|
|
|
An indispensable guide to classical music
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Composer
Bios
Albeniz
Albinoni
Allegri
Arnold
Bach, J S
Barber
Bartok
Beethoven
Berlioz
Bizet
Brahms
Britten
Bruch
Bruckner
Chopin
Copland
Debussy
Delius
Dvorak
Elgar
Gershwin
Gibbons
Grieg
Handel
Haydn
Holst
Janacek
Liszt
Mahler
Mendelssohn
Messiaen
Monteverdi
Mozart
Offenbach
Part
Poulenc
Prokofiev
Puccini
Purcell
Rachmaninov
Ravel
Rossini
Saint-Saens
Scarlatti
Schubert
Schumann
Shostakovich
Sibelius
Strauss, Johann
Strauss, Richard
Stravinsky
Tchaikovsky
Vaughan_Williams
Verdi
Vivaldi
Wagner
Walton
|
|
 Our Top 100 serves as the starting point for building a classical library.
Based on performance frequency and CD sales data from the UK and the USA this list represents the core works of the classical repertoire.
Now available in national flavours to reflect local tastes:
- UK Classical
Top 100
- USA
Classical Top 100 |
|
 To supplement our Top 100 list we also have a number of 'voluntary' additions such as our listing of 'must have' operas.
Feel free to sprinkle these on to your musical banquet to suit your tastes. For some, opera is the gateway to classical music, for others it is an impossible hurdle. Add these when you feel ready! |
|
|
|
|
UK Top 100 Classical Works
Below is the Top 10, but click on
this link to go to the complete UK Top 100 listing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Click on the work name to go to our recommended recordings of this
piece.
|
|
|
|
Of course, one of the most off-putting features of the classical world is that each of these great works is available in a gazillion versions.
We overcome this problem by identifying a recommended recording for each work balancing playability, sound quality, value and, crucially,
availability. In our view there's really no point in recommending that extraordinary Barbirolli version if you can't obtain it for love or money... |
|
For added enjoyment, we have also put together brief composer biographies - well, thumbnail sketches would be closer to the truth - so that you can understand these works in the context that they were written.
Together with notes on performers and performances this background information should provide some easy paths to identify areas for further research - get your homework done in record time.
|
|
|
|
Before the classical bug starts to take hold and you begin to wonder how you can survive without the full set of Bach Cantatas, there are some works which are most easily acquired as sets. Beethoven, Mahler and Haydn symphonies, Mozart piano
concertos - we have identified the Box Set starter kit.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Suggestions, comments and queries to list@musica.co.uk
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
