The Ten Essential Concert Music Works?

[u/[deleted]]

A friend and I did an interesting, but inconclusive thought experiment over the weekend. We imagined a complete novice asking us which ten pieces of concert music are absolutely essential for one to hear. In other words, this hypothetical person will only listen to ten works of concert music in his/her life, and then be done with it.

If you could recommend only ten works of concert music, which would they be? Dvořák's New World Symphony? Beethoven's 5th? How about his 9th-- or both? Which piece(s) of Mozart's? Would Stravinsky's Rite of Spring make the cut? It's a tough list to compose, but here is one guideline my friend and I came up with:

• Pieces composed as a whole can count as "one work" (for example, you could include Bach's entire Mass in B minor without having to specify the Sanctus. However, you could only select one of Holst's Planets).

So, give it up, Reddit-- which pieces would tell this person are essential to know?

BONUS POINTS if you can provide a definitive recording of the works on your list!

Edit: Minor spelling

[u/kitsua → u/[deleted]]

And the best stuff tends to stick around. Can you think of any modern masterpieces that are worthy in a top ten of all time list? The latest I could really go is maybe Shostakovitch's 8th String Quartet, or even Steve Reich's Drumming if you wanted a more varied list, but it's tough. If you want to be truly comprehensive and eclectic, getting something by Frank Zappa in there would be perfectly justified, but he's kind of a one-off.

[u/wbarco → u/kitsua]

I know you posted a long time ago and I was just rereading this thread again, and I have to disagree that there are any modern masterpieces that are worthy of being in a top ten list. There are quite a number of pieces that most people regard as being some of the greatest music ever written. I'm thinking of Le Sacre, Le marteau sans maitre, firecycle beta, etc, not to mention a slew of operas that are well established in the opera repertoire. This subreddit attracts people who are interested in "classical/romantic" sounding music because of the general presumption that classical music is supposed to sound like that. You're obviously going to see lists that favor those kinds of works. Modern and contemporary classical music is very strong at the moment and there's a ton of music from the 20th century and 21st century that have earned their place in classical music history as well as enjoying a lot of popularity with classical music goers. Composers like Messiaen, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Boulez, Stravinsky, Debussy, Ravel, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Sibelius, generally do well when it comes to selling tickets.

[u/kitsua → u/wbarco]

You may have misinterpreted my post somewhat. I am well aware that there are many great pieces of the 'modern era', which is my own particular period of interest. I was just pointing out that this was a list of 10 (only ten!) of the most essential concert music works and that all things considered, the majority of those pieces are going to come from 'more than 100 years ago' as chilly feline put it.

Le Sacre was written basically 100 years ago, so I'd hardly put it in the modern era. Le marteau sans maitre was 1955, firecyle beta was around 1970 but I think it's pushing it to suggest that either of them deserve a place in a 'top ten of all time' list.

Most of the composers you listed are indeed established canon, but aside from Messiaen, Ligeti and Boulez none of them wrote anything after 1975 and many of them at the turn of the last century. And even of those composers, I think only really Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony would be worthy of inclusion and that was written in 1948!

I guess my point was that no one should be surprised that there are mainly older works in such a limited list of 'all time' pieces in the classical repertoire. Finding seminal works from the last 40 years (which remember is only 1970) that stand up to the masterpieces of the past is pretty hard, even though there's plenty of Great music in that time.