A curated collection of 300 classical works and cycles: symphonies, concertos, keyboard music, opera, chamber and choral music. Explore composers, background and listening guides.
One entry per work or cycle. Whole symphonies, operas and sets count as one entry. The collection draws on the supplied candidate lists and is presented alphabetically rather than as a definitive ranking.
39 matching works | Showing 1-25 | Page 1 of 2
Composition: 1895-1896
Magnard opens his Third Symphony with widely spaced chords that return later in the work. The four movements include a scherzo titled Danses and a Pastorale introduced by the English horn. Contrapuntal writing gives the faster passages...
Composition: 1912-1913
Magnard's final symphony is a four-movement work completed shortly before the First World War. A substantial opening gives way to a scherzo-like Vif and a slower movement before the finale gathers the argument. Its orchestral writing...
Composition: 1908 (principal composition)
Mahler called Das Lied von der Erde a symphony for voices and orchestra. Its six movements set German adaptations of Chinese poems, moving between exuberant public gestures and more solitary reflections on nature and passing time. The...
Composition: 1884-1888 (initial composition); later revisions
Mahler's First Symphony developed from an initially more explicitly programmatic, five-movement work into the familiar four-movement score. It draws on his own songs and places a minor-key version of a familiar round within the...
Composition: 1910 (left unfinished)
Mahler left his Tenth as a five-movement project in varying states of completion. The opening Adagio is far more fully worked out than most of what follows. Performances of all five movements therefore depend on posthumous editorial...
Composition: 1888-1894
Mahler's Second Symphony begins with a large funeral movement and eventually answers it with voices. Dance-like recollection and a restless scherzo precede the intimate song Urlicht and the expansive choral finale. The work developed...
Composition: 1895-1896 (principal composition)
Mahler's Third expands the symphony into six movements with an unusually large first movement and a slow finale. Instrumental dances and nature-like calls lead to settings of Nietzsche and a Wunderhorn poem for solo voice and choruses....
Composition: 1899-1900
Mahler built his Fourth Symphony around a pre-existing song that presents a child's vision of heavenly life. The soprano enters only in the finale, after three instrumental movements have prepared its musical world. Sleigh bells,...
Composition: 1901-1902
Mahler's Fifth returns to an entirely instrumental symphonic design after works that used voices. Its five movements are grouped into three larger parts, beginning with a trumpet-led funeral march and moving through a large central...
Composition: 1903-1904; revised before and after the 1906 premiere
Mahler's Sixth combines a forceful march character with an exceptionally large finale. Cowbells and more distant orchestral colors interrupt the denser writing, while hammer strokes mark major events near the work's conclusion. The...
Composition: 1904-1905
Mahler placed two movements titled Nachtmusik around a central scherzo, creating a five-movement symphony with contrasting kinds of night music at its centre. The second Nachtmusik introduces guitar and mandolin into the orchestra. A...
Composition: 1906 (principal composition)
Mahler's Eighth brings voices to the center of its entire two-part design. A Latin hymn invoking the creative spirit is paired with the closing scene of Goethe's Faust, joining texts from very different periods. Themes connect the two...
Composition: 1909-1910
Mahler's Ninth surrounds two more animated middle movements with exceptionally spacious outer movements. Dance rhythms become unsettled in the Landler, while the Rondo-Burleske uses tightly interwoven lines and sharp contrasts. The...
Composition: 1945
Martinu completed his Fourth Symphony in the United States in 1945 and dedicated it to Helene and William Ziegler. Its four movements include a scherzo before the slow movement, with a broad finale completing the sequence. The score...
Composition: 1951-1953
Martinu's final symphony carries the title Fantaisies symphoniques, reflecting a freer approach to the growth of its musical material. Short motifs are repeated and transformed across three movements, and a passage recalls his opera...
Composition: 1840
Mendelssohn described Lobgesang as a symphony-cantata, with three instrumental movements leading into a substantial sequence for solo voices and chorus. Biblical texts organize its progression toward collective praise. The musical...
Composition: 1842 (completion)
Mendelssohn linked the beginning of this symphony to impressions of Holyrood during his Scottish travels. He completed the work more than a decade later, shaping four movements intended to follow one another closely. Darker introductory...
Composition: 1833 (first version)
Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony reflects impressions from his travels without supplying a detailed narrative. The buoyant opening contrasts with a measured slow movement and a graceful third movement. The finale uses rapid Italian dance...
Composition: 1844 (completion)
Mendelssohn developed his E-minor concerto in consultation with violinist Ferdinand David. The soloist enters almost immediately, and the cadenza appears within the first movement's unfolding structure rather than simply at its end....
Composition: 1946-1948
Messiaen's ten-movement Turangalila-Symphonie combines a virtuoso piano part with the electronic sound of the ondes Martenot and a large percussion section. Recurring themes connect movements concerned with love, time, joy, and...
Composition: 1937
Moeran's four-movement symphony brings together broad orchestral writing, a slow Lento, a quick Vivace and a finale that begins slowly before accelerating. He composed much of it in County Kerry and specifically connected the slow...
Premiere: 1787 (Prague premiere)
Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte treat the Don Juan story through an unstable mixture of comedy, social conflict, and supernatural judgment. Servants and aristocrats pursue different plans while the central character repeatedly evades...
Composition: 1787
Eine kleine Nachtmusik is a string serenade whose familiar opening combines a forceful arpeggio with an immediate answering gesture. Its surviving movements include a Romanze, minuet and trio, and a lively finale. Mozart's own catalogue...
Premiere: 1785
Mozart's D-minor concerto opens with restless orchestral motion before the soloist introduces a contrasting idea. It is one of only two of his original piano concertos in a minor key. The central Romance creates a calmer setting but...
Composition: 1785
Mozart's C-major concerto sets a ceremonial orchestral manner beside delicate exchanges with the piano. The famous slow movement is only one part of a work whose outer movements are more animated and dramatic. Like his other Vienna...
The 300-entry selection uses the 100 general favorites in the supplied classical list, then adds the earliest 200 nonduplicate symphony candidates in the supplied order. It is a curated discovery collection, not a universal popularity ranking. One work or cycle counts as one entry; movements and performances are not separately counted. Titles, musical forms, chronology and version notes are reviewed against the cited sources. Composition, premiere and publication dates are labeled separately; uncertainty is retained. Era and listening suggestions are editorial aids.
1960-2025. Each year contains 150 selections.