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 (41–50)
Symphony No. 2, Movement IIISergei Rachmaninov
A moving melody woven from beauty and melancholy seeps into the heart.
Beginning with a clarinet solo and expanding to the full orchestra, the sonic world shakes the listener’s soul.
Its lyrical line, which evokes nostalgia and distant memories, feels as if it were singing of a beloved person.
It is also featured in the film “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” known as a classic that colors romantic scenes.
Recommended for those who wish to heal the pain of heartbreak or to bask in memories with someone dear.
Premiered in January 1908 to great success, it is also famous as a work that symbolizes the composer’s rebirth.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5J.S.Bach
It is a superb performance conducted by Peter Schreier with the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra, where each sound has a clear, distinct contour yet blends harmoniously.
Bach, who laid the foundation of Western music, is known as the “Father of Music.”
Five Piano Pieces, Op. 23Arnold Schönberg
Entering the modern era, music emerged that fundamentally overturned traditional composition techniques.
One such approach is the method known as serialism, with Arnold Schoenberg credited as the originator of the twelve-tone technique.
This piece develops a tone row that uses all twelve notes within an octave to construct an entire composition, and it also possesses aspects of atonal music.
Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66Frederic Chopin
Romantic music, which places great importance on human and individual emotions, produced many distinctive performers who unleashed their personal feelings.
Chopin was not only a composer but also a genius pianist, and he was a master of improvisation whose performances would alter the content of a piece each time he played it.
TafelmusikGeorg Philipp Telemann
Today, when we think of German Baroque music, Bach is overwhelmingly famous, but at the time it was Telemann who enjoyed the greatest renown.
Tafelmusik (“table music”) is not sacred music; it is chamber music that nobles enjoyed, for example, during meals.
Turandot: “Nessun dorma”Giacomo Puccini
Mario Del Monaco’s tenor, conducted by Erede, with the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Puccini is a composer who represents Italian opera from the late 19th to the early 20th century.
His final opera, Turandot, was left unfinished and was completed by his student, Franco Alfano.
String Quartet No. 19 in C major, K. 465 “Dissonance”Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
It is nicknamed the “Dissonance” because the first 22 measures of the opening movement feature an introduction full of dissonance.
That dissonant sound was difficult to understand at the time, to the point that, when it was published, some even claimed it must be a copying error.
However, after the introduction, the music becomes characteristically clear and Mozartean, and it ranks among the finest works in chamber music.
It is the last of the six string quartets known as the “Haydn Set,” which Mozart dedicated collectively to Haydn.
