Now that my turntable is turning properly again, I have been going through
my randomly acquired record collection, weeding out duplicates and
triplicates, and notice that some pieces seem to be quite a bit more popular
than others.  Things like Beethoven's symphonies, Brandenburg Concertos. 
I am considering actively acquiring more of the best musical compositions.
Any suggestions what the top 100 classical compositions might be?  I liked
Brahm's Third but not his First Symphony, and would appreciate hearing
opinions on the best few works of each composer as well as the most popular
composers.

194 responses total.

Ok, I will prime the pump.  I had multiple copies of Handel's Messiah, Water
Music and Fireworks Music.  They are all superb.  Did Handel write anything
else that everyone should own?  (Not that I have every heard anything by him
that is not worth listening to).

Did Handel write the Creation?  I've only heard short segments of it, but it's
supposed to be quite nice.

Thanks, I will check it out at the library.  I like Handel but have only
those three pieces (I had multiple copies).  What are Mendelsohn's best liked
compositions?  I have Songs Without Words, Two Concertos for Two Pianos and
Orchestra, and The First Walpurgis Night.  

Don't neglect Mendelsohn's lovely Midsummer Night's Dream!

Mendelsohn's Elijah, also.  Handel has quite a lot of other really nice music
which I hear on the radio but haven't gotten around to identifying and
obtaining, besides ones already mentioned.  Judas Maccabeus and some
coronation anthems come to mind among choral music, but he wrote some
wonderful instrumental stuff besides Royal Fireworks and Water Music.

I hesitate to get into this item; I'd just be listing either stuff I happen
to have or my favorites, & in general I don't know the literature
systematically enough to have much justification.  But I'm interested in what
others have to offer.

Mendelsohn's "Italian" symphony is very nice.  His violin
concerto, too.  The Hebrides, or "Fingal's Cave," overture
is popular.  

Here's a version of a list I made up for an item in the old 
music cf about what music you'd take to a desert island.  
The selection is very personal: it includes some things that
most people would regard as neither popular nor great and 
omits many masterpieces.  It includes no opera at all.

Barber: 
 Adagio for Strings
 Knoxville: Summer of 1915
 Piano Concerto
 Violin Concerto
 
Bartok: 
 String Quartets
 Concerto for Orchestra
 Piano Concerto #2
 
Beethoven:
 Piano Concertos
 String Quartets
 Piano sonatas
 Symphonies
 Chamber music
 
Berg:
 Violin Concerto

Brahms: 
 Haydn Variations
 Piano Concerto #2
 Symphonies
 Tragic Overture
 Violin Concerto

Copland:
 Appalachian Spring
 Symphony #3

Debussy:
 La Mer
 Nuages
 Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faun
 Piano music (esp Preludes Book 1)

Elgar:
 Cello Concerto

Holst:
 Egdon Heath

Mendelssohn: 
 Hebrides Overture
 Italian Symphony
 A Midsummer Night's Dream
 Violin Concerto

Moussorgsy:
 Pictures at an Exhibition (Ravel's orchestration)

Mozart:
 Later symphonies
 Later piano concertos

Rachmaninov:
 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
 Symphony #2

Ravel:
 Concerto for Left Hand
 Daphnis et Chloe
 Ma Mere L'Oye (both piano & orchestra versions)
 Le tombeau de Couperin (both piano & orchestra versions)
 La valse

Schubert: 
 Impromptus, sonatas, and other piano music
 Die Schone Mullerin
 Winterreise
 "Death and the Maiden" Quartet
 "Unfinished" Symphony
 Symphony #5
 "Great" C major Symphony

Schumann: 
 Piano Concerto
 Symphony #3

Shostakovich:
 Symphony #10

Sibelius: 
 Symphony #2
 Symphony #4
 Symphony #5
 Symphony #6
 Tapiola

Stravinsky:
 Petrouchka
 Le sacre du printemps
 Symphony of Psalms

Tchaikovsky:
 Symphony #4
 Symphony #5
 Symphony #6
 Violin Concerto

Vaughan Williams:
 Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
 The Lark Ascending
 Symphony #3

heh.  Not my list at all.  No Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann, Mozart, Haydn, Handel,
............ ?

There are some marvellous pieces that I loved ages ago
but haven't kept up with over the years.  Clarinet and
bassoon concerti by Carl Maria von Weber, for example.  
Also, Handel's various pieces for recorder(s) and 
harpsichord, often transcribed for flute and piano;
Mozart's horn concerti; Rossini's overtures; Haydn's
symphonies and string quartets (minor omission there!); 
Haydn's trumpet concerto, with that theme in the third 
movement that you'll recognize the instant you hear it; 
Dvorak's "New World" symphony; Sibelius's Finlandia;
Smetana'a Moldau; Grieg's Piano Concerto; Holst's Planets.

There are other pieces I've grown attached to more recently
that need to occupy my soul for a while longer before I'd
be comfortable recommending them to anyone.  At the top of
that list would be Mahler's 6th symphony.  The consensus
seems to be that it's Mahler's masterpiece, but I don't
think it's his most popular music.  Just the opposite, in
fact, because of it's extremely pessimistic take on life.

There is some Mozart on my list in response #7, btw.  
I have to add Mozart's Serenade for Thirteen Winds,
sometimes called the Gran Partita.  And, if you want
popular, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

There are many web resources.  You can find lots of
recommendations in the "Classical CultureBrief" section
of http://www.culturefinder.com/ some of which were
written by yours truly.

This will keep me busy for a while, thanks.  (Can someone tell me if there
is a way to print responses directly other than printscreen?)  But please
don't stop.
I liked Leonard Bernstein's Candide overture, did he write anything else
similar?  I liked the 2 2 3 rhythm.

Bernstein didn't write anything much like the Candide overture,
that I know of.  The closest you might come to it are the overtures
to Rossini's operas, and a couple of overtures by Russians:
Glinka's "Ruslan and Ludmila" and Kabalevsky's "Colas
Breugnon" (sp?), especially the latter.  Also, Brahms's "Academic
Festival" Overture and Barber's Overture to "The School for
Scandal" might please you.

I have Academic Festival Overture on the back of one of my three copies of
Variations on a Theme by Haydn, will listen to it, thanks.  I had thought the
Candide was Dvorak at first because of the rhythm.  The Festival Overture says
it is based on student songs, none of which I recognize.

The Overture is a keeper, which puts me back to two copies of Haydn
Variations or Symphony #3.  I have to find a second shelf, quick!
I liked the Rachmaninov Paganini and also Concerto #2 (two copies).

One odd thing about Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody is that
when you come to the 18th variation every woman in the room 
falls into a swoon, usually with a little sigh or a murmured, "Oh!
I love this!"   Works every time, on all ages, sexual orientations,
political points of view, whatever.  And all it is is a variation of
Paganini's theme: an inversion of it, to be precise.  Go figure.

I notice I didn't include any Prokofiev in my list.  His "Classical"
Symphony is very popular.  His 3rd piano concerto is a 
knockout.  And of course Peter and the Wolf.

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this, but The Creation is by Haydn, not
Handel.  

I've always been very fond of Prokofiev's Lt. Kije suite.

Re 15:
        Don't forget Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Ballet music!

Re 16:
        Good thing you caught me there.  I wasn't quite sure about that...

This item is so broad that it's hard to choose what to mention...  I'm
surprised that nobody's mentioned Shostakovich's 5th Symphony yet, which is
one of my favorite, if not the favorite, of any symphony that I've heard. 
Sibelius symphonies are quite nice too (I'm most familiar with 2 and 5). 
Let's see... I don't anybody's mentioned Rimsky-Korsakov yet.  Scheherezade
is quite famous and a great piece, but I've never heard any Rimsky-Korsakov
that I haven't liked.  Berstein's Candide is wonderful (the music school's
production that's been running this weekend is fantastic -- if you haven't
seen it yet, you'd better rush to catch tomorrow's matinee).  There's so
much more to mention; I'll get to it later to avoid producing a very long
list.

Did Mendelssohn write anything bad?  I just acquired Scotch Symphony with
Hebrides Overture.   I have not found Sibelius interesting, what should I be
listening for?  In fact I have not found much written since 1900 interesting,
but I am obviously missing something and would like to learn.

Sibelius's Finlandia is very popular.  The Swan of 
Tuonela and Valse Triste used to be popular.  The 
symphonies might be an acquired taste, except
possibly for #2, which has always been popular.
Don't worry if you like pre-1900 music better than
post-1900 music.  Most people feel the same way
about it, and there's enough excellent pre-1900 
music to keep an LP collector busy for years.

Mendelssohn was extremely consistent.  His music
might not all be equally popular, but I don't think
you'll find anything truly bad on LP.  He was so
consistent, in fact, that he could write the
overture to Midsummer Night's Dream as a teenager
and complete the rest of it in his thirties, and it
all sounds of a piece.  He never really "evolved"
in that sense.

There's also a symphony by Sibelius that I've been hearing on the radio a lot,
and which I'm coming to like a lot.  Not sure what exactly it is, though.

What does it sound like?

heh.  If I say it sounds rather like breakers crashing on a rocky shore, is
that any help to anyone except me.

(That was *supposed* to end with a question mark.  <sigh>)

2nd symphony, 4th movement

Hmm.  I guess it *was* a helpful description.  I'm not sure, but that sounds
vaguely right.  (I admit that I don't relate well to non-musical descriptions
of music, and would have a *really* hard time identifying anything at all from
a description such as the one I gave.)

The Polovstian Dances (I need to check that spelling!) from Borodin's 
Prince Igor are a good listen - well worth checking out. Some of 
Beethoven's Overtures are quite fun as well - especially the Egmont.

Saint-Saens wrote some very popular pieces, including
Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre, his 3rd symphony
(the so-called "Organ Symphony") and the Introduction
and Rondo Capriccioso.

Sebelius 2 is fantastic... he's cool.  Shostakovitch is great, I'm a huge fan
of his 5th symphony.

I've also been hearing on the radio occasionally, & **really** liking,
Dvorak's Bagatelles.  To the best of my knowledge I'd never heard the things
before a year or two ago.

Speaking of Dvorak, his Te Deum is an excellent piece - one which is quite
often overlooked (well, over here anyway!).

Re 22-26 (and, in passing, 29):  I guess the description wasn't so helpful,
after all.  I just heard the thing again, and it was the very end of
Sibelius's Symphony No. 5 in E-Flat.  Sorry for all the confusion.  There were
some earlier parts I wasn't so crazy about ...

I just discovered I liked Borodin, at least his Quartet No. 2 in D major. 
What else did he write besides of course No. 1?  He was a physician and a
chemistry professor who wrote music on the side, says the jacket.

His most famous pieces are the Polovtsian (sp?) Dances 
and In the Steppes of Central Asia.  Many of his best
tunes, including the famous melody from the 2nd
quartet, can be heard in the musical "Kismet," which
is based entirely on his music.

The BBC Music Magazine had Borodin as their composer of the month not too long
ago, May 1998, I believe, if you want to learn more.

I love the last movement of Sibelius's 5th symphony... it's got a great horn
part.

Ever notice that the series of bass notes that 
accompany the horn part the first time it appears 
is the horn part at one-third speed?

No, I hadn't... but that does sound interesting.  I'll take a listen.  One
thing I had noticed about that horn part, however, is that the intervals
played there match the intervals played by the piano towards the end of
the second movement of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto when the piano
is accompanying that lush orchestral melody.  I'm not suggesting that
there's a quotation, but it's interesting to notice that the same sequence
of intervals can sound so different musically, but they have the same
spine-tingling effect.  On me, at least.

You're right!  I never noticed that.  You know,
the first time I heard Sibelius' 5th, the horn
part in the 3rd movement reminded me of something,
and I've never figured out what it is.  (In forty
years, no less.)  I betcha that's it.  The power
of that movement is in the combination of the 
dense veil of strings, like a waterfall; the 
majestic horn theme; the woodwind theme, which 
the horns are actually only accompanying; and 
that oddly clumsy-sounding series of notes in 
the basses.  It's breathtaking.  

I did listen to the last movement of the 5th symphony, and that bassline is
fascinating.  I had honestly never noticed that before.  I'm going to have
to start tuning my ear to the lower part of the orchestra more often :)

To add to this item's original topic, I'd like to suggest Roy Harris's 3rd
symphony.  I hadn't heard it until very recently (on one of the LPs I picked
up from keesan in the auction), but since then I've discovered it popping up
all over, including on two other recordings that were already here at home!
On all of its liner notes, it's been called an "American classic". 
Interesting.  Anyways, I particularly like the Pastoral section and the
transition into that section.  There are some incredible and unique woodwind
harmonies going on there, and later on some fascinating melody bits passed
around in the woodwind section.  I'm calling them "bits" because they
never seem to fully complete a thought before stopping and letting another
instrument take over.

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