Top 10 Best Classical Compositions

Vivaldi's 1725 set of four violin concertos remains the most recognizable work in Baroque music, with each season's vivid programmatic storytelling making it classical music's greatest crossover hit.

Mozart's unfinished 1791 requiem mass, completed posthumously by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, is a hauntingly beautiful meditation on death whose mysterious commissioning has inspired centuries of legend and speculation.

The iconic four-note opening motif of Beethoven's 1808 Fifth Symphony is the most famous passage in all of Western music, embodying the triumphant struggle from darkness to light.

Debussy's 1905 piano masterpiece from Suite bergamasque captures moonlight in sound with impressionistic harmonies and delicate arpeggios that have made it one of the most beloved piano works ever written.

Stravinsky's 1913 ballet score caused a near-riot at its Paris premiere with its savage rhythms and dissonant harmonies, single-handedly ushering in musical modernism and influencing everything from jazz to film scores.

Pachelbel's circa-1680 Canon became the most performed piece at weddings worldwide, and its eight-bar chord progression has been borrowed by hundreds of pop songs from "Let It Be" to "Basket Case."

Bach's monumental collection of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys, composed in 1722 and 1742, established the foundation for Western keyboard music and tonal harmony itself.

Dvořák composed his Ninth Symphony in 1893 during his time in America, blending Czech Romantic tradition with African American and Native American musical influences into one of the most emotionally stirring symphonies ever written.

Chopin's 1832 nocturne is the quintessential Romantic piano piece, with its singing melody and ornamented reprise capturing a tender, moonlit intimacy that has enchanted listeners for nearly two centuries.

Vivaldi's 1725 set of four violin concertos remains the most recognizable work in Baroque music, with each season's vivid programmatic storytelling making it classical music's greatest crossover hit.

Mozart's unfinished 1791 requiem mass, completed posthumously by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, is a hauntingly beautiful meditation on death whose mysterious commissioning has inspired centuries of legend and speculation.

The iconic four-note opening motif of Beethoven's 1808 Fifth Symphony is the most famous passage in all of Western music, embodying the triumphant struggle from darkness to light.

Debussy's 1905 piano masterpiece from Suite bergamasque captures moonlight in sound with impressionistic harmonies and delicate arpeggios that have made it one of the most beloved piano works ever written.

Stravinsky's 1913 ballet score caused a near-riot at its Paris premiere with its savage rhythms and dissonant harmonies, single-handedly ushering in musical modernism and influencing everything from jazz to film scores.

Pachelbel's circa-1680 Canon became the most performed piece at weddings worldwide, and its eight-bar chord progression has been borrowed by hundreds of pop songs from "Let It Be" to "Basket Case."

Bach's monumental collection of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys, composed in 1722 and 1742, established the foundation for Western keyboard music and tonal harmony itself.

Dvořák composed his Ninth Symphony in 1893 during his time in America, blending Czech Romantic tradition with African American and Native American musical influences into one of the most emotionally stirring symphonies ever written.

Chopin's 1832 nocturne is the quintessential Romantic piano piece, with its singing melody and ornamented reprise capturing a tender, moonlit intimacy that has enchanted listeners for nearly two centuries.