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 (21–30)
RequiemGiuseppe Verdi
Verdi’s Requiem, conducted by Toscanini with the NBC Symphony Orchestra.
It is included on “Verdi: Requiem & Te Deum.” Known for celebrated works such as La Traviata and the Wagner-influenced Aida, Verdi is the greatest composer of Italian opera in the Romantic era.
RequiemGabriel Urbain Fauré
Since the Classical period, the German cultural sphere—centered on Germany—has led Western classical music.
However, in parts of France, a musical current entirely different from Germany’s began to emerge.
Fauré was the composer who spearheaded this movement, and in his Requiem, the church modes—nearly forgotten during the Romantic era—were revived and employed.
Classical Masterpieces | Recommended Works You Should Hear at Least Once (31–40)
PhoenixIgor Stravinsky
Stravinsky is also one of the composers who represent modern music.
Although his style changed over time, one of the hallmark works from the period when he created highly impactful “primitivist” music—incorporating multiple tonal centers into his pieces and using rhythms rarely found in classical music—is The Firebird.
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.
Purified NightArnold Schönberg
Schoenberg was an Austrian composer and conductor active from the 19th to the 20th century, known for founding the compositional method called twelve-tone technique.
Verklärte Nacht was completed before Schoenberg entered his twelve-tone period, and it shows strong influences from Brahms and Wagner.
It is a direct musical translation of a long poem included in the German poet Richard Dehmel’s collection Women and the World, and the title of the piece is also derived from this poem.
This mysterious work delicately renders the poem’s landscape, psychology, and dialogue through subtle sonorities.
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.
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.