Classical Masterpieces: Recommended Works You Should Hear at Least Once
Classical music, the foundation of all music.
It began with chants sung in churches and led to the birth of countless composers and works.
In Japan, classical music remains close to us even today—taught in music classes and played as background music in a variety of settings.
In this article, we’ll introduce a wide range of classical pieces: from famous works you’ve likely heard somewhere at least once, to lesser-known pieces that will still linger in your ears.
Please enjoy these masterpieces of classical music—performed in many forms, from sacred music and symphonies to piano solos and concertos, including works arranged for different instruments.
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Classical Masterpieces | Recommended Works You Should Hear at Least Once (31–40)
MessiahGeorg Friedrich Händel
While the German Baroque, home to composers like Bach, is characterized by strong religious and scholarly elements, Italy also saw a flourishing of opera in addition to sacred music.
Handel, famous as an Italian opera composer, wrote Messiah, which is one of his signature works and is centered on the figure of Christ.
Ave MariaJosquin Des Prez
The French composer Josquin des Prez is said to be the greatest composer of the Renaissance.
In addition to sacred music such as Masses and motets, he wrote secular works like chansons and a small number of instrumental pieces, and he enjoyed extremely high acclaim even during his lifetime.
This piece is thought to have been composed toward the end of the 15th century, and it unfolds through successive imitations of melodies based on the Gregorian chant “Ave Maria.” It is a very beautiful work composed in a quintessential Renaissance style, incorporating partial homophony within a polyphonic texture.
Toccata and Fugue in D minorJ.S.Bach
The opening melody is just too famous, isn’t it? Among Bach’s many organ works, this is the most beloved piece, overflowing with the youthful, robust power and individuality that overwhelm listeners—his intense emotions as a man in his twenties and the free structure that weaves a fugue into a toccata.
A toccata has a meaning similar to a prelude; it refers to an improvisatory piece without a strictly fixed form.
In the fugue section, the intricate motion of the notes stands out and there are gentle melodies as well, but overall the work is filled with a grand and passionate atmosphere.
Music for Strings, Percussion and CelestaBartók Béla
The Hungarian composer Bartók was also an ethnomusicologist and studied old Hungarian folk songs.
Through this he encountered music with characteristics different from traditional functional tonality, and gradually went on to create new compositional techniques.
This work, whose expansive first movement features five voices moving in canon, is one of his masterpieces.
Piano Sonata No. 14 “Moonlight”Ludwig van Beethoven
Among Beethoven’s piano sonatas, this is one of the most widely loved works thanks to its popular melody.
The piece is dedicated to Giulietta Guicciardi, an Italian countess’s daughter who was one of Beethoven’s piano students.
He harbored romantic feelings for the young lady, who was fourteen years his junior, but marriage was impossible due to the difference in social status; it is said that he poured those unfulfilled feelings into this composition.
The nickname “Moonlight Sonata” arose when the poet Ludwig Rellstab, upon hearing the first movement, commented that it was like “a boat floating on the lake in the moonlight, on the rippling surface of Lake Lucerne.”
Purified NightArnold Schönberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer and conductor active from the 19th to the 20th century, known for founding the compositional technique called twelve-tone method.
Verklärte Nacht was completed before Schoenberg entered his twelve-tone period, and shows strong influences from Brahms and Wagner.
It translates directly into music a long poem included in the German poet Richard Dehmel’s collection Women and the World, and the title of the piece is derived from this poem.
It is a mysterious work that delicately renders the poem’s scenery, psychology, and dialogue through subtle sonorities.
Impromptu in G-flat major, Op. 90 No. 3Franz Schubert
What followed Classical music was Romantic music.
Romantic music departed from the earlier pursuit of axioms in musical practice, instead prioritizing human emotions and sensations; in other words, it does not demand strictness in compositional technique.
Several of Schubert’s impromptus are quintessentially human-centered.
troutFranz Schubert
It is included in the renowned song collection by Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore.
He composed a wide range of works from symphonies to piano pieces, but he stood out especially in German Lieder, and due to the exceptional quality and volume of his output, he is known as the “King of German Song.”
Opera ‘The Valkyrie’Richard Wagner
As the Romantic era entered its later phase, musical expression reached its limits, pushing Western tonal harmony—based on functional harmony since the Classical period—almost to the point of collapse, and works with extremely long performance times also appeared.
“Ride of the Valkyries,” a piece from the opera Die Walküre, is one of the most widely known works in Wagner’s music.
The Marriage of FigaroWolfgang Amadeus Mozart
This is a representative recording of The Marriage of Figaro conducted by Karl Böhm with the Deutsche Oper Berlin Orchestra and Chorus.
Although it was recorded in 1968 and is old, the sound is clear.
Mozart was an Austrian composer who represents Classical-era music.