Johannes Brahms Popular Songs Ranking [2026]

Four Ballades, Op. 10Johannes Brahms99rank/position

Johannes Brahms – 4 Ballades, Op. 10 (Audio + Score)

This work was composed in 1854 when Brahms was 21 years old.

It is a collection consisting of four pieces.

Only the first piece in the set is said to have been inspired by the Scottish ballad “Edward,” which tells the story of a man who stabbed his father to death.

Like Chopin’s Ballades, each piece can be performed on its own, but because the four pieces form a well-balanced whole, they are often performed together.

Song of DestinyJohannes Brahms100rank/position

Brahms: Schicksalslied ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Collegium Vocale Gent ∙ Philipp Herreweghe

Composed between 1868 and 1871, this work is a piece for chorus and orchestra, with lyrics drawn from poet and thinker Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin’s Hyperion.

To the poem’s search for destiny is set music that, while powerful, also overflows with a sense of peace and consolation.