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.

1638: Monteverdi’s Madrigals of Love and War published

Madrigals of Love and War (Madrigali Guerrieri ed Amorosi) Claudio Monteverdi

Composed: 1608 to 1638 Published: 1638 First Performed: ? Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: classical > chamber music

Rating: 4.702 out of 5.00 (average of 4 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Work: Monteverdi offered his first book of madrigals in 1587 when “the popularity of the genre of little vocal pieces had just reached its pinnacle.” CG He published six more collections of madrigals through 1619. The “madrigals are an important component of his early operas” CG and “serve as a kind of laboratory in which he can experiment mainly with the building of dramatic tension in music in connection with the text’s dramatic content.” CG However, his best-known book of madrigals, Madrigali guerrieri ed amorosi (Madrigals of Love and War), was published in 1638 when Monteverdi was 71 years old and the music director of Venice’s ducal church of St. Mark’s. “The madrigals of the Eighth Book are for voices and instruments, developing further an Italian form with a hundred years of history.” MB It “was dedicated to Ferdinand III, the newly crowned Hapsburg Emperor in Vienna.” MB “The texts repeatedly expound the interlocking themes of love and war – the warrior as lover, the lover as warrior and the war between the sexes.” MB This was “the final collection of his secular music to be issued in his lifetime.” MB “This is an extensive collection of diverse compositions ranging from solo laments to vast eight-voice compositions with instrumental accompaniment.” CG It brought “together music written as early as 1608, and including one large work from 1624 and a variety of other compositions whose origins are unknown but which probably span the entire period 1619-1638.” MB The work “transformed a venerable genre – the Renaissance part song – into dramatic scenes that rival the flamboyant art of Caravaggio or Bernini. By updating an old musical form, Monteverdi created a repertoire that is both timeless and singular: few madrigals from any age hold a candle to these masterworks for multiple voices and instruments.” LH

Reviews: CG Collegium1704.com by Čeněk Svoboda, translated by Mark Newkirk LH arslyricahouston.org MB MagnificatBaroque.com by Jeffrey Kurtzman Related DMDB Links: First posted 2/22/2026.

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.

Today in Music (1865): Wagner's Tristan und Isolde opera premiered

Tristan and Isolde Richard Wagner (composer)

Recorded: 1857-1859 Premiered: June 10, 1865 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: classical > opera

Parts/Movements: Act I: Prelude "Hab acht, Tristan!" (Kurvenal) "Doch nun von Tristan!" (Isolde) "Wie lachend sie mir Lieer singen" (Isolde's Narrative and Curse) "So reihte sie die Mutter" (Brangane) "Begehrt, Herrin was ihr wunscht" (Tristan) Act II: Prelude a. "Isolde! Geliebte! Tristan! geliebter" (Tristan, Isolde) b. "O eitler Tagesknecht!" (Isolde) c. "O sink hernieder" (Beide) a. "Einsam wachend" (Brangane's Waming) b. "Lausch Geliebter!" c. "So sturben wir" (Tristan) d. "Lass' mich sterben!" (Isolde) "Tatest du's wirklich?" (King Marke's Monologue) "Konig... Wohin nun Tristan scheidet" (Tristan) Act III: Prelude "Die alte Weise - was weckt sie mich?" (Tristan) "Dunkt dich das?" (Tristan) "Wie sie selig" "O diese Sonne!" (Tristan) "Ha! Ich bin's, ich bin's" (Isolde) "Mild und leise" (Liebestod) (Isolde) "Prelude und Liebestod" (Concert version, arr. Humperdinck) Total Running Time: 222:30

Rating: 4.525 out of 5.00 (average of 2 ratings) Quotable: “One of the peaks of the operatic repertoire” – Wikipedia Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Work: “Wagner once explained it was his need to ‘vent his feelings musically’ that led him to compose Tristan und Isolde.” TM “This is a work of surprising sensuality – each bit of simmering musical tension becomes an integral part of the narrative.” TM He was inspired by his affair with Mathilde Wesendonck, his patron’s wife to whom he wrote poems which became the basis for five of the opera’s songs. JH The opera is largely based on Tristan, a 12th-century romance by Gottfried von Strassburg. Wagner “stated in his 1860 essay The Music of the Future, he wanted to compose an opera of more modest scale with a chance of being produced.” JH It premiered on June 10, 1865 at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich with Hans von Bülow as the conductor. WK It “was notable for Wagner’s unprecedented use of chromaticism, tonal ambiguity, orchestral colour and harmonic suspension.” WK Many view Wagner’s opera as the onset of a movement away from “common practice harmony and tonality” WK which launched musical modernism and “the direction of classical music in the 20th century.” WK Wagner’s “libretto style and music” served as enormous influences on 19th and early 20th century symbolist poets as well as Western classical composers, proving inspirational to Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Karol Szymanowski, Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg and Benjamin Britten. WK “The harmonic language of Tristan…not only enacts musically the sexual tension between the opera’s two central characters, but also points to the liberation of dissonance from the constraints of tonality that Arnold Schoenberg and others in the twentieth century would champion. The Prelude to Tristan fully exemplifies Wagner’s forward-looking approach to both harmony and the issue of musical form – or, some would say, formlessness – that operates centrally in his music-dramas.” JH Wagner also used instrumental music to introduce “central motives which correspond with characters and ideas.” JH “The famed ‘love duet’ in the second act…is not just another memorable opera moment…It’s larger than life, a meeting of big voices that spirals into something of a marathon. When the first act ends, Tristan has ingested what he believes is a death potion, served up by the spiteful Isolde in a moment of vengeance. Unbeknownst to either, Isolde’s maid has swapped the cocktail for a love potion, and in Act 2 the pair marvel at and celebrate the circumstances that have brought them together.” TM

Resources and Related Links: JH Jennifer Hambrick, AllMusic.com TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Page 838. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: Last updated 2/25/2026.

Today in Music (1944): Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra premiered

Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 127 Béla Bartók (composer)

Composed: 1943-1945 First Performed: December 1, 1944 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: classical > concerto

Parts/Movements: I. Introduzione II. Giuoco delle coppie III. Elegia IV. Intermezzo interrotto V. Finale Average Duration: 37:40

Rating: 4.670 out of 5.00 (average of 7 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: In 1943, Béla Bartók had been in the United States less than three years. He faced financial hardship, a leukemia diagnosis, and a feeling of “artistic isolation and separation from the source of his inspiration, Hungary, and its wealth of folk music.” AM His life had seemingly “come to a standstill when he received a commission for a large orchestral work from Serge Koussevitzky, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The funds for the commission came, unbeknownst to Bartók, from his close friends and fellow Hungarian émigrés Joseph Szigeti and Fritz Reiner.” AM Bartók worked on the concerto from August to October 1943. AM It debuted at the Boston Symphony Hall on December 1, 1944 with Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. WK Bartók couldn’t attend, but heard a later performance in New York City. AM This is one of Bartók’s “best-known, most popular and most accessible works.” WK “It doesn’t adhere to concerto form” TM “which features a solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment” WK nor does it fit “the template for a symphony.” TM Bartók considered it a concerto “because of the way each section of instruments is treated in a soloistic and virtuosic way.” WK He saw it “as a series of dialogs between various soloists and the larger group.” TM The concerto is comprised of five movements, “arranged in what is called an ‘arch’ form, in which the first and fifth movements are related, as are the second and fourth, with the third movement functioning as the keystone of the arch. The First Movement: The Concerto’s opening bars present a theme of rising fourths in cellos and basses, answered by tremolando strings and fluttering flutes in Bartók’s characteristic ‘night music’ style. Trumpets, pianissimo, chant a pungent, short-phrased chorale on which the theme of the main Allegro vivace is based. A lyrical second theme is introduced by the oboe, but the mood remains dark as the material is developed. Only when brass erupt in a modal fugato section is there the suggestion that things may lighten. Bartók noted that the progress of the concerto was toward light from initial darkness, and that the thematic material of the fugato will return in modified form as the basis of the joyous moto perpetuo finale.” AM The Second Movement: The second movement “is a capricious exercise in which the long and winding theme is carried by pairs of instruments that trade off at unexpected intervals.” TM “The syncopated rhythm that accompanies these games – performed by side drum without snares – carries over into the middle section, a soft chorale for brass.” AM The Third Movement: The third movement “is organized around a flowing melody [and] contains some of the most beautiful hallucinations ever played by a symphony orchestra.” TM Bartók described “Elegia, as a ‘ugubrious death-song,’ in which unsettled ‘night music’ effects alternate with intense, prayerful supplications (again related to the chorale-like material that pervades the first half of the work).” AM The Fourth Movement: “The subsequent Interrupted Intermezzo presents the first real carefree moments of the work, with its satiric treatment of the march theme from Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony, which Bartók heard in a radio broadcast. Bartók scholar Elliott Antokoletz notes that the movement’s warm, cantabile melody for violas quotes a popular song by Zsigmond Vincze, ‘You are Lovely, You are Beautiful, Hungary,’ bringing an unmistakable note of homesickness to the music.” AM The Fifth Movement: “The finale opens with a leaping call to order for all four horns unison, followed by a wild moto perpetuo dance, in which the succeeding episodes hardly stop for breath. Bartók provided two endings, the first rather abrupt, the second more traditionally climactic, and making use of the upward-moving minor third motif that served as an intervallic motto for Bartók in many works. The alternate ending is the one that is usually played.” AM

Resources: AM AllMusic.com review by Mark Satola TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 47-8. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: Last updated 2/23/2026.

Today in Music (1923): first performance of Ravel's orchestra version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition

Pictures at an Exhibition (Tableaux d'une Exposition) Modest Mussorgsky

Composed: 1874 Reworked for Orchestra: 1922 (by Ravel) First Performance: October 19, 1923 Live Performance by ELP: March 26, 1971 Peak: 10 US, 3 UK (ELP version) Sales (in millions): 0.5 US (ELP version) Genre: classical > orchestra

Parts/Movements: Promenade No. 1, The Gnome Promenade No. 2, The Old Castle Promenade No. 3, Tuileries Promenade No. 4, Bydlo Promenade No. 5, Unhatched Chickens No. 6, Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle No. 7, The Market Place at Limoges No. 8, Catacombes No. 9, Baba-Yaga (La cabane sur des pattes de poules) No. 10, Great Gate of Kiev ELP’s track listing: Promenade The Gnome Promenade The Sage The Old Castle Blues Variations Promenade The Hut of Baba Yaga The Curse of Baba Yaga The Great Gates of Kiev [The End] Nutrocker (3/18/72, 70 US) Average Duration: 32:20

Rating: 3.825 out of 5.00 (average of 12 ratings) Quotable: From piano suite to orchestral work to “one of the seminal documents of the progressive rock era.” – Bruce Eder, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: When Viktor Hartmann, an architect and stage designer, died in 1873, librarian and critic Vladimir Stasov arranged a memorial showcasing Hartmann’s work. Mussorgsky, a friend of Hartmann, was moved to compose a piano suite. In the century since Pictures at an Exhibition debuted, more than a dozen versions have been made, “but none that challenge the finesse, subtlety, and cumulative impact of Maurice Ravel’s (1875-1937), made for Sergey Koussevitzky” RD who premiered his version on October 19, 1923 in Paris and made the first recording of Exhibition in 1930. RD A version with Rafael Kubelik conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (arranged by Ravel) was recorded in 1951 and has been named to the Grammy Hall of Fame and Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. “Ravel left out only one of the Promenades” RD while developing a score which included “triple winds, alto saxophone, two harps, and lots of percussion.” RD “A more heavily scored ‘Promenade’ introduces Tuileries, the famous Parisian garden, with winds reproducing the ‘dispute of children after play’ in B major. Bydlo with solo tuba follows lumberingly in duple meter – Hartmann’s sketch of a Polish ox-cart on large wooden wheels. Following a tranquil ‘Promenade’ for winds and low-strings, Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells is a ‘scherzino’ in F major, illustrating children’s’ costumes from which legs protrude.” RD. “Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle was Stasov’s euphemistic title for a pair of drawings Hartmann called ‘Two Polish Jews, one rich, one poor.’ While Goldenberg pontificates weightily, the solo trumpet natters obsequiously in triplets. The ensuing Marketplace at Limoges is another scherzino, where marketing women gossip and quarrel.” RD “Without pause, solemn brass chords transport us to Catacombs beneath Paris, where Hartmann sketched himself and two companions. The scene continues with Cum mortuis in lingua morta: ‘skulls begin to glow dimly from within.’ Another ‘Promenade,’ in effect a ‘Requiescat,’ leads to The Hut on Fowl’s Legs, a clock shaped as the witch Baba Yaga’s hut, from which she flies astride a mortar, used to mash human bones into paste. The Great Gate of Kiev concludes without a break – a contest design commemorating Tsar Aleksandr’s escape from assassins. On one side is a bell tower, and in the middle a cupola shaped like an old Bogatir helmet. Processional music in E flat includes a grandiose expansion of the ‘Promenade’ theme, leading to an awesome climax punctuated by bass drum, tubular bells, and tam-tam.” RD Years later, Pictures at an Exhibition was significant as “one of the seminal documents of the progressive rock era, a record that made its way into the collections of millions of high-school kids who never heard of composer Modest Mussorgsky and knew nothing of…Victor Hartmann.” BE Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s recording of Pictures, “with its bracing live ambience and blazing pyrotechnics, was the album that put the group over.” BE “It wasn’t the first treatment of a classical piece in this manner…but it was the first to reach a mass audience or get heavy radio play.” BE It “made a fairly compelling case for adapting classical pieces in this way” BE “and introduced the notion of ‘classical rock’ to millions of listeners.” BE “It worked on several levels that allowed widely divergent audiences to embrace it – with the added stimulus of certain controlled substances, it teased the brain with its mix of melody and heavy rock, and for anyone with some musical knowledge, serious or casual, it was a sufficiently bold use of Mussorgsky’s original to stimulate hours of delightful listening.” BE

Resources and Related Links: RD Roger Dettmer, All Music Guide BE Bruce Eder, All Music Guide Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 8/30/2018; last updated 10/5/2023.