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.
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.
Symphonies Nos. 1–5Felix Mendelssohn
This is a performance by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado, included in “Mendelssohn: The Complete Symphonies.” When it comes to Mendelssohn, the “Wedding March,” one of the pieces from the incidental music A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is widely known as a representative work.
String Quartet No. 66 in G major “Lobkowitz”, Op. 77, No. 1, Hob. III:81Franz Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet No.
66 in G major, “Lobkowitz,” performed by the Kuijken String Quartet.
With over a hundred works that helped establish the symphony, he came to be known as the “Father of the Symphony.”
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.
Overture CollectionGioachino Rossini
An album of Rossini overtures conducted by Claudio Abbado with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
As the foremost opera composer of the early Romantic era, Rossini enjoyed immense popularity among audiences as well as composers and writers such as Chopin, Wagner, and Stendhal.