Variatio 29. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav. Variatio 30. a 1 Clav. Quodlibet Aria da Capo Average Length: 63:40

Rating: 4.438 out of 5.00 (average of 11 ratings) Quotable: “Among the most sophisticated works ever written for keyboard.” – John Keiller, AllMusic.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Work: “Bach was perhaps never so rewarded for one of his works as” WK he was for the Goldberg Variations, which were written for harpsichord, but is sometimes performed on piano. WK In fact, pianist Glenn Gould has given the Goldberg Variations their greatest audience with several recordings, collectively having exceeded two million in sales. His recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1983 and added to the National Recording Registry in 2003. Gould, a “twenty-two-year-old Canadian prodigy, transformed this often-overlooked also-ran of the piano repertoire into a platform for thoughtful, ecstatic, intensely personal playing.” TM “Before Glenn Gould, pianists usually approached the Goldberg Variations with great reverence, observing Bach’s notions of structure and pace, while adding little themselves.” TM “On his 1955 recording debut, Gould completely gooses Goldberg. But he’s never merely a brash youth.” TM “If any classical work cries out for CD, it’s this one: Longer than a single LP side, it moves forward too breathlessly to be interrupted. And pianist Glenn Gould’s performance is both stunningly original and compellingly right…Gould was celebrated for his grunts, which…almost turn his playing into 18th-century rock & roll.” EW’93 Indeed, Gould’s 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variations “launched a career that ballooned to rock-star proportions. He became a mythic figure, a situation his willfully odd demeanor…did little to dispel.” TM Scholars have debated the specifics about the origin of the work, but have generally accepted that they were commissioned by Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, AM who may have been the first to perform them. WK Goldberg’s “job was to perform for Count Keyserking, a chronic insomniac who needed music to lull him to sleep. Many records suggest that Bach once taught Goldberg, a famed virtuoso, who would have easily been able to play the variations. It is also believed that the technical wizardry required to play the variations comes directly from Bach’s study of Domenico Scarlatti’s Essercizi for keyboard from 1739, itself a daunting piece for exceptional players only.” AM It has been suggested that the aria is “not the composer’s own, but was related to a now-untraceable French keyboard dance.” AM However, “more recent scholarly literature…suggest that there is no basis for such doubts.” WK “The variations do not follow the melody of the aria, but rather use its bass line…and chord progression.” WK “The basic harmonies and structures of the variations are all the same as the theme’s.” AM “Every third variation in the series…is a canon, following an ascending pattern.” WK “The variations that intervene between the canons are also arranged in a pattern.” WK “The work exemplifies Bach’s quest for the greatest amount of diversity within relentless unity...The work does not sound like the awesomely complex compendium that it is. The music is deceptively simple and heartfelt, with a noble calm even when the performer is obliged to cross hands at lightning speeds. It never seethes or gets gritty, and is, of course, never boring.” AM “This work is sublime and compassionate, graceful, warm, and relentlessly intricate, a demonstration of unmatched craft in music history and genuine, poetic imagination. The Goldberg Variations is a work that still engages scholars hundreds of years after its publication and is equally valuable for attracting new listeners to this sort of music.” AM

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by John Keillor EW’93 Entertainment Weekly (10/29/1993). “100 Greatest CDs: A Love-It-Or-Loathe It Guide to the Essential Disc Library” TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Page 321. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 6/16/2018; last updated 7/19/2025.

Dave's Music Hall of Fame: Album Inductees (May 2019)

Originally posted 5/22/2019. January 22, 2019 marked the 10-year anniversary of the DMDB blog. To honor that, Dave’s Music Database announced its own Hall of Fame. Since then, 23 songs, 9 albums, and 10 acts have been inducted. This month marks the second batch of album inductees. These 10 works have been selected because they topped DMDB genre/specialty lists for classic rock, classical, country, folk, live albums, metal, opera, punk, rap, and R&B. It should be noted that blues, cast albums, and jazz were not included in this list because the top albums of each of those genres were already inducted – Robert Johnson’s The Complete Recordings (blues), Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific (cast album), and Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (jazz). See the full list of album inductees here.

Johann Sebastian Bach Goldberg Variations (1741) Inducted May 2019 as a “Top Album of Its Genre (classical).”

Scholars have debated the specifics about the origin of the work, but have generally accepted that they were commissioned by Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, JK who may have been the first to perform them. WK Many records suggest that Bach once taught Goldberg, a famed virtuoso, who would have easily been able to play the variations. They were originally written for harpsichord, but are sometimes performed on piano. WK In fact, pianist Glenn Gould gave the Goldberg Variations their greatest audience with several recordings, collectively exceeding two million in sales. His recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1983 and added to the National Recording Registry in 2003. Read more.

James Brown Live at the Apollo, Vol. 1 (1962) Inducted May 2019 as a “Top Album of Its Genre (live).”

“There is no more exciting document of live performance in the history of R&B.” AZ Brown asked his record label to record one of his shows. When they refused, he bankrolled the project himself, TL knowing “his live performances contained electricity unable to be reproduced in the studio.” RV “By the end of these thirty-two minutes, no one will doubt that James really was the hardest working man in show business (and this without even seeing him dance!).” AMG It ended up on the Billboard charts for more than a year, peaking at #2 and becoming “a watershed album, both for James Brown and for the burgeoning soul music movement.” AMG Read more.

Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison (1968) Inducted May 2019 as a “Top Album of Its Genre (country).”

In one of his two legendary live albums recorded for a prison audience, “Cash plays to the audience, selecting a set of songs that are all about prison, crime, murder, regret, loss, mother, God, and loneliness.” AMG “He never did any hard time, but Cash had a natural sympathy for men who gave in to their worst impulses.” TL “Cash stimulates the audience’s emotions, which in turn stimulates his performance, especially since he delivers the songs with the conviction of someone who has lived through it.” AMG “Few albums come as close to capturing the darkness and rage that lays deep in Cash’s music, as well as the depth of his talent.” AMG Read more.

Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde (1966) Inducted May 2019 as a “Top Album of Its Genre (folk).”

With Blonde on Blonde, Dylan was moving toward “leaving coffee bars behind forever…to bring country into rock & roll.” BL It “is an album of enormous depth” AMG that “reaches some of Dylan’s greatest heights – which is to say, the very pinnacle of rock.” TL It “is comprised entirely of songs driven by inventive, surreal, and witty wordplay.” TL It blends “blues, country, rock, and folk into a wild, careening, and dense sound.” TL It was “the culmination of Dylan’s electric rock & roll period – he would never release a studio record that rocked this hard, or had such bizarre imagery, ever again.” AMG Read more.

Marvin Gaye What’s Going On (1971) Inducted May 2019 as a “Top Album of Its Genre (R&B).”

Gaye’s album of social commentary on “urban decay, environmental woes, military turbulence, police brutality, unemployment, and poverty” AMG became “one of the defining albums of its time.” TL Initially Motown founder Berry Gordy balked at the idea, thinking it would be a commercial failure, but it became “the most important and passionate record to come out of soul music” AMG and “the most perfect expression of an artist’s hope, anger, and concern ever recorded.” AMG It “catapulted Marvin Gaye into superstardom.” BN and “kicked off an era of unprecedented social consciousness in R&B…[and] introduced a whole new style of making records.” TL Read more.

Guns N’ Roses Appetite for Destruction (1987) Inducted May 2019 as a “Top Album of Its Genre (metal).”

“Guns N’ Roses’ debut, Appetite for Destruction was a turning point for hard rock in the late ‘80s – it was a dirty, dangerous, and mean record in a time when heavy metal meant nothing but a good time.” AMG Guns N’ Roses embraced “the wasted rock star lifestyle with such earnest determination that you’d think they invented it.” GW Lead singer Axl “Rose’s misogyny, fear, and anger hard to dismiss as merely an artistic statement; this is music that sounds lived-in.” AMG As good as his “lyrics and screeching vocals are, they wouldn’t be nearly as effective without the twin-guitar interplay of Slash and Izzy Stradlin, who spit out riffs and solos better than any band since the Rolling Stones.” BL Read more.

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV (1971) Inducted May 2019 as a “Top Album of Its Genre (classic rock).”

While “the first four Led Zeppelin albums are all air-curdling classics, monolithic slabs of sleazy sweat-riffs and heavy gravity, [this] is their most staggeringly ambitious.” DK It “not only [defined] Led Zeppelin, but the sound and style of ‘70s hard rock.” AMG It “turned them from mere superstars into giant behemoths of the rock world,” AZ1 “an important stylistic template for everything from heavy metal to grunge.” BN Read more.

Claudio Monteverdi L’Orfeo (Orpheus) (1607) Inducted May 2019 as a “Top Album of Its Genre (opera).”

Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo is “based on the Greek legend of Orpheus, and tells the story of his descent to Hades and his fruitless attempt to bring his dead bride Eurydice back to the living world.” WK “It was written in 1607 for a court performance during the annual Carnival at Mantua.” WK ‘In his published score Monteverdi lists around 41 instruments to be deployed, with distinct groups of instruments used to depict particular scenes and characters.” WK “After the composer’s death in 1643 the opera went unperformed for many years, and was largely forgotten until a revival of interest in the late 19th century.” WK Since then, it has gained the reputation as “the earliest that is still regularly performed.” WK Read more.

Public Enemy It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) Inducted May 2019 as a “Top Album of Its Genre (rap).”

Nation “rewrote the rules of what hip-hop could do.” STE It is “one of the greatest and most influential albums of all-time” WK in any genre. The group “set out to make…the hip hop equivalent to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, an album noted for its strong social commentary.” WK Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn said, Chuck D “isn’t afraid of being labeled an extremist, and it’s that fearless bite…helps infuse his black-consciousness raps with the anger and assault of punk pioneers like the Sex Pistols and Clash.” WK Read more.

Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977) Inducted May 2019 as a “Top Album of Its Genre (punk).”

This “has become punk’s ground zero.” TM “One album was all they made, and probably all anyone could stand.” TL The Sex Pistols “made old-fashioned rock bad boys such as The Rolling Stones and The Who look like wimps in comparison.” RV Their “loud, snotty and angry” approach created “an us-against-them ideology that disaffected kids everywhere understood immediately.” TM “Never Mind the Bollocks perfectly articulated the frustration, rage, and dissatisfaction of the British working class with the establishment.” AMG “Everyone who heard them went out and started a punk band, and the music world’s been a better place as a result.” PK Read more.